Posted on 11/16/2008 8:51:55 PM PST by reaganaut1
In a span of 252 days, the National Review lost two Buckleys — one to death, another to resignation — and an election.
Now, thanks to the coarsening effect of the Internet on political discourse, the magazine may have lost something else: its reputation as the cradle for conservative intellectuals and home for erudite and well-mannered debate prized by its founder, the late William F. Buckley Jr.
In the general conservative blogosphere and in The Corner, National Review’s popular blog, the tenor of debate — particularly as it related to the fitness of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska to be vice president — devolved into open nastiness during the campaign season, laying bare debates among conservatives that in a pre-Internet age may have been kept behind closed doors.
National Review, as the most pedigreed voice of conservatives, has often been tainted — unfairly and by association, some argue — by the tone of blogs, reader comments and e-mail messages. “Bill was always very concerned about having a high-minded and thoughtful discourse,” Rich Lowry, the magazine’s editor, said. “If you read the magazine, that’s what it was and that’s what it is.”
In October came the resignation of Mr. Buckley’s son, the writer and satirist Christopher Buckley, after he endorsed Barack Obama for president. He did so on Tina Brown’s blog, The Daily Beast, to avoid any backlash on The Corner.
Now David Frum, a prominent conservative writer who enmeshed himself in a minor dustup during the campaign by turning negative on Governor Palin, is leaving, too. In an interview, he said he planned to leave the magazine, where he writes a popular blog, to strike out on his own on the Web.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
National Review will still have the titans of Jonah Goldberg, Mark Steyn, and Victor Davis Hanson.
Christopher who? Somebody Frum? You won't be missed.
“Now, thanks to the coarsening effect of the Internet on political discourse, the magazine may have lost something else: its reputation as the cradle for conservative intellectuals and home for erudite and well-mannered debate prized by its founder, the late William F. Buckley Jr.”
Considering that NR ceased being worth reading about 18 years ago this is hardly a newsflash.
If Bill Buckley was alive he could explain it to me.
So could his son Christopher.
But he's a dick.
Fair-weather Republicans moving on to “greener pastures”...
David Frum can leave and not pass go....
Sad, as it appears as though the Right has lost its intellectual bearings, now represented by the tabloid idiocy of Fox News and the low-IQ pablum of Sean "Joe Lieberman is my friend" Hannity.
With any living thing dead cells slough off and begin anew elsewhere. Enough said. I look forward to new skin :-)
“National Review will still have the titans of Jonah Goldberg, Mark Steyn, and Victor Davis Hanson.”
Pygmies, maybe, titans, not a chance. The titans were James Burnham, Jeffrey Hart, Russell Kirk, Erik Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, among others.
Once Rich Lowry and the pygmies took over NR should have been printed on a roll.
The Times on the other hand doesn’t have to worry about a reputation for erudition. If it ever had one it left a long, long time ago.
They mistakenly looked at the Democrats “as the friends across the Isle”.....without realizing it convert or be destroyed.....just as with radical Islam in alot more ways than one thinks...
Maybe its time to support M.Steyn, Goldberg et all at Natl Review more than ever....
They are in restucture at the same time as GOP...lets see if they end up parrallel to each other.....
Next stop, the Huffington Post.
I’m buying you a beer. Make that two beers.
Oh, my...what a wonderful jab. Hope you don't mind if I appropriate that for my own use.
Hopefully, Ponnuru is next - another elitist RINO.
Yes, and Katty Kathleen Parker wrote for them this week.
No. George Washington, Black Jack Pershing, and Ronald Reagan were great Americans. I am but a humble citizen upset at the flatulence currently being peddled as “right wing” opinion by an Australian.
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