NR alum Rod Dreher riffs off some comments on the radio by Bob Novak to the effect that conservatives wanting to work in the MSM should stay in the closet. I’ve always thought that one of the reasons for the high quality of NR (as well as those other conservative magazines) is that the ostensibly unbiased publications don’t hire their (obviously Out and Proud) writers away. I don’t mean to trade in victimology, but it’s kind of like black colleges before desegregation — Howard, Morehouse, Fisk, and the rest were much better than they are today because they were the only games in town for talented blacks. For instance, while Ramesh Ponnuru may never actually sit on the Supreme Court , why isn’t he covering it for the New York Times? Why doesn’t Jonah Goldberg write for the Washington Post’s Style section? Why isn’t John Miller a reporter for Time magazine?