The Corner

Brockbats

Jonah: What on earth is David Brock talking about? A very short list of magazines few that if any conservatives can write for: Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, Harper’s, GQ, Esquire, all the women’s glossies. I would bet my whole bank account–which is smaller than Brock apparently believes–that each of them pays far more for a freelance piece than National Review. I’m sure it’s not even close. It’s quite possible to make a good living as a conservative writer, but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking there are a ton of jobs out there. That’s one reason why there’s so little turnover at a place like NR. In nearly 50 years of publishing we’ve had exactly three editors. (And only one of them has gone on to a different job–WFB retired, John O’Sullivan went to UPI and now edits The National Interest, and Rich Lowry is our current maximum leader.) The New Republic goes through three editors in a decade–and a placid one at that. I’ll think about starting to take Brock seriously as soon as Salon calls one of us NROniks and offers a column at a good price. Real money, no stock options.

John J. Miller, the national correspondent for National Review and host of its Great Books podcast, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.
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