January 2, 2013 3:50PM # A Richness of Embarrassment: 2012’s Five Worst Opeds By [Gene Healy](https://www.cato.org/people/gene-healy) --- SHARE For three years running now at the *Washington Examiner*, I’ve said good riddance to the Old Year with a whimsically malicious selection of the year’s worst opeds. Click [here](http://washingtonexaminer.com/gene-healy-the-five-worst-op-eds-of-2012/article/2517275#.UORWwInjkfl) for 2012’s parade of horribles; [here](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/five-worst-opeds-2011) for last year’s winners, [here](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/five-worst-opeds-2010) for 2010’s. We have *New York World* editor Herbert Bayard Swope to thank for [first inflicting the oped genre](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Bayard_Swope#Career) upon the world in 1921. As Swope put it: > “It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting, so I devised a method of cleaning off the page opposite the editorial, which became the most important in America… and thereon *I decided to print opinions, ignoring facts.*” So not much has changed over nine decades. In selecting the 2013 winners, I once again looked for bad arguments and bad writing and awarded extra points for warped values. But a 600-word column is far too short to capture all the crackbrained commentary 2012 produced, so I’d like to use this space to note some worthy suggestions I received from my Cato colleagues and the Twitterverse at large while preparing the column. Lee Doren sent me this monstrosity from the *LA Times*, [“Does ‘Innocence of Muslims’ meet the free-speech test?”](http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/18/opinion/la-oe-chayes-innocence-of-muslims-first-amendment-20120918) which suggests the whole wolrd’s one crowded theater, and disparaging someone’s religion is akin to shouting “Fire!” I ended up going with a similar entry by law professor Eric Posner: [“The World Doesn’t Love the First Amendment,” Slate​.com](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/09/the_vile_anti_muslim_video_and_the_first_amendment_does_the_u_s_overvalue_free_speech_.html). And maybe they don’t, judging by this 2013 contender just sent to me by [Michael Hamilton](https://twitter.com/hamilt0n), “[In praise of Vallaud-Belkacem, or why not to tolerate hate speech on Twitter](http://m.guardiannews.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/02/praise-vallaud-belkacem-hate-speech-twitter).” It irks me when conservatives [brag about](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/books/28conserv.html) not reading the *New York Times,* but I have to admit it takes a certain masochism to take on the *NYT* oped page every day. This year, Grey Lady regulars took the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals. Friedman earned the top spot with [“Obama’s Nightmare,”](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/opinion/friedman-obamas-nightmare.html) one of those virtuoso performances by the Maestro of Mixed Metaphors that makes you half-suspect he’s having us all on in an elaborate, decades-long, Borat-style prank. Of course that wasn’t the only Friedman nomination: [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) suggested [this one](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/friedman-why-i-am-pro-life.html?_r=0) on the “pro-life” nanny state; [Michael Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-cannon) favored the column where [Friedman nominates Education Secretary Arne Duncan as Secretary of State](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/opinion/friedman-my-secretary-of-state.html). Other nominations from the *NYT*: Crime novelist [Andrew Klavan](https://twitter.com/andrewklavan) recommended Paul Krugman’s “recent blithering inanity: [the Twinkie manifesto](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/opinion/krugman-the-twinkie-manifesto.html?_r=0). Barely comprehensible.” I got more than one “anything by Krugman” response from Twitter. And several folks recommended this just-under-the-wire submission from Sunday’s *NYT*: [“Let’s Give Up on the Constitution.”](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/opinion/lets-give-up-on-the-constitution.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&ref=opinion&&pagewanted=all) An embarrassment of richness and vice-versa. More “honorable mentions” from other sources after the jump: [Dara Lind](https://twitter.com/DLind) voted for [this one](http://www.businessinsider.com/peggy-noonan-romney-obama-prediction-electoral-college-map-wall-street-journal-2012-11) from Peggy Noonan, declaring “all the vibrations are right” for a Romney win. (She clearly should have been reading the *New York Times*’s Nate Silver.) [“Postlibertarian”](https://twitter.com/postlibertarian) mooted [Wayne LaPierre’s post-Newtown outburst](https://www.cato.org/blog/nras-panic-attack), which would surely have made the cut if I could count it as an oped. There were several votes for [this piece](http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/335996/newtown-answers-nro-symposium) by Charlotte Allen: “Think of what Sandy Hook might have been like if a couple of male teachers who had played high-school football, or even some of the huskier 12-year-old boys, had converged on Lanza.” Joey Coon offered [“The Perils of Legalizing Pot”](http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/12/16/david-frum-on-the-perils-of-legalizing-pot.html) by David Frum (won’t somebody please think of the *slackers*?) [Sallie James](https://www.cato.org/people/sallie-james) voted for [“A Conservative Case for Sugar Tariffs.”](http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/26/a-conservative-case-for-sugar-tariffs/#ixzz2GqJdmyRa) Per Rep. Tom Rooney (R‑FL) they’re “the best line of defense we have against an OPEC-like market that threatens our food security.” …and a hat tip to [Radley Balko](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/the-agitator) for cluing me in to this gem, [“Don’t Be Nosy about Fast and Furious,” L.Z. Granderson, CNN​.com](http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/26/opinion/granderson-fast-furious/index.html). (Don’t. It’s rude.) Apologies to anyone I forgot. Keep them coming this year! ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).