| The American Spectator | |
| Editor: | R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. |
| Category: | Politics |
| Founder: | George Nathan and Truman Newberry |
| Company: | American Spectator Foundation |
| Country: | United States |
| Based: | Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. |
| Language: | English |
| Issn: | 0148-8414 |
The American Spectator is a conservative American magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. It was founded in 1967 by Tyrrell (the current editor-in-chief) and Wladyslaw Pleszczynski (its editorial director as of 1980).
The magazine has featured the writings of the several authors such as Malcolm Gladwell, Greg Gutfeld and Dinesh D'Souza. Current frequently contributing writings include Daniel Flynn, Paul Kengor, Robert Stacy McCain, Scott McKay, George Neumayr, and George Parry.
It gained popularity in the 1990s during its investigation of Bill Clinton under what became known as its Arkansas Project. During this same time period, The American Spectator received a $1.8 million donation from Richard Mellon Scaife.[1] Despite this success, the magazine has not been able to maintain the circulation it reached at this time and has since been accused of "hit jobs",[2] lack of corroboration,[3] and denial of the scientific consensus around global warming.[4]
The magazine American Spectator is published by the nonprofit media organization American Spectator Foundation. The foundation itself was founded in 1969, with "the stated goal of bringing quality journalism to the forefront of the national political conversation".[5]
The magazine's circulation increased tenfold during the investigation of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton under what became known as its "Arkansas Project".
However, American political commentator Rush Limbaugh has been credited for the popularity of The American Spectator, due to his free promotion of the magazine and the paid advertisements on Limbaugh's radio and TV shows, which reached an audience of 20 million.
Following financial shortfalls, including a resistance from Tyrell to have the Arkansas Project audited, The American Spectator was sold to George Gilder, leading to layoffs and a relocation to Great Barrington, Massachusetts.[6] Circulation has not returned to the near 300,000 that the magazine saw during its investigation of the Clintons.
In the early 1990s, The American Spectator published two lengthy essays by writer David Brock, "The Real Anita Hill" and the "Troopergate story", both of alleged inappropriate behavior by then-President Bill Clinton. Brock has since denounced the former article in the 2003 book Blinded by the Right: the Conscience of an Ex-Conservative, in which he states that the article caused the magazine's content to move "away from thoughtful essays and scholarly reviews and humor pieces" to "hit jobs".
In 2011, Assistant Editor Patrick Howley published a piece detailing his infiltration of a protest in Washington, D.C. In the article, Howley asserts his aim to "mock and undermine" the protest against American Imperialism, and writes in the first person about his experiences protesting at the National Air and Space Museum.[7] This article, and the methods detailed within, was condemned by The Guardian, The Atlantic's "Atlantic Wire" blog, and The Economist, because they believed the correspondents who worked on the story had conflated journalism and politics.[8] [9] [10] Matt Steinglass of The Economist wrote that Howley "winds up offering a vision of politics as a kind of self-focused performance art, or perhaps (to say the same thing) a version of Jackass."[11]
In September 2020, the American Spectator Foundation filed a lawsuit in federal court against Press Holdings Media Group, a for-profit company that owns the British conservative magazine The Spectator. The lawsuit alleged that the company used American Spectator
The American Spectator has been criticized for its "hype and hysteria" and "out-of-control screeds that attack the obvious suspects and lack corroboration". The non-profit organization Greenpeace notes that the magazine is part of a "conservative media network with clear Koch influence [that] serves as a reliable platform for attacks on the scientific consensus of global warming".
The magazine's final monthly print publication was released in July/August 2014. While The American Spectator did issue a September/October PDF-only version late in mid-November 2014, the masthead still claimed that it was "published monthly, except for combined July/Aug and Jan/Feb issues." A note from Editorial Director Wladyslaw Pleszczynski admitted that "...we have some problems of our own."[13] Pleszczynski added that the issue "was ready for release well over a month ago but for reasons affecting many a print publication these days couldn't be published on actual pages and after considerable delay is now being released in digital form only." Subsequently, online publications have become permanent and available.[14]
The latest editions of the magazine:
The magazine returned to print in the fall of 2017 under the direction of Hannah Rowan. It is published in the winter and summer.[19]