Yep - there are many many columnists who are basically writing about how bad the other side is, and how great their side is.  This is not useful.  If a columnist is acting like a partisan, then I'm just going to tune his opinion out - even if he isn't outright lying, he's very, very carefully selecting what information he's using.  Basically, if a columnist is acting like a politician, political lobbyist or other political partisan, then I will treat him as one - that is, I'll completely dismiss the majority of what he says and take the rest with much salt.

If a columnist wants to be taken seriously, then he needs to be fair - he needs to at least make a visible _attempt_ to rise above his own bias.  This article isn't remotely an example of that.