Richard Cohen (Washington Post columnist)

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For other persons of the same name, see Richard Cohen.

Richard Cohen, a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, is a graduate of Far Rockaway High School and attended Hunter College, New York University, and Columbia University. He is a four-time honorable-mention winner in Pulitzer Prize competitions. Cohen splits his time between Washington, D.C. and New York City.

[edit] Opinions

Cohen's political views are usually seen as left-wing on most issues. For example, he is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, has recently turned against the Iraq War [1], was opposed to the tax cuts of the administration of George W. Bush, and agrees with former Vice President Al Gore on global warming [2].

However, he has been also been criticized by liberal observers. He recently attracted controversy [3] for his criticism of outspoken Stephen Colbert fans [4]. Cohen criticized Colbert's speech at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner for being "rude" toward the President, but was not critical of President Bush's comments at the dinner in 2004, where Bush jokingly referred to not finding WMD in Iraq.[5] Others point to his condemnation of President Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal. Media Matters for America chided Cohen [6] [7], [8] for some columns lacking what they see as necessary context and thus exhibiting a double standard favoring conservatives.

Cohen has been criticized for his commentary in the lead up to the Iraq war, which his detractors say was overly credulous toward the Bush Administration's claims and unnecessarily hostile toward those who doubted Iraq had WMDs.[9] In a 2003 Washington Post editorial, he wrote "the evidence Colin Powell presented to the United Nations — some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail — had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn't accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them. Only a fool — or possibly a Frenchman — could conclude otherwise".[10] Cohen also wrote that he believed "the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic" after the events of 9/11.[11] Cohen has since expounded upon his former views of support for the Iraq War, and his later stance against it. [12]

Cohen also attracted ferocious criticism[13] from the science portion of the blogosphere when he published a column saying "algebra is useless"[14] where he stated "…sooner or later someone's going to tell you that algebra teaches reasoning. This is a lie propagated by, among others, algebra teachers. Writing is the highest form of reasoning. This is a fact. Algebra is not."

He received a bit of rather unflattering attention in 1987 when it became public knowledge that he was having an affair with Kati Marton, the wife of ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings.

In August 2006, he wrote a controversial column declaring that "Israel itself is a mistake" [15] in which he stated: "The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake. It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now." For this statement Cohen was criticized in an essay released by the American Jewish Committee entitled 'Progressive' Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism. He later clarified his statements in his next week's column[16], saying, "Readers of my recent column on the Middle East can accuse me of many things, but not a lack of realism. I know Israel's imperfections, but I also exalt and admire its achievements. Lacking religious conviction, I fear for its future and note the ominous spread of European-style anti-Semitism throughout the Muslim world -- and its boomerang return to Europe as a mindless form of anti-Zionism. Israel is, as I have often said, unfortunately located, gentrifying a pretty bad neighborhood. But the world is full of dislocated peoples, and we ourselves live in a country where the Indians were pushed out of the way so that -- oh, what irony! -- the owners of slaves could spread liberty and democracy from sea to shining sea. As for Europe, who today cries for the Greeks of Anatolia or the Germans of Bohemia?" Elsewhere in the column, he defended Israel's military campaign in its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In 2007 he criticized the prosecution of Scooter Libby (in the Plame affair criminal investigation) as politically motivated, saying "This is not an entirely trivial matter since government officials should not lie to grand juries, but neither should they be called to account for practicing the dark art of politics. As with sex or real estate, it is often best to keep the lights off." [17] Cohen was in turn criticized by Media Matters for America for factual errors in his presentation, including his contentions that Plame had not been a covert agent, and that "outing" Plame "turns out not to be a crime."^[1]