The New Republic has done a great job with its coverage of health care reform this time time around, so much so that I was starting to think it might be time to end the anti-TNR blogofascist jihad. But the Wieseltier-Sully dust-up reminded me of why I’ve always disliked the magazine so much. Eric Alterman:
But what Leon is doing here is seeking to criminalize the kinds of criticism of Israel of which he does not approve. His boss, and patron, Marty Peretz, long ago lost his mind—and the respect of everyone who is not on TNR’s payroll—over exactly this issue, turning himself into a comically neurotic old Jewish man who spouts anti-Arab hatred on the magazine’s website as if seeking to incite a daily race riot. Together with young Kirchick, who as a Jew-obsessed gay Neocon jihadist–and hence, might fairly be viewed as the evil spawn of Peretz and Andrew-in-his-earlier-incarnation, their achievement lies in their ability to destroy not only the value of the term “pro-Israel” as I wrote here, but now, sadly, the value of the actual accusation of anti-Semitism even where it might be real.
Anyway, perhaps there’s something in the water they serve in the office. Jonathan Chait was, onceupon a time, immune to this kind of thing and was a fine liberal writer. But he’s caught the disease now as well….
I’ve always wondered how much of the New Republic’s failings are directly attributable to Peretz. They certainly have some talented contributors. Cohn and Chait in particular, have been terrific on HCR — wonky but accessible, smart but not smart-ass. It makes me wonder how much better the magazine might be if it spent less time promoting Likudist tripe and facile contrarianism.
Obviously, there’s no denying that the magazine has been on the wrong side of most recent major political/government debacles — from the defeat of Clintoncare, to the Iraq war, to the 2004 Joe Lieberman campaign — or that its contributors mostly sound like smug, overly boyish Ivy League punks. A lot of that is what you might expect from a magazine run by an aging Harvard Social Studies instructor who hates Arabs. Lieberman and Iraq can be explained by the anti-Arab hatred and the taste for contrarianism by having spent a lifetime watching young bucks win section arguments with their Lincoln-Douglas debate techniques.
The New Republic is not a business per se, it is a Marty Peretz vanity project. It’s likely that its right-wing stances alienated its readership and are partly responsible for the precipitous drop in its circulation (the fact that Slate is a more-internet friendly forum for the same attitudes and stances probably doesn’t help either). But in a vanity project, I suspect that pleasing the boss is more important than selling magazines.
Jack Shafer had an interesting piece a few months ago on the possible pitfalls of nonprofit journalism, saying that when outlets are bankrolled by wealthy donors, they will inevitably come to reflect the donors’ views and idiosyncrasies. Perhaps TNR is the ultimate example of that.
cat48
I sorta like Cohn, Chait, Judis, and Crowley have written some interesting articles and blog posts. I go there about once a week. I always avoid Peretz and his poodle Kirchnik though.
J
I seem to recall that, along with some good things, the TNR ‘contrarianism’ was already in evidence in the ’80s, taking the form of a distinctly Reaganite line on Central America. That was, however, a long time ago, and I’m not sure that memory serves. Do other readers of–er um–middle years have a better memory?
DougJ
@J:
I don’t remember the magazine from that era very well either.
Napoleon
General observation, a good series of post today.
DougJ
@Napoleon:
Thanks! It must be the Dayquil helping me.
Jay C
Yep; the Golden Rule of journalism in action.
Max
OT – but it’s been very heavy around here today.
Is anyone else following this battle between @KevinSmith and Southwest Air.
Apparently, Kevin (who is prolific on Twitter) got kicked off a Southwest flight because he was, according to them, too fat, even though he had the armrests down (which is their defining factor, by written policy) and he went off on them on Twitter, which they saw and responded to him on Twitter.
Anyway, it is a fascinating example of today’s technology.
DougJ
@Max:
Is that the director Kevin Smith?
Napoleon
@Max:
Maybe someone should bring up the fact you can now get a BJ thong just to lighten things up.
Eric U.
I had a subscription to TNR for 30 years and finally dropped it due to Pertez’s racism. I suppose in retrospect, I should have dropped my subscription during the dustup over “The Bell Curve.”
Max
@DougJ: Yup. It’s crazy.
Recent Tweet from Kevin:
Articles say I was given $100 @SouthwestAir voucher. It was OFFERED: the way a john tosses a hooker a c-note after a hate-fucking. Said no.
morzer
I used to read TNR, but I now refuse to do so until Peretz and Kirchick are removed permanently. It is a tragedy that some good writers are being dragged down by their association with a lunatic old racist who is accelerating Israel’s race to the abyss.
