Why People with a Grasp on Reality Do Not Miss the Old New Republic
Hoisted from the Archives: I understand that the Old New Republic was at times (save for firing him) very good to the very sharp Timothy Noah. But he says some things he shouldn't in and ancillary to a very nice tweetstorm:
2.) Things didn't go sour for @tnr when @FranklinFoer got fired. To whatever extent there was an abrupt break from past glories ...
— Timothy Noah (@TimothyNoah1) June 8, 2015For example:
@delong @tnr the most part a good magazine, one that I'll wager you paid more attention to then than now.
— Timothy Noah (@TimothyNoah1) June 8, 2015It was not a good magazine.
One thing that sticks in my mind and that I can immediately put my hands on is this:
For example:
Why Do Intelligent People Write for the New Republic?: It is a mystery. James McKinley interviewing Jose Cabranes about Sonia Sotomayor:
'She's tough and tenacious as well as smart,' said Justice Jose A. Cabranes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a mentor and former professor of Sotomayor's at Yale Law School. 'She is not intimidated or overwhelmed by the eminence or power or prestige of any party, or indeed of the media'...
What Jeffrey Rosen of the New Republic did to that quote from Jose Cabranes:
Jeffrey Rosen: The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor... was ‘not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench.... She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren’t penetrating and don’t get to the heart of the issue.’ (During one argument, an elderly judicial colleague is said to have leaned over and said, ‘Will you please stop talking and let them talk?’) The Second Circuit judge Jose Cabranes, who would later become her colleague, put this point more charitably in a 1995 interview with The New York Times: ‘She is not intimidated or overwhelmed by the eminence or power or prestige of any party, or indeed of the media’...
That's not a good magazine.
And that is just one of many, many, many reasons why nobody should miss the Old New Republic of Marty Peretz and company.
