Flippant is good, Reuben. Serious is, well, bad – because it’s boring. What would you know about the dumbing down of nations, anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pJr9ZSYVI8

You are so very wrong, Reuben. Yes, there are two types of columnists: good ones and bad ones.

All the good ones are ‘mercenaries’, if by that you mean that they write for money. The bad ones are not mercenaries because nobody will pay them.

Good columnists never write for free. They don’t have to, because newspapers and magazines are willing to pay for their work.

Bad columnists write for free because they are not professional writers – their interest in writing a column is getting their name out there or publicizing and promoting a message or agenda.

A good columnist or prominent writer, if asked to write a column or one-off opinion piece for the Daily Mail will do so. A bad columnist will never be asked.

Unfortunately, you seem to subscribe to the Maltese belief of serious = good and not serious = bad.

That’s fallacious.

There are two types of columnists: mercenaries and the other sort.

There is no way any “serious” columnist would write for the Daily Mail. Just look at the tone and nature of the articles and you’ll see who the target audience is.

It’s easy to see that “scientific” pieces won’t go down well with that ‘readership’.