[afraidfortherepublic]

How sad. I have a feeling that much of the cause of The Spectator's demise was its association with David Brock, the self-confessed liar. ("When you lie down with a dog, expect to get up with fleas.") Beacuse Brock stretched the truth, embellished his stories, and outright lied and then chortled about it afterwards to the press -- he damaged the credibility of the whole magazine.

Thanks for the ping.

[joebuck]

Actually, I think much of the reason for TAS's demise was the internet. During the 80's and most of the 90's, if you wanted to read good conservative journalism and commentary you basically had TAS and The Natioal Review. Once the Internet really got going in the late 90's it was goldmine of good conservative writing and re-printing of conservative articles. One no longer really needed TAS to satisfy their need for conservative prose to read. In fact, Free Republic is an excellent example of this. I know I subscribed to TAS from the early 80's until about 1998. When they called and asked why I hadn't renewed my subscription, the reason I gave was the internet. The only thing I really missed from the Spectator was Ben Stein's diary. It is sad to see it go, though.