Posted on 07/02/2017 6:59:58 PM PDT by LS
One Friday afternoon last July, Wladyslaw Pleszczynski, the No. 2 man at The American Spectator for twenty years, from its time as a small-circulation conservative intellectual review through its run as the shouting voice of anti-Clintonism, rummaged through the magazine's shut-down office in Arlington, Virginia, cleaning out his desk before movers arrived, on Monday, to cart everything away. The Spectator had been sold nearly a year earlier to the high-tech guru George Gilder, who, in changing the magazine to a journal of the New Economy, decided to fire the staff and move the operation to his headquarters, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Now it was time for the old office to be shut down, and Pleszczynski was getting ready to go. Dressed in shorts and sandals, he stopped every now and then to answer the phone; friends wanted to know if Wlady, as everyone called him, was okay. (I was a writer for the magazine from 1996 to 2000, and had dropped by that day for the same reason.) Never much of an optimist even in good times, Pleszczynski answered that he was fine, considering the circumstances.
(More)
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Yeah, that’s him. He was an odd duck. Because I “knew” him from internet exchanges I was curious to learn his bio after he died while hunting Scaife. He had changed his name to Kangas, had been in the military and claimed to have once been a conservative, before becoming a conspiracy oriented leftist. His lefty pals concocted some story where he became the victim, because of course it was perfectly natural for Kangas to sneak into Scaife’s private building armed with a gun.
That’s a blast from the past. More than 100 dog years old.
I’m still ticked that just before they folded I had ordered and paid for a 2 year subscription and received all of 3 issues.
Ping for later. I’m curious to see how their demise compares to CNN’s current sitch.
Tyrell could make my sides ache, e.g. describing Boy Clinton swaggering down a convention hallway doing his “modified pimp roll.”
The American Spectator was best when it was oversized and printed on newsprint. Only the cover was glossy. But the articles were excellent. Byron York probably has the “inside baseball” view of how the magazine crumbled, but to a reader, the ailment seemed to be creeping hubris.
IIRC, didn’t the magazine change formats and went somewhat tech in the late 90s or early 2000 than try to come back? I have such fond memories looking forward to my Specator, NR and Limbaugh Letter monthly read.
This article is dated 2001.
Last I heard and read, they still are publishing.
If not, they have a strong web presence.
I used to subscribe to the National Review, Conservative Chronicle, Human Events, and the American Spectator.
I liked TAS the best, as they were the "bad boys" of conservative journalism.
Now, it's all MSNBC all the time.
RIP, TAS.
Bob Tyrell and the rest of the crew cracked me up.
Yes. It’s all in the article.
When you look at how Tyrrell lived, that’s obvious.
Both TAS and NR in the last few years weren’t the great magazine it was...I believe NR is on its death bed, too.
“They killed themselves going after non-existent Clinton crimes”
Depends on what the definition of “non-existent” is.
This ran in 2001?
“If you replace Spectator with “CNN” it is eerily similar to some of the stuff happening today.”
With the totally insignificant difference that CNN is lying and TAS was telling the truth.
What a disgrace that Jerry Parks is forgotten, while Harpy O’Smarmalot ran for president.
No, if you read the article, in fact, they never found one iota of evidence about Mena, about drug smuggling or murder.
Clinton may have skated on technicalities related to Whitewater, but as York points out, the Arkansas Project, for all the money that was spent, not only came up dry but totally destroyed the magazine.
So, no, it’s not a difference. CNN is obsessed with Russia, a non-existent “scandal.” The Spectator could have dedicated 1 10th the resources to Arkansas and sent real reporters instead of relying on these free lance money grubbers. It’s a cautionary tale for the left, who will not of course look at it.
“No, if you read the article, in fact, they never found one iota of evidence about Mena, about drug smuggling or murder.”
I find that I am ensnared in the left’s most effective weapon: the failing memory of the aged. However, I do remember eyewitness reports of drug smuggling.
There was never any doubt that Jerry Parks was murdered, nor was there any reason to doubt his wife’s report that, when told of Vince Foster’s death by telephone, he paled and said, “I’m a dead man.”
The “eyewitness report” of drug smuggling was a smuggler trying to get a lesser sentence.
So far, there is still no actual physical evidence Foster or Parks were murdered. Some may turn up. But none yet.
But really? You’re really going to argue the gist of the article that the stupid Arkansas Project killed the Spectator? I don’t think there’s any question.
“So far, there is still no actual physical evidence Foster or Parks were murdered. Some may turn up. But none yet.”
This is embarrassing.
http://bonedjello.com/Articles/The%20Murder%20of%20Jerry%20Parks.html
“On the way back, at about 6:30 PM, a white Chevrolet Caprice pulled up beside him on the Chenal Parkway. Before Parks had time to reach for his .38 caliber “detective special” that he kept tucked between the seats, an assassin let off a volley of semi-automatic fire into his hulking 320 pound frame. Parks skidded to a halt in the intersection of Highway 10. The stocky middle-aged killer jumped out and finished him off with a 9 mm handgun—two more shots into the chest at point blank range. Several witnesses watched with astonishment as the nonchalant gunman joined his accomplice in the waiting car and sped away.”
Parks was gunned down, in public, in front of witnesses.
There has never been any doubt that he was murdered.
“The “eyewitness report” of drug smuggling was a smuggler trying to get a lesser sentence.”
It occurs to me that a convicted drug-smuggler can be assumed to be an eyewitness to drug smuggling.
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