Over at the Wonk Room -- which I insist is a physical wonk-chamber within the bowels of the Center for American Progress, as well as a blog -- Igor Volsky takes Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson to task for not having enough knowledge to engage conservatives in a debate about health care reform. Asked to talk about the issue on Fox MSNBC yesterday, he answered, "You know, I don’t know. I’m not an expert in health care. I’m not," instead of advancing a health care agenda that Robinson (a liberal) presumably supports. Volsky points out that it doesn't take in-depth knowledge to rebut the arguments made by conservatives, and I'd add that as a national political columnist, Robinson really ought to be familiar with at least the contours of the health debate. But it is very refreshing to hear someone on TV decline to comment on something they just don't know about it. All too often pundits are encouraged to talk about things they only have passing familiarity with and bloviate away cheerfully, and the demands of the news cycle often give commentators, on blogs and elsewhere, too much of an incentive to engage with issues before understanding all the angles. Should Robinson know more about health care policy? Yes, he should. But at least he has the courage to admit his ignorance instead of trying to talk about an important issue by the seat of his pants. And of course there was Sean Hannity Joe Scarborough, Robinson's interlocutor on the opposite end of the failure spectrum, observing that "nobody knows what all of these numbers are for." Actually, health care experts know what all of those numbers are for. Maybe he should have one of those on the show to talk about health care (although that raises the odds that Hannity will have to deal with facts) and let Robinson focus on political commentary when that's necessary.
-- Tim Fernholz
