Wouldn’t it be more Catholic of Ross Douthat not to pick a side?

(RNS) — The headline in the print edition of Ross Douthat’s farewell New York Times column this month said it all: “Who Is My Enemy? I’m No Longer Sure.” (The online version softens the question to “Who Are the Good Guys and the Bad Guys? I’m No Longer Sure.”)

The column puts it this way: “The columnist’s job contains multitudes, but it’s useful to have a primary antagonist, a specific worldview that you think needs to be challenged and critiqued.” Useful and then some. Douthat’s conservative inclination to challenge and critique the prevailing liberalism of The Times opinion section was presumably the reason he was given the column 17 years ago.

But now?

He continues, “Again and again, the choice of which side to favor and which side to fear depends on unknown things about how far and how fast the technology will move. And unknown things about how a given worldview might interact with these changes and the temptations they create. … Which makes this a very important time for the kind of journalism that asks a lot of questions before it leaps to opinionated claims.”

So he’s off to join CBS’ Bari Weiss-ified “60 Minutes” to practice “the kind of journalism that asks a lot…