Rupert Murdoch to Sell Weekly Standard

Via Jacob Heilbrunn:

The Weekly Standard has been the flagship publication of the neoconservative movement since it first appeared in 1995. William Kristol and Fred Barnes have been at the heart of the magazine, whose influence soared during the Bush administration, when it championed invading Iraq. The news that Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp., is selling the magazine to the billionaire Philip Anschutz, who also owns the Washington Examiner, raises some questions about the magazine’s future direction.

Will Kristol and Barnes remain at the helm? Or will the magazine turn toward a more traditional conservatism?

The neoconservative movement has recently suffered several blows. The sun has set on the pugnacious New York Sun, which served as a valuable outlet for neoconservative journalists and authors. The American Enterprise Institute has ousted several neoconservatives, including Joshua Muravchik, from its roster of fellows. But no magazine, it can be safely said, has become more important to the fate of the movement than the Weekly Standard.

The Standard’s contribution has been to inject a dose of youth into the movement, a kind of Viagra. It didn’t specialize in long, academic treatises of the kind that Commentary published, with their mandarin language. (Only now is Commentary being overhauled by its new editor John Podhoretz, who has brought on a number of new writers, such as the always stimulating Max Boot, to enliven it.) Instead, the Standard aggressively tried to steer the political conversation in Washington in the direction of neocon doctrine, and, to a surprising degree, succeeded. Some of that success can be ascribed to Barnes, who is a seasoned and savvy journalist with a keen ability to pucture the pretensions of the liberal elite. But the Standard’s greatest feat was to play a decisive role in shaping the debate during the run-up to the Iraq War, when magazines such as the New Republic followed its lead in promoting the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

To a "surprising degree," succeeded?

Strange, that ... maybe we should be "surprised" at how unhinged is the demonization of the neocons?

More at the link.