The New Republic is a magazine for liberals (or “progressives,” or whatever the left wants to call itself these days), just as National Review and the Weekly Standard are magazines for conservatives, and Reason is a magazine for libertarians.

◼ ‘Free of Party Ideology or Partisan Bias’ - Ed Driscoll/PJM

Like Charles Foster Kane buying the fictitious New York Inquirer and publishing his “Declaration of Principles,” Chris Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook who’s now the new owner of The New Republic (which has also had issues with being fictitious itself from time to time) declares that under his watch, TNR will be “will strive to be free of party ideology or partisan bias:”

With this issue, we relaunch The New Republic. Our goals may be somewhat different from those of the magazine’s founding fathers, but we share their unabashed idealism. We believe that our new hyper-information age is thrilling, but not entirely satisfying. We believe that there must remain space for journalism that takes time to produce and demands a longer attention span-writing that is at once nourishing and entertaining. We aim to tell the most important, timely stories about politics, culture, and big ideas that matter to you.

The journalism in these pages will strive to be free of party ideology or partisan bias, although it will showcase passionate writing and will continue to wrestle with the primary questions about our society. Our purpose is not simply to tell interesting stories, but to always ask why these stories matter and tie their reporting back to our readers. We hope to discern the hidden patterns, to connect the disparate facts, and to find the deeper meaning, a layer of understanding beyond the daily headlines....

◼ The Pragmatic New Republic - Jonah Goldberg/National Review

One of the things that has always made it stand out is its determination to advance a liberal perspective while being as clear-eyed and cant-free as possible (National Review has a similar mission on the right). Maybe that’s what Hughes means here. But I’m not so sure. Nowhere in his letter does he mention the words “liberal” or “progressive” — odd for what amounts to the mission statement of America’s most venerable liberal (or progressive) opinion magazine.

◼ "The journalism in these pages will strive to be free of party ideology or partisan bias..." - Althouse

...I must say, I'd never paid any attention to Chris Hughes before, and I didn't yesterday until pushed by my commenters. On the evidence of the interview he and Franklin Foer did with the President, I saw him as another media suckup doing Democratic Party politics under cover of journalism. Seeing this "free of party ideology or partisan bias" business now only inclines me to scoff. If that's what you wanted as your brand, why did you lead off with that interview?...

FROM THE COMMENTS: Tibore said... "The journalism in these pages will strive to be free of party ideology or partisan bias..."

WHAAAAAAAA HAA HA HA HA HA!! WHOOOO HE HE HEEEEEEE! AAAAAAAAAAH, HAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA....

(*sniffs*) Oh man, that was good...