The Life and Death of the American Spectator

The Atlantic Monthly ^ | November, 2001 | Byron York

[537 Votes]

Is it much of a stretch from this to say that the Clinton Administration used the Justice Department to put a publication critical of it out of business?

That's what I got out of the facts of the article, too. TAS wasn't destroyed by hubris, it was destroyed by Clinton and his barking seals at Salon.com.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"What were they thinking?"

My guess would be that they believe that they can attract neo-cons and centrists and increase circulation even more. They'll be doing fashion articles soon.

[x]

York's view is worth considering. FWIW I always thought Tyrrell's problem was that he was an outsider who desperately wanted to be an insider. Hence the magazine's move to DC and play for "inside the Beltway" influence. Tyrrell may not have understood that being an outsider was his strength -- and the magazine's.

Another strength of the magazine was the mixture of points of view -- paleo, neo, mainstream conservatives with the odd liberal thrown in. There was also a wide variety of styles, from highbrow to very lowbrow, and subject matter from politics, to folk culture to political theory. When TAS moved to DC an attempt was made to homogenize everything -- to throw out people like Buchanan and cater the whole thing to a Washington audience.

The risk of decline was always there. It couldn't stay 1979 forever, and the particular culture war of those years was bound to end. By the Nineties you couldn't just send someone to a nuclear freeze or feminist rally and have a story. That cultural schism that TAS had explored for over a decade was much less pronounced in recent years. But Tyrrell took the wrong course by trying to Washingtonize TAS. It deadened what had once been a very lively magazine.

The emphasis on Clinton misdeeds was natural for the times, because there were so many misdeeds, real or merely rumored. But the emphasis on Clinton crimes that York deplores probably had much to do with the blurring of the old political/cultural divides.

I probably would have read the Spectator more in recent years if I'd seem more Clinton scandals stories. So far as I could tell, they were always doing some boring story about the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

[Rainbow Rising]

I started reading the Spectator in the spring of '93. Its irreverent spirit immediately hooked me, and soon I was buying it every month. By the end of 1993 I was a subscriber. The day that each new issue arrived in the mail was always a happy day in my house. I always got something out of the magazine: an interesting book review, an intriguing column, an expose of Clinton mischief, or some nugget of liberal foolishness from the Current Wisdom section. The "new" Spectator has a glossy look, but it has none of the spirit of the Spectator that I knew. I feel the loss very deeply.

Tyrrell won my heart forever when he was interviewed in another magazine and said that Bill Clinton had the sex drive of a monkey in a zoo. I hope he can resurrect the old Spectator in some form. Barring that, I hope he continues to comment on current events, because I've always valued his unique voice. In the meantime I have my old issues, and my memories.

[connectthedots]

I have subscribed to TAS for the past eight years. In the past year, it has really gone down hill and hardly worth reading, especially the last 4-5 issues.

[BunnySlippers]

Bump for later.

[Deb]

Now I understand why the last three issues of AS are unreadable.

This is so sad. Where is Tyrell? What is he doing?

The truth is, everything and everybody, good or bad, that came into contact with Bill and Hillary Clinton were destroyed. But the Clintons didn't win this one, Bob, you did. Don't forget that...wherever you are. Because of you people know the truth about the Scum From Hope and forever the first sentence in all the history books will read:

Clinton, William Jefferson Blythe: Impeached 42nd President of the United States.

You rule!!!

[flushed with pride]

Well, I gotta say that the overall tone of the article was a sort of smirking, gloating, 'let's kick Tyrrell in the nuts while he's down' message. I was a Spectator subscriber from 90 to 01 when I let my subscription lapse because I found the new version (Gilder's) a very unsatisfying read.

It would seem here that B.Y. Is doing a little heavy breathing of his own, implying things and giving account of events where he himself was not present and giving no references of eyewitnesses to coroborate his story. I would have expected more from him.

[Deb]

I agree. York has never been as bitchy and he sure has a bug up his butt about Tyrell's car.

