Putting The Me In Media

So Andrew Sullivan is leaving The Atlantic and joining the Daily Beast and Newsweek.  This is a big announcement for media master Tina Brown, as Sullivan's Daily Dish blog gets millions of views.

According to her, his "fearlessness and doggedness makes him a natural soul mate of The Daily Beast." Furthermore, "he is willing to admit mistakes and change positions (sometimes radically) in the face of new evidence.”

That's putting it nicely.  He supported the war in Iraq then opposed it ("fearlessly" on the side of the public both times).  While I don't think this is admitting a mistake so much as making one, it's the speed and scope of his change which was so odd.  He got an opinion transplant seemingly overnight. It's normal for beliefs to evolve, but in his case it didn't seem to be in the face of new evidence so much as some sort of emotional trauma that's hard to make sense of from the outside.  And for good measure, he also turned against Israel.

Further attesting to his fearlessness and doggedness is his insistence that Sarah Palin is lying when she claims to be the mother of Trig, her son with Down's Syndrome.  This is the left's Birtherism, but apparently his fans are willing to look the other way.  (That's the best spin.  I'd hate to think they agree.)

So good for you Newsweek.  You used to give us the week in news, but a few years you consciously changed your style.  Last year, you were sold for a dollar, with the understanding that the new slant would continue.  Andrew Sullivan is quite a catch.  You just better hope he doesn't have another change of heart.

Meanwhile, the best blog at Newsweek, the Kausfiles, has been given the heave-ho. Written by Mickey Kaus (alone--Sullivan has minions), it was apparently a case of "I can't quit, you just fired me!"  He's now at the Daily Caller, doing just fine:

Blogging at Newsweek was sort of like setting up your tent in a bombed out building. First the editor who hired me left. Then the editor above him left. Then the executive above that guy left. Then the editor who didn’t really like me but tolerated me left. As a result I was left alone, which was fine. I kept writing; the checks kept coming. But it was only a matter of time before the occupying army moved in.

Itinerant Mickey carries around his own set of readers, even if they're not quite Andy's Army.  Speaking of which, Kaus could show his old New Republic compatriot a thing or two on what true heterodoxy looks like.