New York Times Columnist
Frank Rich
Notes from Evan Smith
"In the eighties and early nineties, as the chief theater critic of The New York Times, this week's guest could make or break a play or a career with a few carefully chosen words. But it's in his more recent incarnation, as an op-ed columnist for the Times, that Frank Rich has performed a even greater public service than putting a flop on a fast train out of town. Since 1994, the 56-year-old has skewered derelict and deficient politicians and journalists on the opinion pages of the world's most important paper with the same wit and flair and intelligence he employed on the arts pages. These days, he pens a 1,500-word essay that is published every Sunday in the Week in Review section, and several his targets of late have been familiar to all of us in Texas -- and very rich material indeed: Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, and, of course, whenever he gets the chance, George W. Bush. Whether he's writing about Brokeback Mountain or Jack Abramoff, he knits together aspects of culture and news to hammer home some grand point no one else is making, and the only word to describe the experience of reading him is: cathartic. Born in Washington, D.C., Rich graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College. He was a film critic for both The New York Post and Time magazine before joining the Times 26 years ago -- and during his time at the paper he has also been senior writer at the Sunday magazine. He recently began a leave of absence to work on a book, but on a recent visit to Austin he showed no signs of slowing down -- or taking his eye off the ball." - Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 2.16.06
