DISPATCHES FROM THE AXIS OF DAVIDS: David Brooks Tribute: Gergen Was Centrist, ‘A Good PBS Conservative Like Me.’

Friday night’s PBS News Hour tribute to former presidential adviser and former News Hour “conservative voice” David Gergen, who died July 10 at the age of 83, demonstrates how mild, center-left political personas have long been the only flavor of “conservatism” that taxpayer-funded PBS can tolerate. (And if the descriptions of Gergen reminds you of another journalist playing the “conservative” role on PBS these days, read on.)

Brooks described Gergen as “almost out of another era of Washington, of people who serve both parties, who do it for national service. And then he was a centrist, a good PBS conservative like me,” which says it all about both PBS and what Michael Walsh likes to call the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party. (And possibly the sharpness of the creases in Gergen’s trousers.)

Or as Glenn wrote in 2016: How David Brooks Created Donald Trump.

(Classical reference in headline.)