Whither the Nation Magazine?

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

When The Nation published his attack on Hugo Chavez, did they know that 
the former FMLN commander turned neoconservative is an adviser to the 
bloodstained government of Colombia? We can assume that Marc Cooper, who 
convinced them to publish it, certainly knew.

If I hadn’t noticed Dennis Perrin’s  favorable comments posted to Doug 
Henwood’s LBO-Talk mailing list about a World Socialist Website series 
of articles on The Nation Magazine prompted by Cindy Sheehan’s defection 
from the Democratic Party, I would have missed them completely: “This is 
what WSWS does best. Think the Nation might run a condensed version of 
this?” Since Dennis has a lot of experience writing comedy, you can be 
assured that the Nation would never even consider publishing even a 
single word of the WSWS critique. They are at:

http://www.WSWS.org/articles/2007/jun2007/natn-j18.shtml

http://www.WSWS.org/articles/2007/jun2007/nati-j19.shtml

http://www.WSWS.org/articles/2007/jun2007/nati-j20.shtml

I was reminded of how rotten the Nation can be when I noticed an article 
by Joaquin Villalobos attacking Hugo Chavez in the latest issue.  It 
prompted me to write the following web letter to the magazine:

"Aren’t you people aware that Villalobos is a neoconservative? He 
supported the war in Iraq in 2003 and only opposes it now–tepidly–for 
the same reasons that George Packer does. In addition, he is a 
counterinsurgency adviser to the bloodstained government of Colombia. 
Did Marc Cooper urge you to publish this sordid item? I guess if you are 
going to publish Cockburn on global warming, you might as well publish 
this kind of nonsense."

Cooper translated the Villalobos article and convinced the Nation to run 
it. On his blog entry touting the article, Cooper wrote, “Completing his 
studies at Oxford, Villalobos is now one of the more sought-after 
consultants on security and development in Latin America.” Security, 
indeed. You might as well have hailed OSS veteran Edward Lansdale a 
“sought-after consultant on security” in the 1960s. At least Lansdale 
didn’t use leftist rhetoric to justify his treachery the way that 
Villalobos does.

full: 
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/06/22/whither-the-nation-magazine/