New Republic Editors Fear ‘Reactionary Variant of Conservatism in Its Ascendancy’

Three former editors of The New Republic — Hendrik Hertzberg, Peter Beinart and Andrew Sullivan — have joined more than a dozen of their fellow TNR veterans in protesting the “destruction” of the magazine at the hands of owner Chris Hughes.

“As former editors and writers for The New Republic, we write to express our dismay and sorrow at its destruction in all but name,” the editors and their former colleagues wrote in a statement, released Friday evening.

“From its founding in 1914, The New Republic has been the flagship and forum of American liberalism. Its reporting and commentary on politics, society, and arts and letters have nurtured a broad liberal spirit in our national life,” the statement continues. “The magazine’s present owner and managers claim they are giving it new relevance while remaining true to its century-old mission. Instead, they seem determined to strip it of the intellectual, literary, and political commitments that have been its essence and meaning. Their pronouncements suggest that they hold those commitments in contempt.”

Read the rest of the story at Politico.