Medievals Of the World, Unite

David Carr, on the "firewall" included in the Murdoch-buying-the-WSJ deal that will prevent Murdoch from meddling with the editorial page (or not):

So how did Mr. Murdoch permit this deal to happen? The editorial page at The Wall Street Journal has always been its own little kingdom, known for a medieval brand of conservatism and a willingness to take on anybody in defense of its version of liberty, including strafing its own news pages.

I understand that Carr is using the word "medieval" pejoratively rather than descriptively here, and I apologize for harping on a pet peeve of mine, but ... if you were looking for the branch of conservatism furthest removed from the actual sympathy-for-the-medievals strain on the American Right, you could do worse than start with the WSJ's editorial page and "its version of liberty." Calling Russell Kirk's conservatism "medieval" is somewhat inaccurate but at least asymptotic to the truth; calling Robert Bartley's conservatism "medieval" is just an abuse of the term, one that's typical but unwarranted, dammit.