Chapter 6: John Podhoretz

Conservative journalism has changed markedly since John Podhoretz began his career at the Washington Times in the ...

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Conservative journalism has changed markedly since John Podhoretz began his career at the Washington Times in the early 1980s. When Matt Drudge broke the Monica Lewinsky story in 1998, it was clear that things would never be the same. On today’s episode of The Hangover, John joins Chris Stirewalt to explore how the changing media ecosystem contributed to Donald Trump’s election in 2016. The pair reflect on the creation of The Weekly Standard, electoral politics in the Clinton and Obama years, and how Trump’s victory affected the conservative movement. Even though Trump is no longer president, will his presence in conservative media continue to be felt for the foreseeable future?

Show Notes:

–John’s page at Commentary

–John on the history of The Weekly Standard

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  1. Jared Manly

    This episode is gold. One of the best episodes of a podcast I’ve ever heard. And I listen to way too many podcasts

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  2. Roy Shiplett

    Chris pronounced Tahlequah, OK incorrectly. Please get someone to check it out. I think I have heard him mispronounce it twice.

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  3. Lynn

    Excellent, Chris. Very interesting. Great questions and thoughts to John and his responses were insightful. Have loved this series. Great idea. It is so easy to forget the history., to not remember how we got here. Please create another podcast! This is a great format and fits in with your history skills. So glad you are at the dispatch.

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    kategolden

    I love the political nerd-child confessions. When I was a teenager, I went door to door for Alan Keyes and the GOP slate in Illinois. Alas he was no match for a young Barack Obama. Years before that I wore a red, white, and blue sequined vest to a W rally at the local airport. You all are my people.

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    David M

    Thanks Chris, good show with Pod.

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    RevJulia

    This was fantastic,Chris, thanks. Although your ignorance of Lil’ Nas X Satan shoes was just SAD.

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    Tracie

    Found this such a valuable retelling of the last 40+ years of media and politics from a conservative lens, I listened to it twice.

    Something that sustains my interest in JP's voice, here and elsewhere, is his basic sincerity, often unpolished but unmistakable. He also exudes a generosity of spirit and adequate humility to admit mistakes, and to re-examine events from every attainable angle - which along with his apparent breadth of experience makes his point of view essential for this series.

    Since the 1990s, I've experienced politics passively via CNN, npr, reading when I felt like it, on occasion when professors mandated it, and when I needed to win a family argument or internet spat. As a result, my awareness of people and events in these spheres is conventionally liberal.

    Wandered over to the Commentary podcast around the time certain elements of the left, including friends and acquaintances, appeared to be losing their tethers to reality. Decided to adopt the Commentary pod as a counterpoint to npr and the Slate Political Gabfest. Now, listen to it most days when I'm finishing my daily documentation for my nursing home job.

    The guest's regular podcast is refreshingly devoid of crazy, and reveals a degree of honest intellectual discussion I previously did not know existed in conservative thought. My late father read all of Rush Limbaugh in hardback, and was the kind of small town businessman (+jovial racist with no insight) that JP correctly, I think, describes as the late Limbaugh's core audience. I regarded my father as the source of most of the native intelligence I possess, yet - politically - he was primarily driven by emotion/grievance and guarding his priors.

    JP is also correct, I think, per the "wrestling fan" proletariat that makes up Trump's base. I maintain in my few hundred Facebook "friends", cousins and childhood acquaintances from rural /small town Texas to provide a window out of my blue city bubble. The diehards still talking about Trump are not everybody who posted pics of themselves in MAGA hats. They're the most marginalized people I know, who appear most driven by a desire not to be invisible, and by real and perceived slights. They would not listen to any non-pandering source of media for the purpose of widening their perspectives.

    If the left has a problem amongst a minority prone to indulgent self-flagellation and guilt projection, the right has a problem with people who resent anybody smarter or more worldly than them. Everybody who writes for the Commentary and the Dispatch are light years more knowledgeable and fluent than me in their areas of investigation and expertise. That's of course how it should be.

    I know people from the most parochial corners of our culture who believe they know all they need to. That's a problem. Maybe not a new one.

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    Richard Grebenc

    The best Hangover yet, by far. This one really gets to the heart of what this podcast is all about. I hope the final episode will have Chris solo taking all of the podcasts and providing a final, cohesive postmortem based on all of these conversations.

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  9. Russ

    This Podhoretz/Stirewalt discussion was riveting. I'm not a podcast guy, but I listened to every word of this. John: I wish you'd told us what you REALLY think of Agent Orange! [just kidding] I think you nailed the character description of DT.

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  10. linda

    Appreciative as usual. Great waltz through modern political history. Still not sure how the well behaved Tea Partyer turned out to be Trump devotees. The Tea Party I get but the other stuff and the deep dive into Nut Ville I don't .
    Hope you keep the pods coming. They are always interesting and really glad to hear you again. I was a devoted listener on the former pod that shall not be named in respect the dead.

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