DougJ
@Max:
A little over the top, no?
aimai
I think that paranoia is very catching, and alluring, as well as being profitable when ascribing to it is literally the boss’s order.
aimai
M. Bouffant
What I find most amusing is that Peretz self-isolates behind his “Spine” wall, so one can visit TNR.com w/o getting much of it on oneself.
It’s almost as if, somewhere deep down, he knows how creepy/wrong he is.
SiubhanDuinne
Apologies for the O/T but I know a lot of Juicers share my love of Dick Francis’ mystery novels and will be saddened to learn that he has died age 89. RIP, Dick Francis. You gave great pleasure for many years.
(I met him briefly, once, and he was quite simply the nicest man you could ever hope to meet. As decent as all his protagonists.)
Max
@DougJ: Well, it is Kevin.
But, if he was in the seat, with the arm rests down, it seems unfair of them to target him for a silly 1 hour flight from Oakland to Burbank.
Napoleon
@M. Bouffant:
I always assumed that others at the mag convinced him to have his won blog to isolate his opinions in a “ghetto” where the others didn’t need to worry that their post had to be before or after his crap.
jeffreyw
Any one up for a snack?
General Winfield Stuck
How do you all read rags like TNR? It’s like a shotgun wedding between Weekly Standard and Mad Magazine, with a little Readers Digest to polish the inanity a tad.
For sanity, I would recommend a Little Charlie with dancing light and slight blur.
morzer
@General Winfield Stuck:
Well, you get a fifth of rubbing alcohol……
Mark S.
@Max:
I thought it was weird they gave him a voucher. So he can be humiliated again when they kick him off the plane? Or is it assumed that he can use it once he loses enough weight?
Max
@Mark S.: I know! Like he needs the voucher. He’s a very rich fatty.
Such bad pr for them.
General Winfield Stuck
@morzer:
It’s all I never drink.
Litlebritdifrnt
Dunno if anyone else has spoken of this today but apparently the Repubs have decided that it is a smart political move to refuse to go to the health care summit.
Svensker
The thing that gets me about Marty Peretz and his racism is that, since it’s against Arabs, it’s considered a bit nasty but acceptable. If he were writing that tripe against Jews or Blacks, the fainting fits and writers’ efforts to distance themselves from him would make your head spin.
I have a feeling that our relations with the Middle East will not be better until Marty Peretz and his ilk are shunned by the Villagers and our congresspeople, just as they shun David Duke and his kind.
dmsilev
@Litlebritdifrnt: Where did you hear that? A quick glance at various news sites didn’t have any mentions of a GOP walkout (though there was some whining from Boehner about how the summit wouldn’t be “bipartisan enough” or something like that).
-dms
jeffreyw
Bah, dead around here. Let’s lighten it up a bit.
jeffreyw
How about a nice hug, then.
Jared
Is Kirchick still there? I’m a subscriber and, like most of the commenters at the website, I can tell he’s written an article by either the title or the first couple of readers’ reactions to the article. Based on these guidelines, I haven’t seen Kirchick’s work in awhile.
fraught
@DougJ: Really good post. All your snarks in a row. “smug, overly boyish, Ivy-league punks,” having been one of these many, many years ago, I think they need a lot more of this kind of battering before they find a little ordinary-guy humility. But that won’t happen until they’re about 55 and realize that the light at the ends of their tunnels doesn’t mean they’ve won a prize for being the youngest, smartest and cutist little pricks in the room.
ET
You “wondered how much of the New Republic’s failings are directly attributable to Peretz” and I would say most all of it.
I learned a very important lesson my first job out of college – the tone of an organization is set the person at the very top. In that first job the president of the consulting firm was an ex-Reagan appointee (fairly senior I think) who even after 20+ years called his secretary by her last name, wouldn’t take a call directly from reception, and generally thought he was just too fabulous. All of the consultants – while not taking it to this degree – emulated him to some degree.
To make things easy on themselves, be more successfuly, selection of sympathetic hires, or whatever other reasons, it is not a surprise that there seems to be a groupthink.
DougJ
@fraught:
“smug, overly boyish, Ivy-league punks,” having been one of these many, many years ago,
Me too, I have to admit.
bob h
I actually subscribed to TNR back in 2000 based on the beautiful Peretz endorsement of Al Gore. I had never read a more moving testament to friendship and admiration, and was blown away.
But the subscription did not last beyond the first bigoted editorial about Arabs.