Bono to become New York Times columnist

The U2 frontman will wax lyrical on Africa, poverty and Frank Sinatra – and he’ll be doing it for free. Expect future contributions from Brian May and Bruce Springsteen. No, really

A new writer will be joining the New York Times editorial staff, issuing literate meditations on the issues of the day. He’s Irish. He wears wrap-around sunglasses. And his name rhymes with “Oh no!”

Yes, U2’s Bono is the latest columnist to be hired by New York’s esteemed newspaper. Editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal announced the decision at Columbia’s School of Journalism this week, saying that the former Nobel Peace Prize nominee will pen between six and 10 articles over the course of 2009.

Bono will wax lyrical (or actually, less lyrical than normal) on the topics of Africa, poverty and Frank Sinatra, Rosenthal said.

The appointment of Bono may have been spurred by Rosenthal’s fascination with learning the guitar – he showed students several sheets of guitar tablature he had downloaded. But more likely it was inspired by, er, Bono’s celebrity status. And by his pay demands; Bono will be paid exactly “nothing”, Rosenthal said.

The New York Times also expressed an interest in bringing Queen’s Brian May back to the pages of the paper. The guitarist – who recently earned his doctorate in astrophysics – has already written about space for the New York Times website. Rosenthal said he was a fan, too, of previous op-eds by Bruce Springsteen.

Though rockers and pop stars are welcome, another group faces an uphill battle on to the New York Times’ editorial page – conservatives. “[US Secretary of State] Condoleezza Rice is a particularly bad op-ed writer,” Rosenthal said. However, the problem doesn’t end there. “The problem with conservative columnists,” Rosenthal said, “is that many of them lie in print.” And they can’t sing.

- Guardian

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