The American Spectator

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The American Spectator began in 1967 as "The Alternative," a conservative paper on the liberal environs of Indiana University's Bloomington campus. The Alternative foreshadowed the conservative campus newspaper movement continued by Counterpoint at the University of Chicago, and Collegiate Network publications such as the Dartmouth Review and the Michigan Review.

The American Spectator moved to Washington in 1985. "But unlike a lot of other conservative publications, we didn't move here to 'become a part of' D.C. And in many ways we still haven't." Pleszczynski decried the "herd mentality" that's all too common in a place like Washington, one the Spectator has been mindful to avoid.

Robert Novak noted that "anyone who wants to be a journalist can't have too high an opinion of the political class." The American Spectator, founded and edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. (who could not be present because of a flight delay), has always operated in that same vein, particularly during the Clinton years, when the publication became a leading exposer of its many scandals. Such efforts, in concert with their legitimization by the Clinton impeachment hearings, "put the Spectator on the map," according to Evans.

But, as Pleszczynski laments, conservatism's gains from the Reagan era and the "Revolution of 1994" are all but squandered. Between ethics scandals and the incompetence of Republican big-spending leadership, conservatism has lost a lot of trust with the American people.

"We have to rebuild conservatism's credibility from scratch," Pleszczynski contended. "The Right has to do much better...but that will only happen if journalists force them. That's your job."

Alfred S. Regnery, publisher of The American Spectator, plans to host Young Writers Workshops every six months.

As the old journalism joke goes, "an editor's job is to separate the wheat from the chaff -- and then to print the chaff." The Young Journalism Training program exists to give its writers the tools to write the wheat, and then ensure its inclusion in print.

"The most powerful instrument of information technology ever invented is between your ears," remarked Evans. "Use it."

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