Popular culture regularly draws upon the past to comment upon the present. Such is the case with David Auburn’s 2012 Broadway play The Columnist, which tells the story of syndicated Washington columnist Joseph Alsop. Although it is set in the 1960s, the play speaks to 21st century concerns. The Columnist offers a case study of the rise and fall of high-powered columnists and raises questions about the extent to which the political columnist’s decline in influence has been for good or for ill.