New York Times Writer Disrespects Recently Deceased Author

Edward Rothstein recently published this article about recently deceased author Louis "Studs" Terkel. As I have already noted, I am a huge fan of Terkel's writing. I am hardly alone, it seems everyone in the media was in agreement that Terkel was a "national treasure," except Rothstein. I expected an article about Terkel entitled "He Gave Voice to Many, Among Them Himself" to have been a recap of Terkel's career, or simply a lamentation about the passing of a great author. Instead, it was a piece just bordering on character assasination.
"But if you look closely at these oral histories, you can never forget who has shaped them and to what end." Rothstein claims. It seems to him that Terkel's books are too "leftist" for his taste. This may be an honest critique, however, it should not be made on the occasion of the man's death. Rothstein sulks about Terkel's distaste for Ronald Reagan. Rothstein even has a problem with how Terkel titled his books "Mr. Terkel’s 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “The Good War,” has a title in ironic quotation marks because the emphasis, again and again, is on World War II’s shadows and injustices," complains Rothstein. As if it would be intellectually honest to only focus on the "bright side" of any historical period.
Here is were Rothstein's article takes a turn for the worse: not only does he critique Terkel's style or question why he chose certain titles, he attacks the man himself. He labels Terkel a "Marxist," and posthumously link Terkel to the 60s era boogeyman, Wiillaim Ayers.
There is a time and a place. This was neither. I will end with Roger Ebert's letter to the editor concerning Rothstein's character attack on the deceased Terkel. Ebert wonders rhetorically if Terkel was of the political left, who was his right wing counterpart. "Who is listening to those whose savings were eroded by Wall Street executives, who paid themselves millions of dollars for the task? Perhaps we could recruit Mr. Rothstein to listen to the soldiers in Iraq who are fighting a war founded on lies and propaganda..... If Studs Terkel was a Marxist, as the article suggests, what is Mr. Rothstein?"