Talk:The Atlantic

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What about some information on the magazine's political stance? Probably legit to offer some kind of information along those lines. The Atlantic is usually regarded as a little left of center -- it has certainly featured works deeply critical of the Bush administration -- but with regular contributions by Robert Kaplan, P. J. O'Rourke, and David Brooks, I wonder whether it would be safer to classify this magazine as right-of-center?

I know this might raise POV issues, but nobody would object to writing that The Nation is a left-leaning publication, the New Republic is hawkish, and the American Spectator right-leaning. Anyway, thought I'd ask. Bds yahoo 02:55, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I don't think any one political label fairly describes the Atlantic. One reason is that it is not really a political magazine like the New Republic or American Spectator, though it does a number of stories with political angles. It does tend to cater to East Coast sensibilities, so in that sense one could say it leans left, but they're not reluctant to publish articles by conservative writers like the ones you mentioned. I'd call it politically ecumenical. --Polynova 22:00, Jan 3, 2005 (UTC)

One fairly neutral thing to do is to make mention of the ownership and funding of the magazine. ISTR that THE ATLANTIC switched to a not-for-profit status awhile back, but I'm not sure about the particulars.

I think it's important to mention the class component of the magazine and it's audience explicitly as it is characteristic of the publication.

Hi, I'm a subscriber to the Atlantic and I don't think it is left or right, and I think saying "While many of The Atlantic's articles are nonpolitical or written from a moderate stance, the magazine is generally considered to have a liberal slant" still goes too far. I vote for Democrats and Republicans. If the National Journal qualifies as "nonpartisan", why shouldn't the Atlantic? True, the Atlantic is edgier than National Journal, but publishing "works deeply critical of the Bush administration" should not earn a magazine a liberal or left-of-center label. (If it does, I fear for US journalism.) For example, George Will is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative but he's written very critical opinion pieces about the Bush administration's poor fiscal discipline, curtailment of civil liberties, etc. So have "arch conservatives" Robert Novak and Charles Krauthammer. Are they left-of-center? No way. I recall an insightful article in the Atlantic about Roe v. Wade where the (staff?) author wrote that Roe was unconstitutional and abortion should be decided by legislatures. I don't think that's a liberal position. Anyway, I think the Atlantic should be called "nonpartisan," or at least that it presents both liberal and conservative authors and perspectives, and in sum, plays it straight. Honestly, I would actually argue that the Atlantic is a "progressive" publication. And I still consider the term "progressive" neither liberal nor conservative (i.e. the meaning it used to have before liberals started trying to rebrand themselves as "progressives.") Just my 2¢. 151.200.30.69 (talk) 22:55, 7 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]