This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
As someone who writes about art and artists, I often feel that the pictorial arrangement of the news at the Trib goes underappreciated.
On Dec. 30, for instance, you have Eugene Robinson, one of the more perceptive of the mainstream press writers, with "The GOP will be changed forever," a characteristically insightful analysis of the current state of the right wing of American politics. Then, right below, "End of a year that could barely hold it together: by Rich Lowry of the National Review demonstrates just how perceptive Robinson really is.
Unless a mainstream institution like the Trib throws some poisoned, raw meat to what Robinson calls "the Republican base," it fears it will not survive. So after one writer neatly and coolly dissects the situation, another must come along to scramble what has been made clear and reassure the irrational that the situation is every bit as stacked against them as their paranoia convinces them it is.
In other words, someone has to continue to tell the Republican base the lies they've come to depend on from their candidates and TV sources.
Geoff Wichert
Murray