What exactly happened with 'The New Republic' magazine?

[fujiyama]

I know that the rightward shift occured in the 80s - that Krauthammer was one of the editors. I also know they have Sullivan and that he was an editor as well (or still is).

But it was faily moderate during Clinton years... They had some great articles during the '00 election...and before 9/11 as well for that matter (The Bush hate article was pretty good a while back).

I also know that the editor, Martin Peretz was close friends with Gore.

But it seems to have turned even farther to the right since 9/11. They were advocates for the war (at which point I stopped taking them seriously) and they endorsed Lieberman. Peretz and Kaplan seem to be the worst of the those there. Peretz' main obsession is with Israel, and any criticism of the nation is anti semitism according to him.

[robbedvoter]

1. Martin Peretz sold his shares to 2 RW-ers in 2001.

They turn it around slowly so readers don't catch up.

[Just Me]

2. I used to consider them, "progressive". They appear to tag the RW.

I have turned to the Center for American Progress as my think tank of choice.

[Czolgosz]

3. I feel that The New Republic has been smitten with the right-wing faction

in Israel for some time. After 9/11, Bush adopted the same rhetoric, justifications, and strategies as those which have been successfully deployed by the right-wing in Israel. I think The New Republic was sympathetic to those arguments before Bush adopted them, and basically joined in Bush's camp from that point forward.

That's just my theory as an ex-New Republic reader.

[bear425]

4. Peter Beinart - PNAC'er n/t

[starroute]

5. I grew up reading the New Republic back in the 60's

It was very solidly left-liberal then, and it really kills me to see what it's become. But I suspect that if I ever had the chance to actually reread the articles that impressed me when John Kennedy was president and I was in high school, I'd see the seeds of the Neocon-like direction it's taken since. For example, Zbigniew Brzezinski was one of their leading lights a long time before he set up Afghanistan as a trap for the Soviets.

There was a long period during which it was possible to be a Cold War hawk but a domestic liberal, and those conditions just don't apply any more.

[blm]

6. It's packed with Bebe's boys. Neo-con perspective rules on Israel/war.

.

[Bunny]

7. I gave up on it several years ago. It was too focused on Israel, which

simply doesn't interest me all that much.

[AlCzervik]

9. me too, i switched to The Nation.

[Czolgosz]

10. I also switched to The Nation

[Sir Jeffrey]

8. They hired Fred Barnes in the mid-eighties...

and drifted to the right during the illegal war of aggression waged by Reagan against Nicaragua. For some detail on that read "Fooling America" by Robert Parry. My dept. head just gave me that book last week and I loved it.