Vanity Fair: Conservative Magazines Rise on Hate

February 24th, 2010 3:37 PM
National Review

According to Vanity Fair's Matt Pressman, President Obama's plummeting approval rate isn't just affecting the Oval Office, it has liberal magazines suffering and conservative titles flourishing. "Hate sells," Pressman wrote in his Feb. 23 article, and, with fewer Americans approving of the President, conservative magazines have enjoyed a "boost from the anti-government, tea-party led fervor."

"The most prominent and biggest-selling [conservative magazine], The National Review, definitely seemed to experience an Obama-hatred bump in 2009," Pressman said.

Of course, it's "hate." After all, we're talking about conservative magazines. Conservatives don't disagree with policies. They don't care about the massive debt, the moribund economy, the high unemployment rate or the projection of national weakness around the world. They hate Barack Obama. They hate polar bears and women and minorities and third world farmers and gays and unicorns and ...

In fairness, Pressman did mention that liberal magazines did quite well during the administration of "Cowboy Bush" and "Darth Cheney."

"The George W. Bush years were good for more than just oilfield-services companies and waterboard manufacturers," Pressman wrote. "They were also a boon for liberal political magazines, whose circulation soared on the wings of the Bush hatred that swept much of the country."

So there was hatred of Bush, but the mention of Halliburton and "torture" serve to remind us that it was warranted. Pressman concluded that liberal magazines may not see such hay days again until "2013 and the inauguration of President Palin."