What the heck is going on at The New Republic? Bet the Aspers want to know

Despite its venerable history as a voice of American liberalism, times have not been good recently for Canadian-owned The New Republic. The Asper family must be asking itself what kind of a gimcrack, out-of-control mess they bought.

Not only is TNR famous for having harboured plagiarists and fabulists like Stephen Glass and Ruth Shallit in the past, now it is is coping with the fallout from its "anonymous" diarist/ soldier from Iraq. Turns out that Scott Thomas IS a soldier and married to a staff writer at the magazine, but many of the items he reported were questionable at best or exaggerated at the least and the right-wing bloggers took off after TNR. Rumours are now circulating that high-level heads are going to roll (including, possibly, the editor Franklin Foer, who was only appointed in February). TNR's circulation continues to fall as its traditional base simply loses faith in its veracity.

For but one example of recent reporting and commentary that can only be giving the Aspers a royal pain, see the story by Richard Miniter in Pajamas Media. Its headline is "How The New Republic Got Suckered", which is self-explanatory.