Geez, let it go, Byron, act like you've been to town before. Lots of people have a "big, black Mercedes"...try to get past it.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

I always did believe that moving from Bloomington was the worst thing that TAS ever did. I felt at the time that it would eventually result in the magazine's destruction. And I liked the old newsprint format better, too.

[jammer]

I'm with you. Although this month has a great article about physics, that's about all I'm interested in. The rest is not why I subscribed to the magazine (and why I shall not resubscribe). And this is from a reader who subscribed since it was "The Alternative", on newsprint about 24" x 16". It's sad, isn't it.

[pittsburgh gop guy]

I will forever remember THE REAL ANITA HILL article by David Brock. Made me loathe the media and Dems even more than I had before. And when he turned gay and renounced the article, I knew it was just an attempt to get with the (so-called) IN CROWD.

While I loved THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR, I never really liked Bob Tyrrell and always thought of him as a poor man's William F. Buckley, another man associated with a great mag: NATIONAL REVIEW. Thankfully, NR still exists, though I don't think it has ever really made a dime either.

[F16Fighter]

All hail to Vlady, Tyrrell, PJ and crew -- thanks for waging important conservative moral battles over the years and ultimately paying the price -- alienating too many advertisers thus TAS's demise. However not before relentlessly exposing the corruptness of XPOTUS and his associates exploits and hypocracy of the left.

American Spectator died a hero.

[flushed with pride]

Not just the car, but all the 'perqs' as well. GREEN-EYED MONSTER SYNDROME, apparently. I wonder if York ever had the vision and determination to go out into the big wide world and attempt to start a magazine of alternative thought AND secure funding for it. Throughout it's proud history, Tyrrell's brainchild gave shelter and platform to America's top conservative thinkers and readers. And even though some (like York) were on the margins of that conservatism, and some were even admitted liberals, the magazine was a suave representation of neocon culture. Looking at the BIG PICTURE, the sum total of the magazine's effect, like most noble and worthy enterprises, won't be appreciated for years to come. Hopefully by then many people will know just who R. Emmett Tyrrell was, but won't have a clue about Byron York.

[szweig]

*sniffle* I lived in Bloomington, Indiana from 1970 until 1982. I knew Von Kannon and Ron Burr very well. In those innocent times we had a club called Brewmasters sponsored by a local beer wholesaler. Our aim was to promote beer drinking on campus. Once a year we'd have the Beer Olympics (different individual and team drinking contests ). The event was held every year at the "Establishment" of the American Spectator west of town near Ellettsville, Indiana. We would raise over $2000 each year for the Children's Hospital in Indianapolis. We wouldn't be able to do this these days. Pity...

[Free Vulcan]

TAS, via Rush Limbaugh is one of the primary forces responsible for waking me up during and right after college to the political world. I grew up in a very corrupt blue collar Dem town, and their articles on Clinton were very believable having seen the actions of Dems first hand. Whatever liberal ideas I had at point were very quickly extinguished. Their articles helped to put me solidly in the conservative camp.

[Deb]

I'm so tired of the finger-pointing if someone chooses conservative politics as the arena in which to make his fortune. As though it's okay for everyone in every other business to succeed and acquire the trappings of earned wealth, except conservatives.

To the patched-elbow crowd conservatives have to fail or risk being pecked to death by jealous contemporaries. I didn't think York was this petty. Maybe he was having a "Brock Moment" at his new job.

[szweig]

*sniffle* I lived in Bloomington, Indiana from 1970 until 1982. I knew Von Kannon and Ron Burr very well. In those innocent times we had a club called Brewmasters sponsored by a local beer wholesaler. Our aim was to promote beer drinking on campus. Once a year we'd have the Beer Olympics (different individual and team drinking contests ). The event was held every year at the "Establishment" of the American Spectator west of town near Ellettsville, Indiana. We would raise over $2000 each year for the Children's Hospital in Indianapolis. We wouldn't be able to do this these days. Pity...

[Flashlight]

Good riddance; I for one am celebrating. Ever since they dropped the ball on the Vince Foster story I've had no use for them. (Before that I had regularly bought it off the newsstand.)