Alexander Cockburn, 1941-2012 by Michael Tomasky

Alexander Cockburn, 1941-2012

by Michael Tomasky Jul 22, 2012 9:14 AM EDT

Let’s cut to the chase and get this out of the way: Yes, Alexander Cockburn took some strange and indefensible positions. I worked for Alex, the radical journalist who died this weekend of cancer at 71, as a Nation intern in 1987. Three years later, he hit what I always regarded as his low point, trying to prove in a series of columns that Stalin’s death toll was closer to 3.5 million or so than 20 million (leading to a denunciation in the National Review that was adorned by what remains the funniest headline I’ve ever seen in that journal: “Alexander Cockburn, A Voice of Moderation”).

Remembering Alex
JOANN WYPIJEWSKI | For what the ancients called avarice and iniquity, Alex's hate was pure, and no writer had a deadlier sting against the corruptions of empire.