Commentary By Ron Beasley
Now that Rupert Murdoch has The Wall Street Journal does he really need the moronic rantings of William Kristol and Fred Barnes? Maybe not:
News Corp. in talks to unload Weekly Standard to Anschutz
News Corp. is near a deal to sell its right-wing political magazine, the Weekly Standard, to conservative media mogul Philip Anschutz, according to people familiar with the situation.
Launched in 1995 and edited by William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Weekly Standard has been a pet political project for News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch. While its circulation, according to the magazine's website is only 83,000 (it hasn't been audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation since 1996), it reaches the upper echelon of Capitol Hill insiders and gave the media mogul cache among the Washington elite.
Now that Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal, however, whose conservative editorial page wields a much bigger political stick, he may no longer really need the Weekly Standard, which preaches much the same message, but to a considerably smaller audience. Murdoch's own political views seem to have swung more toward the center over the last few years, and that, too, might be a factor in his decision to sell.
Or, to be blunt, News Corp., as the prospects for print media shrink, may be reviewing all its assets and deciding what stays and what goes. Using that rationale, holding on to what we suspect is a money-losing magazine doesn't make much sense.
So just who is Philip Anschutz? Via Sully, not just a conservative but an ultra right wing Christian conservative.
The possible buyer is a far right Christianist, Philip Anschutz, whose campaigns include keeping gay people marginalized (he funded Colorado's Amendment 2), discouraging the teaching of evolution (he founded the Discovery Institute), and the Pass It On organization, the Foundation For A Better Life.
Now Fred Barnes will feel right at home with Mr Anschutz. He is a self described orthodox Anglican who supported the move by his church to leave the Episcopalian denomination over the issue of gays.
William Kristol may feel less at home.
That's just the deal, you understand�supporting a crusade for moral values is just the price we have to pay for a foreign policy that we can defend as a whole.
Will Kristol and Barnes get to hold onto their soap boxes on the FOX "all stars"?
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