I was a subscriber to the Wall Street Journal in the early 1990’s and their editorial pages, then as now, were rabid right-wing. But every Thursday there appeared a man named Alexander Cockburn, a leftist. Things were a bit different in those days. People talked to each other.
WSJ described Cockburn, as I recall, as a writer for Village Voice (run by Rupert Murdoch, who never once censored him), and the “Anderson Valley Advertiser.” That was a bit of an inside joke, as AVA, run by another fine writer and wit and Cockburn’s friend, Bruce Anderson, was a small town newspaper in Boonville, CA with a circulation of maybe 3,000. Cockburn charged AVA $25 to run his weekly column. I subscribed for years, only drifting off after the Internet made everything available everywhere. I need to re-up.
Cockburn was loyal, fierce, original, insightful and witty. He had no admiration for powerful people who abused others. He angered many of them, and some will no doubt now crawl from their hovels to pay him back. Dealing with him in real-time was not easy. He was smart, quick, and did not suffer fools.
The best remembrances of Cockburn that I’ve read are at AVA, by Bruce Anderson.
Piece of Mindful 
Simply one of the best. CounterPunch lives on.
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too bad he won’t live to see the climate hell he was so skeptical about increase in severity, or the occupy movement he declared dead continue to evolve.
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He was a counter-cultural leftist – that is, he instinctively avoided fads even on the left. I liked that about him. Unanimity in a movement indicates leaders and non-thinking followers. Of course I think he’s wrong about climate change, about JFK, 9/11, [and OWS] and he infuriated even his friends.
In short, he was an OK dude who claimed exclusive ownership of his own mind.
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Cockburn loved Montana. More times than I can count he generously gave voice to the plight of grizzlies, wilderness and public forests in national media outlets well beyond our reach.
He had a unique, irreverent grace about him, and has been an inspiration to many for decades. Skeptics unite. We’ve got serious work to do before the next flush.
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