The New Republic

Background

The New Republic was a staple of American intellectual life for many decades, especially under the ownership of Martin Peretz from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s, when Peretz transformed it from a bastion of, at times, radical left-wing thought to a more-centrist publication that published a variety of opinion from both the left and the right. This orientation would change beginning in the later 2000s as it became one among many left-of-center publications. ^{1  2}

The New Republic suffered a number of scandals in the 21st century related to office culture and claims of sexual impropriety and harassment. ^{3  4  5}

Founding and History

The New Republic was founded on November 7, 1914, by writers Herbert Croly, Walter Lippmann, and Walter Weyl, with financial backing from the heiress Dorothy Payne Whitney and her husband Willard Straight. Croly was the first editor, and the magazine’s main inspiration was his 1909 book The Promise of American Life, in which Croly lamented individualist and libertarian Jeffersonian influence that had characterized American history until that point. Instead, Croly argued that in the industrial age, a powerful centralized state in a more-Hamiltonian mode was necessary. ^{1  6}

Croly’s vision, as laid out in his book, had attracted the interest of the Whitney and Straight, who would fund the magazine at its founding.  Croly’s New Republic would go bankrupt by 1924, though it would be revived soon after. ⁷

In these early years, The New Republic was very left-of-center, at times openly embracing a socialist position. In the 1910s, it called for the nationalization of railroads. In 1932, it endorsed Socialist Party candidate Norman Thomas for president. In the late 1930s, it praised the New Deal, writing that “we have made more progress toward a socialized economy in the past four and a half years than in the two previous decades.” ⁸

It later came to light that the post-World War II manager of the magazine and son of the founding owners, Michael Straight, had himself been an active Soviet spy associated with the Cambridge ring of Kim Philby. ¹

Gilbert Harrison Era

Michael Straight would sell the magazine in 1953 to Gilbert Harrison. The magazine would take a mainstream-liberal line in the following decades, at first supporting, then opposing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War; supporting the Civil Rights Movement; and criticizing New Left radicals who disrupted colleges and caused trouble. ^{7  8}

Martin Peretz Era

In 1974, Martin Peretz purchased The New Republic from Harrison for $380,000. Under Peretz’s ownership, the magazine would shift away from its more-radical roots to reflecting both left-of-center and right-of-center opinion. ²

Notably, Peretz was a staunch Zionist and supporter of Israel and an anticommunist who supported the Contras in Nicaragua. The magazine also originally supported the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. ^{9  2}

Circulation was relatively stable under Peretz until the early 2000s, staying in the vicinity of 100,000 subscribers, when it dropped 13 percent in 2000 and then an additional 26 percent after 2003. ⁷

Post-Peretz Era

Peretz began selling his shares of ownership in the magazine in 2001, though he maintained editorial control. His involvement with the magazine became an increasing source of friction among the staff and editors, especially after he controversially argued in 2010 that “Muslim life is cheap” and questioned if Muslims deserved First Amendment protections. Peretz gave up his active involvement in the magazine shortly after this incident. ^{7  9}

The magazine was purchased in 2012 by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who spent over $20 million attempting to modernize and digitize the publication and moved it in a more-overt left-of-center, rather than centrist direction. ¹⁰

Hughes sold the company to Win McCormack in 2016; McCormack owned the magazine as of 2026. ^{10  11}

Controversies

Stephen Glass Fabrications

In 1998, following an investigation by reporters at Forbes, The New Republic revealed that sources, quotes, and in some cases all relevant facts had been fabricated in 27 of 41 articles written by then-25-year-old staff writer Stephen Glass during the preceding two and a half years. Glass was fired by New Republic then-editor Charles Lane after the fabricated work was discovered. ^{12  13}

Glass reported on the 1997 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), claiming that attendees were heavily drinking, smoking marijuana, and engaging in sexual humiliation. The report garnered outcry and reports of inaccuracy, notably from the American Conservative Union which sponsored CPAC, but the magazine stood behind Glass. In 1998, Vanity Fair characterized the report as “almost entirely an invention.” ¹²

Glass had begun with small fabrications, but was eventually making up entire pieces, and engaging in elaborate deceptions to cover his tracks to the magazine’s fact checkers. Such deceptions were notable in the piece that ultimately led to Glass’ downfall titled “Hack Heaven” about internet hacking in the United States. Glass made astounding claims about a teenage hacker extorting money from a software company that he had made up, invented pending legislative initiatives, and even claimed to report from a hacking conference that never existed. ^{13  12}

Reporters at Forbes began looking into this piece, in part to discover how a political publication like The New Republic had scooped their own digital-reporting work on such a remarkable story. The investigation uncovered Glass’s wholesale fabrications, which in turn prompted further inquiries into his previous work. ¹⁴

In the face of Glass’ obvious fabrications, The New Republic fired him, after having previously defended his reporting. The final nail in the coffin was the discovery that Glass had his brother pretend to be an executive at the made-up company in a phone call with editor Charles Lane. ¹²

