Mark Steyn likely to sink National Review

Mark Steyn, the belligerent columnist at National Review and favorite of many of the whackadoodle right here, might just put the National Review out of business.

Steyn went after noted climate expert Michael Mann with his trademark vitriol, delighting his rabid fan base. Then he went a bit too far and referred to Mann in print as a Jerry Sandusky-class pedophile.

Can you say "blood libel"?

Mann asked Steyn for a retraction. Steyn laughed at him and said basically "it sucks to be you!".

Mann then asked NRO publisher Rich Lowery for a retraction. Lowery told Mann that the National Review never issued retractions and if he don't like it, talk to his lawyers.

So Mann contacted NRO's lawyers, who promptly shit themselves. They told NRO they absolutely HAD to issue a retraction. The NRO declined, and the NRO's law firm quit or was fired, depending upon who you talk to.

Mann filed a libel lawsuit, and then and only then the NRO realized it was in deep doo doo. The NRO found out their insurance didn't cover libel verdicts. And the courts so far have made it clear that Mann is heading for a rather lucrative payday.

The NRO has issue "urgent" fundraising pleas to its base to help with legal fees, with little success. The conservitard Weekly Standard is licking their collective lips, as the NRO is their prime competition and the Standard would benefit tremendously if the NRO is bankrupted.

Actions have consequences!

RobDownSouth said:

Mann filed a libel lawsuit, and then and only then the NRO realized it was in deep doo doo. The NRO found out their insurance didn't cover libel verdicts. !

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That is . . . quite an astonishing oversight.

KingOrfeo said:

That is . . . quite an astonishing oversight.

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It would seem the NRO empire is a house of cards, very thinly capitalized and has drawn down reserves since Bill Buckley shuffled off the mortal coil. They've lost 50 million dollars in the past 25 years.


Not a good way to run a business.

Not only that but another right wing blogger and think take are named in the suit as well:

Climate scientist Michael Mann is suing National Review and Mark Steyn, one of its leading writers, for defamation. It’s a charge that’s notoriously hard to prove, which is no doubt why the magazine initially refused to apologize for an item on its blog in which Steyn accused Mann of fraud. Steyn also quoted a line by another conservative writer (Rand Simberg) that called Mann “the Jerry Sandusky of climate science, except that instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data.” (Simberg and the free market think tank for which he works, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, are also named in the suit.)

William F. Buckley would never have said such a classless thing.

But then… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYymnxoQnf8

I always liked Buckley and always thought he was an extremely intelligent person. It's a shame he used his powers for evil.

I was glad to receive these warnings. I didn’t have the slightest intention of backing out, although I already had a healthy respect for Buckley’s craft as a debater. The apprehensions of my friends made me create an advance strategy which I otherwise might not have employed. I lifted it strictly out of my sports background. When you know that you are going to face a tough, tricky opponent, you don’t let him get the first lick. Jump him before he can do anything and stay on him, keeping him on the defensive. Never let up and you rattle him effectively. When the show opened up — before Buckley could get into his devastating act of using snide remarks, big words and the superior manner — I lit right into him with the charge that many influential Goldwaterites were racists. Shelley Winters piled in behind me, and Buckley scarcely got a chance to collect his considerable wit. A man who prides himself on coming out of verbal battle cool, smiling and victorious, he lost his calm, became snappish and irritated, and, when the show was over and everyone else was shaking hands, got up and strode angrily out of the studio.

From “I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson,” by Jackie Robinson

Fuck, AJ is going to be struck dumb. Literally.

So, this thing of conservatives calling people pedophiles when they disagree is not just a Lit thing?

RobDownSouth said:

Can you say "blood libel"?

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I can say many things. I prefer to say them when they're relevant though.

Sean said:

Fuck, AJ is going to be struck dumb. Literally.

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Have no fear. American Thinker will fill the void.

RobDownSouth said:

Can you say "blood libel"?

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Errmm, look, that phrase has been invoked various times in political discourse in recent years, sometimes by LWs, mostly by RWs, and the Jews always object that if you are not being accused of abducting babies for ritual murder and cannibalism, you are not being "blood libeled."

KingOrfeo said:

Errmm, look, that phrase has been invoked various times in political discourse in recent years, sometimes by LWs, mostly by RWs, and the Jews always object that if you are not being accused of abducting babies for ritual murder and cannibalism, you are not being "blood libeled."

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Pfft....if Sarah Palin can use it with impunity, so can I!

I speak their lingo.