Conservatism has 99 problems, but failing to provide journalist Mark Judge with an all-expenses paid trip to Rio de Janeiro is not one. That's not how Judge sees things, however:
Let me give a specific example of the price I think the right pays for not fostering talent that can produce honest and poetic long form journalism of the type that Buckley practiced. This summer is World Youth Day, the semi-annual gathering of hundreds of thousands of Catholic youth from around the world. With a new pope and the Church at a particularly interesting point in its history, it is an event that cries out for a competent, literate and soulful journalist to tell the story. The event takes place this year in Rio, a dynamic city that lends itself well to journalism.
But for the Weekly Standard or Breitbart to send such a journalist would mean an investment in the future, like a record company executive putting resources into a talented but not famous band. And the conservative media has no interest in such an investment ….