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New book editor at NY Times. English major and Whittaker Chambers biographer Sam Tanenhaus has been named the new editor of the NY Times Book Review. Tanenhaus, a former NY Times editorial page hack, has for some years has been at work on a biography of William Buckley.

Anti-leftists like Friedrich Hayek have been blackballed by the NY Times book review for generations. We'll see whether or not Tanenhaus reforms the appalling editorial behavior of the NY Times BR, given his background as a left sympathetic NY Times editorial pagie with a special interest in the political history of the American anti-left. It will not count as an improvement if a dishonest political hack like Paul Krugman is given the review of a book like Bruce Caldwell important Hayek's Challenge. If that's the sort of thing we get, then we'd be better off if the Times simply went back to its time honored little black balls.

For some perspective on Tanenhaus read this piece by Jonah Goldberg or this Tenahaus editorial in the NY Times. Posted by Greg Ransom