“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.
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.
It is always a mistake for the true protector of the good to become the crusader for the better, a disaster for the crusader to become the enforcer of the perfect.