Editor & Publisher reports on the NYT’s decision to hire William Kristol as a once-weekly op-ed columnist on a one year contract. The liberal outrage over the decision is ridiculous. The Times purports to seek a diversity of views on its op-ed page, and it is hardly shocking (or unprecedent) for the paper to have two (or, in this case, one-and-a-half) right-of-center op-ed writers. It is also a smart move insofar as the Times wants its editorial page to get read more often. If there is a basis for criticizing the Times it would be that its two conservative columnists are of the same ideological stripe (e.g., Standard-esque “National Greatness” conservatism), but I don’t find this critique all that compelling either, and I look forward to reading (and at times disagreeing) with what Kristol has to say in the year ahead.