The Weekly Standard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Type | Weekly Political Magazine |
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| Format | Magazine |
| Owner | Clarity Media Group |
| Publisher | Terry Eastland |
| Editor | Fred Barnes William Kristol |
| Founded | September 1995 |
| Political allegiance | Conservative |
| Headquarters | 1150 17th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 |
| Circulation | 83,000 per week |
| Website | WeeklyStandard.com |
The Weekly Standard is a neoconservative American opinion magazine published 48 times per year. It was founded by News Corporation and made its debut on September 16, 1995. Its current editors are founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes. The Weekly Standard produces The Daily Standard with commentary and articles written for the magazine's website. Other frequent contributors include Christopher Hitchens, P.J. O'Rourke, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum, Stephen Schwartz, Matt Labash, and Stephen F. Hayes.
Although the publication has never been profitable and "loses more than a million dollars a year", Rupert Murdoch, the head of the News Corporation, had previously dismissed the idea of selling it.[1] In June, 2009, a report circulated that a sale of the publication was imminent to Philip Anschutz, with Murdoch's rationale being that, having purchased The Wall Street Journal in 2007, his interest in the smaller publication had been less forceful.[2][3] Anschutz, for his part, has been an active patron of a number of religious and conservative causes. The Washington Examiner reports that the Examiner's parent company Clarity Media Group has purchased the Standard. [4]
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[edit] Editorial staff
Editorial staff who often appear with by-lines in the magazine:
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[edit] Contributing editors
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[edit] Commentary
The Weekly Standard lists praise from various sources on its website.[5][6]
In an interview with senior Standard writer Matt Labash published by JournalismJobs.com in May 2003, Labash was asked why conservative media outlets had enjoyed recent popularity. Labash responded, somewhat jocularly:[7]
| “ | Because they feed the rage. We bring the pain to the liberal media. I say that mockingly, but it's true somewhat. We come with a strong point of view and people like point of view journalism. While all these hand-wringing Freedom Forum types talk about objectivity, the conservative media likes to rap the liberal media on the knuckles for not being objective. We've created this cottage industry in which it pays to be un-objective. It pays to be subjective as much as possible. It's a great way to have your cake and eat it too. Criticize other people for not being objective. Be as subjective as you want. It's a great little racket. I'm glad we found it actually. | ” |
Scott McConnell, writing in the magazine The American Conservative, wrote that "[I]f Rupert Murdoch’s purpose was to make things happen in Washington and in the world, he could not have leveraged it better. One could spend 10 times that much on political action committees without achieving anything comparable [to The Weekly Standard]."[8] McConnell describes the Weekly Standard as pushing for war against Iraq and tying Saddam to al Qaeda: "[I]n the first issue the magazine published after 9/11, Gary Schmitt and Tom Donnelly, two employees of Kristol’s PNAC, clarified what ought to be the country’s war aims. Their rhetoric — which laid down a line from which the magazine would not waver over the next 18 months — was to link Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in virtually every paragraph, to join them at the hip in the minds of readers, and then to lay out a strategy that actually gave attacking Saddam priority over eliminating al-Qaeda. The first piece was illustrated with a caricature of Saddam, not bin Laden, and the proposed operational plan against bin Laden was astonishingly soft."[8]
[edit] References
- ^ "Murdoch's Game", The New Yorker, 2006-10-16
- ^ "Will The Standard Pass From Murdoch to Anschutz?" by David Carr in the Media Decoder blog, The New York Times, June 10, 2009, 11:15 am EDT; citing report on the Los Angeles Times’s Company Town blog. Retrieved 6/15/09.
- ^ "News Corp. Close to Selling Weekly Standard" by Nat Worden, The Wall Street Journal online, June 11, 2009. Retrieved 6/15/09.
- ^ Weekly Standard sold to Washington Examiner parent company Washington Examiner
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ Interview with Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard, JournalismJobs.com, May 2003
- ^ a b Scott McConnell, "Murdoch’s mag stands athwart history yelling, “Attack!”," The American Conservative, 21 November 2005.
[edit] External links
- The Weekly Standard website
- "White House Listens When Weekly Speaks", The New York Times, 11 March 2003
