Kristol, Krauthammer Are Out of Time
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Off the Record
Two conservative Time magazine columnists are on their way out the door: Neither William Kristol nor longtime contributor Charles Krauthammer will be on contract with the magazine starting next month. Mr. Krauthammer confirmed the news to Off the Record, and a spokeswoman for Time said Mr. Kristol’s contract would not be renewed.
And according to two sources familiar with the discussions, Time is in negotiations with National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru to sign him to a contributor contract. Mr. Ponnuru, who in 2006 published The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life, has written twice for the magazine over the past month.
The exact reasons for the departures of Mr. Krauthammer and Mr. Kristol, both high-profile backers of the Iraq war, are not entirely clear.
“I was very happy to work with them,” said Mr. Krauthammer on the phone from his Washington office. “And I have a lot of things that occupy me.”
Asked if he would have preferred to stay with the magazine, Mr. Krauthammer, a Pulitzer Prize winner who writes a regular column for The Washington Post, suggested there wasn’t much of a choice. “It’s a hypothetical that didn’t arise,” he said.
The Time spokeswoman would not detail the reasons for ending the contract of Mr. Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, but said that the decision was mutual. Mr. Kristol did not return a call for comment.
Back in March, Time managing editor Richard Stengel, who took over in May 2006, redesigned the magazine, putting columnists front-and-center. The top-heavy banner with the name “Krauthammer” was a visual signature in the new look; Mr. Kristol was hired last December, along with the liberal columnist Michael Kinsley, as part of an effort by Mr. Kristol to hire what he described as “star writers.”
“They’ve been looking for columnists basically since Rick came here,” said one Time staffer. “He’s in love with columnists—the idea of columnists.”
Mr. Stengel, though, has rejected at least one high-profile potential columnist hire. Radar reported last month that he declined to sign Karl Rove, when approached about the idea by Mr. Rove’s agent, Robert Barnett. Mr. Rove is now a columnist for Newsweek.
As for the two recent departures, Mr. Krauthammer has had a diminished presence in Time lately. He’s written for the magazine only once since March, compared to the eight times he wrote last year and the nine times he wrote in 2005.
Mr. Kristol, for his part, had been on the job only 11 months, during which time he penned fewer than 20 columns, including only four since July (one recent piece outlined why the Republicans can win the White House; another, about the nature of patriotism, was titled “Learning from Lincoln’s Wisdom”).
The Time spokewoman said that Mr. Stengel was not available for comment, because the magazine is closing its annual “Person of the Year” issue. She added, of the two departing columnists: “We hope and expect each of them will continue to contribute to Time frequently.”
Does anyone read Time anymore? It is so left-wing, so slanted, so out of touch. A bunch of aging hippies writing about how bad our country is, while driving demanding huge salaries. Is anyone surprised they are getting rid of any moderates or conservatives? Why are there any advertisers left?
Has anyone noticed that the so-called "CONSERVATIVEs" have to have INDIAN immigrants to write their stuff now? Have you noticed more and more Blacks, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis people NOT from the American mainstream are the voices or "frontmen" for Right-wing political thought that is labeled "Conservative".
BUT IS THIS REALLY CONSERVATIVE IF THE ADVOCATES FOR IMMIGRANTS? A story, or two two stories, for the last two Thanksgivings I have traveled to Rome for the "American Thanksgiving Menu" the HARD ROCK Cafe on via V. Vento has.
ON BOTH OCCASIONS I have run into upper middle class, highly educated (nearly all have Phd's or are Doctors) Indian Americans, half Christians. NONE CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING! In fact, to be blunt, both the Roman Catholic Doctor wife last year and both of the Drs. this year made a point that that they did NOT celebrate Thanksgiving DID NOT LIKE THE TASTE OF TURKEY and NEVER ATE CRANBERRY SAUCE!
If it had been one couple I would not have remembered. Also the nastiness, the flavor of hatred of our greatest American tradition.
YET ALL FOUR OF THESE IMMIGRANTS MAKE HUGE SALARIES, EITHER IN GOVERNMENT RESEARCH JOBS or for private industry WITH GOVERNMENT FUNDING! Their children go to OUR SCHOOLS!
I really think we need a REAL CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT or at least some group that defends what have been for hundreds of years out values, PROTESTANT, WHITE, NORTHERN EUROPEAN! These "conservatives" are simply become anti-Semitic, non-nothing buffoons like Mclaughlin, pretensious precious (that means politically efeminate) fools like Lowry or pushy social climbing outsiders like the Indians who just want to insult Blacks to separate themselves from others of dark skin like themselves.
