“I used to subscribe to American Spectator, back in the days of their large-size format.”
So did I. They used to have some excellent writers at one time, Tom Bethell being one of them. He and Sobran cooked up the idea of the political/media Left operating as “The Hive”, a model that’s still valuable.
I let my subscription lapse after TAS ran a cover story hit piece on Pat Buchanan by the vile Canadian opportunist David Frum. Frum made a career out smearing conservatives in print, and you have to question the “conservative” rags that published him, TAS being one of the first.
Yes, there were some great writers at TAS in the 80s and 90s: Joe Sobran, Tom Bethell, John Simon, and now-established writers such as Andrew Ferguson, John Podhoretz, Malcolm Gladwell, William McGurn, Richard Brookhiser, etc when they were young and still a bit unpolished.
I agree completely about Frum. His article was a milestone in the decline of TAS, as were the exposes by the execrable David Brock on Anita Hill and the Clintons. Yes, these articles greatly increased the circulation of the magazine, but were damaging to the conservative movement, in my view.
A great article on the first rise and fall of TAS (written before TAS was revived):