The right-wing mocks “liberal” Newsweek's lack of profits, ignores WashTimes' monumental losses

Written by Eric Boehlert

Published

Question: With the Washington Times, the long-time, right-wing vanity publication owned by Rev. Sun Myung Moon and run as a GOP welfare state, now hemorrhaging so much money that even its delusional owner has decided to sell it, do you think it's really the best time for right-wing bloggers to be mocking Newsweek because it can't turn a profit?

Apparently it is.

Leaving logic and hypocrisy aside, GOP blogger Ace of Spades rambles on and on about Newsweek needs to find a new owner because it's too liberal and that's why it's losing so much money today. Lots of `wingers are doing the same thing online, prematurely dancing on Newsweek's grave and celebrating its demise because it proves that supposedly liberal magazines can't survive in the (center-right) American marketplace; that consumers aren't interested in the liberal perspective.

Right.

And did I mention that over the span of its lifetime, the Washington Times has likely lost more than $3 billion dollars for its owner. (It's probably the most expensive failed American media venture. Ever.) Meaning, if the Washington Times hadn't been run like a right-wing welfare outlet since the day its presses first started to run nearly three decades ago, the Times would have gone out of business within months of its founding.

Why? Because there was no natural audience for its right-wing drivel and the Times could never sustain itself. Because if the free marketplace had dictated the results, the Times would have come and gone as a colossal business failure. But the Rev. Moon, who fancies himself as the Messiah, wanted a vanity press and was willing to use his church/cult resources to back the endeavor.

So yes Ace of Spades, please keep lecturing us about the media's free marketplace and how Newsweek-- which flourished for decades as a money-making machine before the media landscape, and news consumption, drastically changed in the Internet Age-- failed because it was too liberal. Please instruct us how conservative publications like the Washington Times are so much better equipped to attract readers and advertisers.