There are no real Bourbon Democrats or Yankees left in our political or cultural life. More's the pity!
For years now Time magazine has been leaning left. In the last 12 months or more they have become the mouthpiece for the DNC. How they keep advertiser is a mystery. I'll continue to enjoy the "Hammer" nightly on Fox News. As for Time, it's still a rag. I don't even read it in the doctors waiting room. If I want to see their garbage I'll tune into CNN.
Good grief, if the prior comments are indicative of the quality of the current NY Observer audience, no wonder no one who matters reads it anymore. As for Time, Krauthammer, and Kristol, who cares? News weeklies are irrelevant, as are discredited neo-cons who, unlike stopped clocks, can't even manage to be right twice.
Time is following the networks in becoming more openly partisan, which is a good thing if they'd at least be open about it. Considering the love letter they penned to Putin on the occasion of the recent Russian 'election' (widely considered not a fair election), and the choice of Putin for Man of the Year, it's pretty clear which way they're leaning...
About time. I was a Time subscriber for 49 years until they began their uber-conservative tilt. Ponnuru just continues its flirtation with fantasy. Guess I'll stay away a little longer.
Wake me up when they give the heave-ho to Joke Line.
I haven't read Time in years, but they will probably lose what few Republicans are still buying this rag. If given one, I'd use it for the birdcage.
Time magazine has for decades been geared to the down market...to people who aren't well informed and are less so after reading Time. If they've fired these two fine columnists in an election year so they can give full voice to the Liberals, it surprises none of us.
"It is so left-wing.."
You are funny.
Ramesh, who supports McCain, and thinks Rudy is ineligible to be President because the police radios didn't work on 9/11, might have the pedigree of Kristol and Krauthammer in 20 years. There is no question this is a step back for conservatism today.
BTW, Ramesh, is showing a lot of snarkiness on the corner recently. In another 20 years, he'll hopefully have a better demeanor...
Is every media outlet a "left wing" hit job? I mean everything but Fox news of course.
I love how people comment about the bias in the media without actually stating proof. It is the republican party's main strategy every time any media reports an unfavorable but possibly truthful story about them is to call them bias. Even if the report is 100 percent accurate, they are biased, you can not believe them.
It looks like it is a very effective because everyone is brainwashed to thinking all of the news is biased towards Dems. Seriously? The lead up to the disastrous Iraq War was led by the Washington Post and NYTimes. They have more blood on their hands than anyone.
By releasing two of the most right-winged writers in the country, Times is moved into the ranks of the ultra-liberals? You would think that in reality, all they have done is moved closer to the center. Too many readers have bought into the neo-conservative propaganda long enough and are simply tired of reading their lies. Thanks Times!
While I am light years away from Bill Kristol in philosophy, I have always admired his honesty in telling you exactly where he stands. He makes no excuses about being a neocon, or helping to engineer the hoffific regime of curious George the monkey boy which has damaged us as a nation so terribly.
David McGlaughlin
LOL, the tired and overused trope , that the media leans liberal !!! Uh, those two lib rags, the W.Post and NYT..major marketers of the Iraq war and all that went with it..Yadda, yadda to that very old/overused rationale of media being liberally left leaners !!! Thnk folks do need a few lessons in reading and comprehension skilss and then a review of these last seven+ years of neocon rule under the Bushler flag. WOULD apprciate to hearing from BOTH positions, and then some HONEST discussion...won't happen of course..too difficult for too many. Think it should be mandatory to allow both/all 'major' points of view to BE viewed...only then can a responsible decision be made of which position to support or not. Presently, rather difficult at best to so do !!!!
While I am not displeased to see either of these hacks move on, sometimes it is best to keep your eyes on a snake....at least you know where they are and when they are coming at you. Just a thought....watch ROVE.
Time is about as left wing as Mother Jones is right wing, Time is owned by a corporation, so depending on its parent company we will know how left or right wing Time is. Some corporations lean to the left like Google some are outright fascist like Halliburton, ExxonMobile, Blackwater, DynCorps, NewsCorps...the list is long here unfortunately...Time I would put in the category of corporate mainstream leaning slightly towards the right, like the New York Times, both did not question the invasion of Iraq when it counted so both are definitely not left leaning. Neither have given Kucinich much space more evidence of their right leaning tendancy.
