Althouse: "Is The New Republic breaking up with itself on its 100th anniversary?"

December 4, 2014

"Is The New Republic breaking up with itself on its 100th anniversary?"

"It sure looks like it."

21 comments:

bleh said...: Remind me. Didn't TNR recently become vanity magazine for a Facebook gazillionaire? Or am I confusing it with something else?; 12/4/14, 10:17 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Didn't TNR recently become vanity magazine for a Facebook gazillionaire?"

Yeah. Read the details. Links at the links. Chris Hughes is supposedly ruining everything... from the point of view of those who love old TNR.; 12/4/14, 10:19 PM
mccullough said...: Sounds like they need a swimsuit edition; 12/4/14, 10:50 PM
Sebastian said...: "supposedly ruining everything"

Liberals being mugged by reality of the Left.

A little late perhaps.; 12/4/14, 11:15 PM
YoungHegelian said...: When John Lennon was asked about his feelings on the death of Elvis Presley he replied "Elvis died when he went into the army".

TNR has been dead for a long time now. As much as he could drive everyone around him insane, Marty Peretz really did hold it together. Lizza, "I-really-really-hate George Bush" Chait, "publish & stand behind stories by fabulists" Foer, and "No original thoughts in 40 years" Wieseltier are simply the zombies left standing of what was once a very interesting magazine, a magazine I subscribed to for over 20 years.

By the late 90's, it was a shadow of its former self. Michael Kelly was the last decent managing editor; 12/4/14, 11:22 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: Is The New Republic breaking up with itself on its 100th anniversary?

Damn! Where's Abe Lincoln when we need him?; 12/5/14, 12:18 AM
Achilles said...: Eventually people will catch on that the progressive movement has been bought and paid for by very wealthy people that care very little about the average person. They bought the big networks a long time ago. TNR is just backfill.; 12/5/14, 1:50 AM
Dr Weevil said...: They're just following up-to-date medical standards:

1. When you reach a certain age (75 for humans, 100 for magazines) you must die for the good of the community: if you're still healthy, assisted suicide is appropriate.

2. When you die, you don't entirely disappear: useful parts are recycled, so younger, more popular, probably dumber but definitely cooler people (or magazines) may live. In this case, the parts are going into a new magazine with the same name but no trace of the unique body or soul that provides the parts.

Of course, as YoungHegelian noted, this particular magazine has been brain-dead or close to it for 20 years or so. Maybe they should have done this at 80 - or 75, as Zeke Emmanuel wants humans to do.; 12/5/14, 5:14 AM
Sydney said...: I knew it was in trouble when my husband cancelled his subscription. He's been a subscriber for over 30 years. I guess nothing lasts forever.; 12/5/14, 6:17 AM
Jaq said...: I am old enough to remember when their were honest criticisms of liberal arguments, from a liberal point of view, but still, honest, in that magazine.

I haven't read more that a few words from it in years. Maybe because it is so cluttered it isn't worth reading to get the same opinion you can get anywhere else.; 12/5/14, 6:24 AM
Big Mike said...: TNR was mugged by Slate and Salon.; 12/5/14, 7:46 AM
Anonymous said...: Lizza and Chait are two of the people who are primarily responsible for destroying TNR's credibility and driving it into the ground.; 12/5/14, 8:02 AM
Meade said...: Creative destruction. Someone should try bringing it back as The New Republican.; 12/5/14, 8:10 AM
damikesc said...: You mean Chris Hayes' Midas touch with television is working its same magic with magazines?; 12/5/14, 8:37 AM
carrie said...: The first comment at the link says it all.; 12/5/14, 8:37 AM
Michael K said...: TNR did in reverse what someone said about Fox News. They found a niche market of center-right readers who had been subscribers for 25 years and told them to go away.

I used to give subscriptions to my kids (Probably a intake as three are lefties) just like I gave subscriptions to Vanity Fair to the women in the family.

I quit both around the time of the Marty Peretz adoration of All Gore and when Michael Kelly left. As I recall, Kelly left because Peretz would not permit criticism of his Gore hero. I actually had an exchange of letter with Peretz but he was uninterested in any theory that involved Gore. I actually didn't mind the thought of Gore as president as much as I was annoyed at the hive-mind at work.

I also hate the term "liberal" used to describe leftists.; 12/5/14, 9:25 AM
Michael K said...: "Probably a mistake..."
Goddam autocorrect !; 12/5/14, 9:26 AM
Conserve Liberty said...: We're going through a once-every-second-generation transformation of our structural culture. This is normal. Nothing lasts forever. Things only last as long as the people who replace the people who built the institutions do so without destroying the institutions.

Which assumes the new people even want to preserve the old institutions.; 12/5/14, 11:44 AM
Deep State Reformer said...: Conservative print media have the same problem too. There have to be these media outlets to employ the huge number of ideologues and pundits and hangers-on
to keep the narrative going by preaching to the choir.; 12/5/14, 12:08 PM
richard mcenroe said...: Awwwwww.... from championing Hitler and Stalin to Islam in its turn, surely they will be missed...; 12/5/14, 11:34 PM
richard mcenroe said...: "Punch" it never was...; 12/5/14, 11:35 PM