Notably, when Glass was denied admission to the California bar due to the ethical lapses demonstrated by the fabrication scandal, Martin Peretz, who was the owner of the magazine when Glass was employed there, defended Glass, stated that those who reported on his fabrications were hypocrites, claimed that he would be willing to hire Glass again, and questioned the right of the California bar to judge him. ⁹

Leon Wieseltier Sexual-Harassment Allegations

In 2017, the name of Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic from 1983 to 2014, ¹⁵ appeared on an anonymous online spreadsheet of “media men” who had allegedly sexually harassed or assaulted women in their workplaces. Numerous women who had worked at The New Republic began to relay the alleged harassment they had experienced from Wieseltier. These allegations ranged from being called “sweetie” to touching, kissing, groping, and similar physical acts. He was also accused of kissing women in front of colleagues and discussing his sex life openly in the office and making intrusive inquiries into the sex lives of female employees. ^{16  5}

Former assistant editor Sarah Wildman alleged that around 2002, Wieseltier had forcibly kissed her in a bar bathroom. Wildman reported this incident to the then-editor of The New Republic, Peter Beinart, who in turn relayed the report to the then owner, Martin Peretz. A meeting took place with Wieseltier, Beinart, and Peretz, but no meaningful action was taken, according to Beinart. Peretz denied that Beinart reported the incident to him. ¹⁷

Wieseltier eventually left The New Republic in 2014, reportedly due to a dispute with owner Chris Hughes. In the wake of the scandal in 2017, Hughes stated that in 2014, Wieseltier had been accused of harassing a female working in the same building as the magazine and been instructed to stop any communication with the woman. ⁵

Notably, the alleged victims stated to the New York Times that male staff members regularly witnessed Wieseltier’s untoward behavior, but nothing was done about it. ⁵

Hamilton Fish V Resignation

In November 2017, publisher Hamilton Fish V resigned from The New Republic following allegations of and an investigation into alleged workplace misconduct toward female employees. This followed on the allegation that Fish had placed his hands around a female employee’s neck and applied pressure that left a mark when he was the president of The Nation Institute. ^{18  4}

Dale Peck Op-Ed Controversy

In July 2019, The New Republic published an op-ed by literary critic Dale Peck titled “My Mayor Pete Problem,” which described then-Democratic presidential candidate and then-South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg as “the gay equivalent of Uncle Tom” and referred to him by a derogatory feminized nickname. The piece also speculated about intimate details of Buttigieg’s personal life and claimed that because he had not publicly identified as gay until his 30s, he would be too preoccupied with personal matters to effectively lead the nation. ¹⁹

The publication drew immediate condemnation and pulled the article, replacing it with an editor’s note. Owner and editor-in-chief Win McCormack extended the magazine’s “sincerest apologies” to Buttigieg, adding that the piece was “inappropriate and offensive.” ¹⁹

Talia Jane Antisemitism Controversy

In June 2024, The New Republic published an article by recently hired associate writer Talia Jane arguing that protests outside a New York City memorial exhibition to the victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on the Nova Music Festival in Israel did not constitute antisemitism, and that statements by President Joe Biden characterizing such protests as antisemitic were incorrect. The article drew criticism from several prominent journalists, including Jonathan Chait, a political columnist at New York and a former senior editor at TNR. ²⁰

Jane’s public social media posts had included characterizations of the Hamas attacks as “rebellion against state repression,” according to Jewish Insider. ²⁰

Following the backlash, TNR added an editor’s note to the article that stated the article lacked the “sensitivity and nuance that this subject requires.” ²⁰

Leadership

As of 2026, Win McCormack was the owner, publisher, and editor-in-chief of The New Republic. McCormack purchased the magazine in 2016 from its previous owner, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. McCormack had a long history in the magazine publishing business. McCormack was founder, editor-in-chief, and publisher of Tin House, a literary quarterly he founded in 1999, and had previously published Oregon Magazine and Oregon Business, among others. ^{11  21}

McCormack has been a major donor to Democratic causes and candidates, with a particular focus on Oregon politics. In 2004, he made a $1 million contribution to the Democratic get-out-the-vote effort America Coming Together. This was the largest single political contribution in the state’s history at the time. ³

It was also alleged in the mid-2000s that McCormack was aware that former Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt (D) had previously raped his children’s 14-year-old babysitter, and that the threat of his victim going public was why Goldschmidt did not run for reelection. ³ Goldschmidt had admitted to the sexual relationship in 2004 after the statute of limitations had expired; the relationship would have been considered third-degree rape under Oregon law if prosecution had been undertaken before the statute of limitations ran out. ²²

However, despite his deep involvement in the Oregon news and political scene, McCormack said nothing, leaving the scandal to be broken many years later. When asked about his silence, McCormack stated that he “didn’t feel like it was my business and even though I don’t like Neil, I didn’t want to destroy him.” ³

Michael Tomasky was appointed editor of The New Republic in 2021, a position he continued to hold as of May 2026. His 2026 biography at the magazine stated that he was a “progressive commentator.” He had worked in media for several decades and was the U.S. editor of the British paper The Guardian and editor of the left-of-center outlet the American Prospect. ^{23  24}