The recent posts containing the namecalling 'curious George the monkey boy' and 'Busher' show the level of maturity of many leftists today. I used to enjoy that sort of thing in seventh grade, but then I grew up. Sadly, many others have not.
TIME Magazine is a fine journal and am proud to have a subscription. For those of you whining like children I have some advice; your constant alligator tears and claims that this, that, and everything else under the sun is "to liberal, branch of the D.N.C., liberal leaning, bias to the left, blah, blah, blah, blah" gets old, and it gets old fast. No one cares about your generic, written 10x in the same thread, argument. I mean you are saying the same thing your pal Rush Limbaugh has been saying the past 10 plus years, WE'VE HEARD IT, and heard it again, and again, and again, please stop or at least come up with something semi original. Do yourselves a favor next time, instead of your usual tear up session, bite the lip and go do something positive.
Time Magazine: Thank you for your wisdom in dumping Krauthammer and Kristol. Both are right wing fringe looney neocons who are dangerous for America. I blame Kristol for pushing us into the Iraq war(he wanted Clinton to do it in 1996) and he has blood on his hands just like Bush, Rice, Cheney, Romney, Feith and the rest. Good riddance.
If you read TIME closely, it's hard to say which way it leans. But the editors know which way the wind blows, and they can see that the day of the right-wing ascendancy is over.
read past the headline, crybaby- they're replacing them with more arch conservatives.
Left wing rag dumps conservatives, how original.
The left doesn't believe in free speech.
They believe in lock step propaganda.
It's funny how many commenters have cited the NY Times and Washington Post's supposed support of the war based on their pre-war subscribing, like most Democrat leaders as well as Republicans, to the belief that Iraq had WMDs. It matters not to these commenters that both papers have been vigorously against the war for most of its duration. They are either stupid or dishonest.
Yeah, Time magazine is SO left wing they hired two of the most outrageous neo-con kooks of all time to write for the magazine!
Wake up conservatives. Your brains are so saturated with propaganda from Rush, Hannity, et al that anything left of Attilla the Hun looks like bleeding heart liberalism to you.
Stop the cruelty and ignorance now. Enough is enough.
Kristol cheered on the Iraq war and mislead his followers by downplaying the potential of a post invasion Suni/Shia conflict. Krauthammer is so wrong and so grumpy every time he appears on talk shows I wonder who would bother to read any publication he writes for.
These guys (along with David Brooks)need to sit in a windowless room in some drab D.C. suburb and pay each other to listen to their drivel. The fact that any of them can still make a living as journalists is an indicator of how dumbed down our society has become.
Yes, you conservatives are so mature....I just want you to be my daddy. Give me a f*cking break.
This is the classic conservative attitude....if you disagree with me you must be crazy, stupid or immature.
I get so tired of this ignorant crap.
Ok Jenn, let me guess. You come home and turn on Fox News and then count your money every night. You blame all problems on liberals even though the republicans have been running the show for 7 years now. You're probably very cheap. You probably dress in very ugly clothes as most republican women do. They're easy to spot as they have no taste. Those fine columnists are actually two shit heads that should have been let go of years ago. Now go back to watching Fox news, AKA the mouth piece for the Republican party. Save me your worthless opinion.
TIME is irrelevant and getting more so by the month. Kristol and Krauthammer have better things to do.
When you read the comments posted on the WaPo or Time websites regarding a new article from Krauthammer or Kristol, you can see how the readership has changed. The publications are being viciously attacked for having either of these guys even write for them...more so than for the content of their articles. Newsweek is also getting hammered hard for having hired Rove to comment in their mag. I bet the emails to the editor were classic. You can't even post a response on the Weekly Standard site...to bad, that would really be interesting to read. Soon the only thing these guys will have left will be Fox...and I can delete that channel from my television lineup. Even Ponnuru is soundling more like a blog poster who just writes stuff to stir the pot to tighten the wingnuts on both sides.
My hope against hope is that the MSM is realizing that having a guy from the right spewing crap and a guy from the left spewing crap, and then calling that news, just does not constitute journalism anymore. There is no such thing as "fair and balanced" when it comes to what our society sees as important...it is all out of balance...and I refuse to be made into a radical anymore to profit any organization.
This action coming from the pile of crap magazine that named a commie "Person of the Year" as opposed to General Petraeus. I think enough is said about them right there...