Can Conservatives be Eloquent?

By Nicholas Stix

In “Man bites dog in Sun-Times,” my Chicago-area writer friend
Jim Bowman directs readers to the
Chicago Sun-Times obit of its long-time columnist, Paul Molloy, who just died at the age of 86.

The obituary writer, Dave Newbart (dnewbart@suntimes.com>; if you write, be civil) recounted that when Molloy was hired away from the Memphis Commercial-Appeal by the Sun-Times to be its radio and TV critic, “He quickly drew a following for promoting conservative values, but in an eloquent way, in his daily column dubbed ‘It's the Molloy.’”

In 1953, Molloy had invented the job of television critic at the Commercial-Appeal. His old newspaper has yet to run an obituary for its former star.

Bowman quips, “Conservative but eloquent, what do you know?”