Episode 198: How The Atlantic Magazine Helps Sell Austerity and War to Middlebrow Liberals

Citations Needed

Bias, News, Media, Society & Culture, Journalism, Criticism, Politics

4.8 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2024

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Teachers Unions: Still a Huge Obstacle to Reform.” “Countering Iran’s Menacing Persian Gulf Navy.” “Open Everything: The time to end pandemic restrictions is now.” “The Good Republicans’ Last Stand”

Each of these headlines comes from the same magazine: The Atlantic. For 167 years, the publication has enjoyed elite stature in the American literary and journalistic worlds, publishing such luminaries as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Barack Obama, and serving as a coveted professional destination for writers throughout the country. Founded by a number of esteemed 19th century authors, the magazine has long prided itself on its cultural and political depth.

But beneath all of its high-minded rhetoric about democracy, free expression, fearlessness, and American ideals is a vehicle of center-right pablum, designed to launder reactionary opinions for a liberal-leaning audience. As the employer of warmongers like Jeffrey Goldberg, Anne Applebaum, and David Frum, under the ownership of a Silicon Valley-tied investment firm hellbent on destroying teachers’ unions, The Atlantic, time and time again, proves a far cry from the truth-pursuing, consensus-disrupting outlet it claims to be.
On this episode, we dive into the history and ideology of The Atlantic, examining the currents of middlebrow conservatism, left-punching, and deference to boring business owners that have run through the magazine throughout its nearly 17 decades of operation.

Our guest is Jon Schwarz.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Citations Needed with Nema Shirazzi and Adam Johnson.
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0:57.6	Teachers unions still a huge obstacle to reform.
1:07.0	Countering Iran's menacing Persian Gulf Navy. Open everything, the time to end pandemic restrictions is now. The Good Republicans last stand.
1:17.0	Each of these headlines comes from the same magazine, the Atlantic magazine.
1:21.0	For 167 years the publication has enjoyed elite stature in the
1:25.1	American literary and journalistic world. Publishing such luminaries is
1:28.7	Ralph Waldo Emerson and Barack Obama and serving as a coveted professional destination for writers throughout the country.
1:35.4	Founded in part by a number of esteemed 19th century authors, the magazine has long prided itself
1:41.2	on its cultural and political depth. But beneath all of its high-minded
1:45.4	rhetoric about democracy, free expression, fearlessness, and American ideals is a
1:51.0	vehicle of center-right Pablum, designed to launder reactionary opinions for a liberal leaning audience.
1:58.0	As the employer of warmongers like Jeffrey Goldberg, Ann Applebaum, and David Frum, under the ownership of a Silicon Valley
2:06.0	tied investment firm hell bent on destroying teachers unions, the Atlantic magazine time and again
2:12.0	proves a far cry from the truth pursuing consensus
	...

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