[lbo-talk] Adios, New Republic?

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 2/23/07, Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> wrote:
> [Happy, happy, joy, joy! The New Republic seems headed for the exit.
> (Needless to say, reporter Seelye's inclinometer stands in need of major
> recalibration if it shows the NR as "left-leaning.")]
>
> February 23, 2007
>
> New Republic to Cut Back Publication Schedule
>
> By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
>
> The New Republic, the thinning left-leaning weekly magazine whose
> circulation has plunged in the era of the Web, is overhauling itself with a
> new configuration of owners, who are investing in a new look for the
> magazine and cutting back its publication schedule to every two weeks.
>
> CanWest Global Communications, a Canadian media conglomerate
> that had been a minority shareholder in The New Republic, is now
> the majority owner. Martin Peretz, the editor-in-chief, is
> retaining his one-quarter interest.
>
> "Having a corporation in the ownership mix, and at a publishing
> company at that, is a much greater guarantee for the financial
> future of the magazine," Mr. Peretz said today. "It just seemed
> to me, given my own intellectual and moral synergies
> with Leornard Asper, a very good partnership." Mr. Asper,
> the chief executive of CanWest, was not immediately
> available for comment.

Mr. Peretz, for once, spoke the truth: there are "intellectual and
moral synergies" between him and CanWest.  I'm afraid there will be no
change in editorial policy.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CanWest_Global_Communications>
CanWest founder Izzy Asper was known as a strong supporter of both
Canada's Liberal Party and Israel's right-wing Likud party, and of
many laissez-faire policies in both countries.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The government of Israel and conflict in the Middle East. Veteran
Montreal Gazette reporter Bill Marsden has said that the Aspers "do
not want any criticism of Israel. We do not run in our newspaper op-ed
pieces that express criticism of Israel and what it is doing." [2] In
2004, the Reuters news agency protested after CanWest altered newswire
stories about the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such
that Reuters felt it had inserted CanWest's own bias under Reuters
bylines. The changes were apparently made in accordance with a CanWest
policy to label certain groups as terrorists. [3]

-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
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