The Nation

his year, there is a special birthday in liberal media. The Nation – the longest consecutively published weekly magazine – is turning 150; and in celebration, it published its longest issue to date. Included was a reprint of the magazine’s Founding Prospectus from 1865: "The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect or body." In defiance of the founding statement, The Nation has always…

In a Monday blog post, Michelle Goldberg suggested that the takeaway from Carly Fiorina’s presidential candidacy is that Republicans may be as cynical as they are dumb. For Goldberg, the cynicism is two-pronged. One prong is the hope that Fiorina will attract the same sort of “anti-feminist” voters that Sarah Palin did. The other is that she’ll be able to needle Hillary Clinton in a manner that…

Alex Wagner and her two left-wing panelists on the Wednesday edition of her MSNBC program – Salon's Brittney Cooper and The Nation's Ari Berman – likened the use of the word "thug" to describe the rioters and looters in Baltimore, Maryland on Monday to a notorious racial slur against blacks. Wagner played up how "there are folks, like CNN's Erin Burnett, who don't understand why it's offensive;…

In a Tuesday post, The Nation blogger Dave Zirin argued that it’s politically unseemly for Gov. Scott Walker to root publicly for certain Wisconsin sports teams, including the University of Wisconsin basketballers, who came up just short in last night’s men’s national title game against Duke. Zirin claimed that it’s “almost flagrantly irresponsible” for the media to publicize Walker’s support of…

Last week, NewsBusters brought you "Stumped," as April Ryan struggled to cite a single foreign policy success by her super-fave, President Obama. In the best Hollywood tradition, this morning we bring you a sequel--Stumped II: Syria! On today's Morning Joe, lugubrious lefty Eric Alterman of The Nation mag was stumped when Joe Scarborough asked him what the US should do about Syria. After humming…

Many people fantasize about what they’d try to accomplish if they were president of the United States. Some even write it down, and a few publish their thoughts, as Moore did earlier this week in the 150th-anniversary issue of The Nation. A few of the ítems on Moore’s list of twenty seem to be meant humorously (e.g., “free HBO for everyone”) but he’s serious about the clear majority of them,…

The left-liberal magazine The Nation has just published its 150th-anniversary issue, which includes Alterman’s piece on the state of American conservatism. Alterman makes two main points. One is that conservatives are ideologues, whereas liberals are pragmatists. The other is that prominent righty pundits routinely spew nonsense not because they’re dumb, but because extremist plutocrats control…

Leslie Savan writes that “as a character, and not merely a critic, of the right, [Stephen] Colbert held a unique key to the riddle of modern conservatism: How do they keep getting away with it? Why have so many conservatives turned into such small-minded haters and deniers of science, of reality?”

The Nation’s Leslie Savan alleges that conservatives still are fixated on the image of the Rev. Al as “a radical and a race hustler,” and opines that “because he’s the best-known single figure in the growing protest movement, the right will blame him for any violence.”

In the ultimate in Occupy Wall Street hypocrisy, the hardcore lefties at The Nation magazine are hosting a fundraising Caribbean cruise again in December, and using The New York Times to do it. A promotional e-mail carries the quote “The love boat for policy wonks – The New York Times.” That’s a headline...from 2008. We had to snort a little that this “love boat” will be talking about taking all…

How extreme is MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry? Extreme enough that she recognizes no right to speak to a pregnant woman seeking an abortion. That “choice” to abort only has merit if no one disturbs it by counseling against it. In a column for The Nation, Harris-Perry sulked about the Supreme Court ruling striking down “buffer zones” in Massachusetts. “This decision has, in the end,…

When TV’s Sunday-morning political chat shows book conservative guests, maybe they’re just trying to be evenhanded, but The Nation media blogger Leslie Savan opined in a Tuesday post that often the programs do it so that the right will be less likely to badger them about their liberal bias. As Savan put it, “Sometimes seeking balance is really a plea to call off the dogs.” What riled up Savan…

Appearing as a guest on the Monday, April 21, All In with Chris Hayes, Daily Beast columnist Michelle Goldberg -- also of the far left The Nation magazine -- invoked the Oklahoma City Bombing during a discussion of the Cliven Bundy standoff, as she accused the Republican Party of "playing footsie" with militias during the Clinton administration, and suggested culpabilty by Republicans in…

On the Friday, April 18, All In show, during a discussion of the firing of former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich for simply donating to a political campaign opposing same-sex marriage, guest Richard Kim of the far left The Nation magazine intoned that he found it "disturbing" that gay activist friends of his have expressed interest in "targeting" more people who have made similar donations, and who…