In the daily noise of the presidency of Donald Trump sometimes that Trumps are the oldest enemies are not Democrats, Left-wing or Liberal – but Conservatives fought him early on, because he was never one of them.
These Conservatives were once in large numbers, also in the media , but in the past two years, they have become less and less, your criticism is always quieter. Now one of the last of these votes: in the “Weekly Standard”, a small, but in Republican circles of influence week magazine, silenced.
For a good two weeks already, rumour had it that the owner of the “Weekly Standard” wool the newspaper to close. This owner Philip Anschutz, one of the largest donors to the Republican party. Him to miss the event of the political line of the editors, it was called from the environment of the magazine, specifically: your clear Anti-Trump course.
shower While other conservative media, the President, with praise and his scandals, small talk, or concealment, is remained of the “Weekly Standard” in his line. Trump is a pathological liar, wrote editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes recently.
journalists offices
last Friday, Anschutz’ company Clarity Media, which publishes the “Weekly Standard” reported now, The output produced by the 17. December will be the last. On the same day, the editors had to vacate their offices. Earlier Attempts to sell the newspaper had failed, apparently at the will of the publisher: He was “deeply disappointed” about the decision of the publisher, editor-in-chief Hayes. The “Weekly Standard” had for years been a consistently conservative and independent voice that we need right now.
It is a bitter end for a magazine that was in Washington once set the tone. Was founded the “Weekly Standard” in 1995 by Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the owner was Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. Under the Kristols guidance, the magazine became the mouthpiece of those Neo-conservatives who provided the presidency of George W. Bush, the intellectual foundations.
Vice President Dick Cheney, you knew that he was every week, 30 print fresh copies to the White house. Some of the magazine also called the “flight magazine” of Air Force One. Felt this influence, especially in the flaming arguments of the “Weekly Standard” for a new military campaign of the USA against Iraq. Then, a few years later, Bush in the White house, moved in, and the war in Iraq proved to be an increasingly mistakes, suffered the Reputation of the Neocons.
in 2009, selling Murdoch’s “Weekly Standard” to Anschutz, a businessman with close ties to the Republicans. Editor-in-chief was for the end of 2016, Stephen Hayes, Kristol continued to be the author of the sheet. The money in the “Weekly Standard had dropped” never, to his best times, he annually made a Million Dollar loss. In the past few years, the support sank like a lot of magazines, last year it was still at 72’000 copies sold.
principles.
The owner of Anschutz took so long in buying it, as the magazine was politically on the right line. But with the rise of Trumps to change the began. While more and more Republicans were behind the populists, was a co-founder Kristol is one of the leading voices of the “Never Trumper”, the Conservative, who criticized Trump in public.
Many media observers in Washington do not regret the end of the “Weekly Standard”, even if they shared the political line of the editors. The minds behind the newspaper to be “a role model for how to stand up for his principles,” wrote a columnist for the “Washington Post”. Simple, the creators do not want to disappear. “We want to get the voice of the “Weekly Standard” on life,” says Kristol of the “New York Times”, “in whatever Form.” It should be Trying to find a donor for a follow-up project.
If this project ever comes back to the influence of the “Weekly Standard” is, however, questionable. Too much has changed in the conservative media world in the past few years. It’s not just Murdoch’s TV station Fox News, and online platforms such as “Breitbart” and “the Daily Caller”, in which criticism of Trump, does not exist. This is also true for intellectual media. The opinion editors of the Wall Street Journal in many questions behind Trump. And also the magazine “National Review”, also used to be a very Trump-critical, has reconciled, at least partially, with the President. A gap will remain so.
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 16.12.2018, 21:49 PM