New Republic Magazine

Kondracke's labyrinthian evaluation of the present Administration in Washington provokes two painful reminiscences: (1) That the party of Lincoln has come to this and (2) that the New Republic magazine (once the darling of the intelligentsia and the socially responsible) has come to this! JESSIE HOLMES Los Angeles

Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook and coordinator of Barack Obama's online efforts during the 2008 presidential election, is entering the "old media" fray as publisher and editor-in-chief of the New Republic, the publication announced Friday. Initial response? Journalists who do not write for the New Republic are seething with envy, and wonder if perhaps another Silicon Valley millionaire/billionaire would like to come and inject an infusion of new-media money into their publication too. But it's not just the money, it's also what Hughes is saying about the state of journalism today that is drawing attention.

Andrew Sullivan resigned as editor of the New Republic magazine Friday, saying he wanted to do more writing and start a "new phase" in his life. The Washington Post reported that Sullivan told colleagues he is HIV positive. But he said he has known he had the virus that causes AIDS for nearly three years and remains in good health, the paper reported. He said he is resigning because five years of editing the contentious magazine is enough.

The political magazine the New Republic has been sold back to its longtime editor in chief. Canada's largest media company, Canwest Global Communications Corp., said Monday that it sold the magazine to a group of private investors that includes editor Martin Peretz and investment banker Lauren Grafstein for an undisclosed amount. Canwest bought the liberal magazine from Peretz two years ago. Canwest spokesman John Douglas said the company was trying to clean up its balance sheet and shed non-core assets.

The New Republic magazine apologized Friday for publishing more than 20 articles that were all or partly made up by a former writer, saying it could make "no excuses" for the embarrassing fabrications. An internal investigation turned up 23 articles by Stephen Glass that contained at least some made-up material, the Washington-based magazine on politics and the arts wrote in an editor's note of the June 29 issue, which hit newsstands Friday.

Gilbert A. Harrison, former editor and publisher of the New Republic magazine who ran the influential Washington-based weekly for 20 years, died of congestive heart failure Jan. 3 at Hospice of the Valley in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 92. Harrison published an intellectual, liberal but nondoctrinaire journal of opinion, politics and arts that was an early opponent of the Vietnam War.

After nearly five months of mounting criticism, the New Republic has disavowed reports about petty wartime cruelty in Iraq, saying the magazine had lost faith in the Army private who wrote them. "We cannot be confident that the events in his pieces occurred in exactly the manner that he described them," Editor Franklin Foer wrote this week of the dispatches by Scott Thomas Beauchamp. "Without that essential confidence, we cannot stand by these stories."

Lawyers for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, an anti-drug organization based in Culver City, say they'll drop a $10-million libel complaint against journalist Stephen Glass if he explains how he fabricated quotes and sources for articles that accused DARE of intimidation. According to a tentative settlement contained in federal court records in Los Angeles, Glass will sit through an interview with DARE lawyers in Century City on Jan.

Like other wars, this one was started in the United States and spread to Nicaragua. The combat has escalated amid cries of an inquisition and charges of foreign intervention. But this war is being fought on a battlefield of newsprint and political reviews.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach)--a prominent conservative who favors drug testing for congressional staffs and supports strong anti-drug legislation--used marijuana, hashish and LSD as a young man, the magazine New Republic will report in its Nov. 5 issue. The liberal journal states that Rohrabacher asked former friends--only one of whom is named--not to talk about his youthful drug use during his 1988 congressional campaign, and in exchange agreed to avoid "noisy anti-drug crusading."

Gilbert A. Harrison, former editor and publisher of the New Republic magazine who ran the influential Washington-based weekly for 20 years, died of congestive heart failure Jan. 3 at Hospice of the Valley in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 92. Harrison published an intellectual, liberal but nondoctrinaire journal of opinion, politics and arts that was an early opponent of the Vietnam War.

After nearly five months of mounting criticism, the New Republic has disavowed reports about petty wartime cruelty in Iraq, saying the magazine had lost faith in the Army private who wrote them. "We cannot be confident that the events in his pieces occurred in exactly the manner that he described them," Editor Franklin Foer wrote this week of the dispatches by Scott Thomas Beauchamp. "Without that essential confidence, we cannot stand by these stories."

A Los Angeles federal judge said Monday that she intends to dismiss a libel suit by DARE, the anti-drug program, against Rolling Stone magazine over an article containing numerous fabrications. U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips said there was no clear and convincing evidence that Rolling Stone acted with malice when it published freelancer Stephen Glass's article accusing DARE of harassing critics.

Lawyers for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, an anti-drug organization based in Culver City, say they'll drop a $10-million libel complaint against journalist Stephen Glass if he explains how he fabricated quotes and sources for articles that accused DARE of intimidation. According to a tentative settlement contained in federal court records in Los Angeles, Glass will sit through an interview with DARE lawyers in Century City on Jan.

Lawyers on behalf of DARE, the national drug-education program, filed a $10-million libel suit Monday against Stephen Glass, the young journalist accused of falsifying more than two dozen articles in prominent U.S. magazines. It was the first libel action against Glass since his fabrications were exposed last month, embarrassing the magazines that employed him and prompting many publications to review their fact-checking procedures. In a Los Angeles federal court suit, DARE U.S.A.

A guy from a Midwest city sat with the rest of us in 1990 in Italy at the World Cup soccer tournament, usually at our media headquarters in Florence. We seldom saw him at the actual matches, as we bounced around like soccer balls from Naples to Turin to Genoa to Bologna to cover the games. But we would see him pounding away at his laptop, filing daily correspondence for his newspaper.

Lawyers on behalf of DARE, the national drug-education program, filed a $10-million libel suit Monday against Stephen Glass, the young journalist accused of falsifying more than two dozen articles in prominent U.S. magazines. It was the first libel action against Glass since his fabrications were exposed last month, embarrassing the magazines that employed him and prompting many publications to review their fact-checking procedures. In a Los Angeles federal court suit, DARE U.S.A.

The political magazine the New Republic has been sold back to its longtime editor in chief. Canada's largest media company, Canwest Global Communications Corp., said Monday that it sold the magazine to a group of private investors that includes editor Martin Peretz and investment banker Lauren Grafstein for an undisclosed amount. Canwest bought the liberal magazine from Peretz two years ago. Canwest spokesman John Douglas said the company was trying to clean up its balance sheet and shed non-core assets.

The New Republic magazine apologized Friday for publishing more than 20 articles that were all or partly made up by a former writer, saying it could make "no excuses" for the embarrassing fabrications. An internal investigation turned up 23 articles by Stephen Glass that contained at least some made-up material, the Washington-based magazine on politics and the arts wrote in an editor's note of the June 29 issue, which hit newsstands Friday.

Andrew Sullivan resigned as editor of the New Republic magazine Friday, saying he wanted to do more writing and start a "new phase" in his life. The Washington Post reported that Sullivan told colleagues he is HIV positive. But he said he has known he had the virus that causes AIDS for nearly three years and remains in good health, the paper reported. He said he is resigning because five years of editing the contentious magazine is enough.