Discussion for article #230924
Just stick a fork in The New Republican. It’s done.
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Honestly I have not followed this story but whoever has, please provide a synopsis of what is going on here. I don’t ever remember TNR being a bastion for liberal information so what is the deal here?
It’s been a couple decades since TNR has mattered. The flip side of this is that you have to wonder why some of these people stayed despite the mismanagement of Sullivan, Kelly et al and the increasingly noxious influence of Peretz.
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The “halls of power” line is revealing. Is the purpose of the magazine only to be another channel for lobbying those in power? Not that literary culture should separate itself from power. But should power itself legitimately be its goal?
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It’s a lot of people like Josh getting nostalgic for the days ~30 years ago when TNR was a liberal bastion and did matter, and finally taking notice now that something so dramatic is taking place.
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Its an inside baseball story basically. Hughes bought TNR some time ago and has now started to make some changes, moving away from its predominantly print format into more of a web format, reducing the number of issues in half as part of that restructuring. When he broke the news the the staff, a fairly large number of them quit together in protest.
TNR is most definitely a liberal leaning rag, however…but, as indicated by these moves, it isn’t particularly influential on the internet/social media platforms (which today, is to say its a dinosaur). Its been awhile since I read it semi regularly, but from what I recall its actually probably a bit TOO progressive for most on this site, though not what I would call firebagger reading, either.
It’s not so much that they are walking away from the challenge of making a 150-years-old journalistic tradition better, Chris, it’s that they just don’t think you can do anything about it.
They talk to enough pricks without having to work for one too.
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OTOH
If YOU cared , ChrisHughes, you’d go away.
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TNR hasn’t been too progressive in a very long time. I’m progressive and started reading it from time to time about a year ago and I thought it was a conservative leaning organization. I was totally unaware of its history until now.
This reply is o Allie Bean and DaveyJones.
Thank you both for your replies. I subscribed to TNR for awhile but I never saw anything really progressive about the sight and in fact thought the opposite. But thank you for filling me in on the reason for the walk-out.
Thank you!!
I get the sense Hughes wants to turn TNR into “the Politico of the business world”, which would of course spill over into politics a lot.
I think they walked out because they do care. This kid isn’t going to do the great things he thinks he’s going to do. He’s young enough and full of himself enough to think he is…but he isn’t. And the staff of TNR know and knew that.
At some point in his life this kid is going to regret his hubris. TNR is toast.
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And all that is true because you say so? Put a sock in it dude…what a load of tripe.
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As someone else said: stick a fork in it, it’s done. Hopefully the intellectual talent finds nice berths elsewhere - there are plenty of “digital media” companies who need thoughtful writers and are still interested in doing depth reporting.
Why does this surprise anyone? The magazine was struggling financially already, which is why a white-knight like Hughes was ever allowed near it. Big shocker that a neophyte 20-something owner - someone who had an outsized lucky hit (ever heard of a one-hit wonder?) early in their career - hires a clueless[1] sociopath to implement “creative destruction” and a bunch of people who care about what is being destroyed choose not to be participants in the destruction.
[1] Yahoo news? Puhleez…since when was Yahoo even the news aggregator (nevermind creator) of choice? Last I checked Marissa Meyers - whose real talent seems to be self-marketing spectrum disorder twiches as sexy nerd chic - is relying entirely on AliBaba to stay afloat (and employed).
This is entirely like the Graham family being ousted from the Post, except at least Bezos had the sense to hire someone who knew they didn’t know anything and not likely to piss the entire staff off in quick order.
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Andrew Sullivan definitely left his mark on TNR
Neoliberal ain’t Liberal. Neoliberal is nothing more than conservative-lite.
Too progressive? Tell that to Marty Peretz…he might agree, but few others will.
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I know I’m supposed to care deeply and all but TNR stopped being relevant when young liberals subscribing to magazines as working adults started reading Marty Peretz’s racist screeds. A generation or two unsubscribed and it’s really been a dead magazine walking ever since.
Watching all these people who can apparently afford to just up and quit their job walk out while the younger generations are electrified by the biggest round of civil rights protests in decades seems to be a particularly unedifying study in privileged insularity to me.
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If you care you don’t walk out?
Spoken like a true prima donna fascist.
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