Marty Peretz To Own New Republic Again!
The New Republic sort of dialed down its level of maddening hawkish crazy once Franklin Foer was installed as editor, but all that could basically change right now: Marty Peretz is buying it back!
See, this Canadian newspaper company called CanWest bought out Peretz in 2007, but now they're going bankrupt. Peretz had owned the magazine since the '70s, and he was responsible more than anyone for its center-left super-pro-Israel bent, the bent that led the magazine to become a hearty cheerleader for the war in Iraq.
The magazine is still home to crusty, wordy old cranks like Lee Siegel and Leon Wieseltier, and Peretz is still its "editor-in-chief," though presumably Mr. Foer will remain its actual hands-on editor.
Now maybe Marty can finally make good on his promise to make the fortnightly mag twice as thick as it used to be, when it was a weekly. He could fill up 20 more pages worth of purple prose on how much he hates the Arabs all on his lonesome, right?