The Spectacle Blog
Over the weekend, professional golfer Phil Mickelson complained about tax increases (including state income taxes in California) that he said had pushed his marginal rate to 63 percent: “I’ve got to make some decisions on what to do.” That incited a scolding from Syracuse University professor Len Burman, who said Mickelson should “stop whining” because he was so “lucky” to be one of the world’s highest-earning athletes.
Well, just another cranky liberal academic, eh? We are not surprised to learn that Burman served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration, nor are we surprised that Burman founded the Tax Policy Center at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think-tank. What is perhaps surprising is that Burman published his attack on Mickelson’s “whining” at Forbes.
Forbes was once a leading advocate of free-market economic policy and has published such famed conservative writers as P.J. O’Rourke and Peter Brimelow. The magazine’s publisher Steve Forbes sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000 on a platform advocating a flat tax. His father, the late Malcolm Forbes, proudly named his private jet the “Capitalist Tool.”
Yet in recent years, the online version of Forbes has become increasingly notorious as a hive of strident left-wing opinion. Forbes publishes environmentalist blogger Steve Zwick, who has waged a one-man jihad against the free-market Heartland Institute for its criticism of climate policy. Last February, Zwick used his Forbes blog to promote a hoax in which a fake document purported to show Heartland’s “secret strategy.” Forbes also publishes Rick Ungar, who became notorious in 2009 for a column with the headline “Send the Body to Glenn Beck,” blaming the talk-radio host for the alleged lynching of a Census worker (who, as it turned out, had committed suicide).
What happened to Forbes? Two words: Lewis Dvorkin.
A former AOL executive, Dvorkin got funding from Forbes in 2009 to start a Web site, True/Slant, that lasted a little more than a year before it was taken over by Forbes in a deal that brought Dvorkin into the company with the title of Chief Product Officer. (Dvorkin’s “Copy Box” column is a lot of jargon-crowded hype about the awesomeness of the “product”; he recently defended the concept of “sponsored content” in the wake of last week’s debacle in which the Atlantic published an “advertorial” for Scientology.) Dvorkin’s July 2010 deal also brought under the Forbes online umbrella several of True/Slant’s left-wing staff and contributors, including Zwick, Ungar and, apparently, Professor Len Burman.
My friend Jim Lakely at the Heartland Institute is dismayed that Phil Mickelson apologized after his scolding from Burman. I’m more dismayed that Dvorkin’s left-wing takeover at Forbes has proven the truth of O’Sullivan’s First Law, formulated by former National Review editor John O’Sullivan: “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.”
View all comments (6) | Leave a comment
Related Blog Posts
More Blog Posts by Robert Stacy McCain
http://spectator.org/blog/2013/01/23/forbes-goes-left-tax-attack-on
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- The Continuing Crisis
- Gabby Giffords Poisons the Well
- Revenge of the Fruitcakes
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Indy| 1.23.13 @ 8:53AM
I lost faith in Forbes long ago when I noticed the left shift. I don't read Fortune much but happened to catch this article which is quite telling. Many O voters will only wake up when it is too late to do anything, a VAT is headed our way, this article points out the reality of a spending addiction.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com.....dle-class/
The ruling class in DC (D's and GOP) are failing our country. The clock is ticking, the debt is growing but the media and POTUS tell us all is well while the GOP cowers in the corner.
Quartermaster| 1.23.13 @ 9:13AM
National Review is ehaded down the same path, particularly with Rich "Rich Lowry is a coward" Lowry at the helm. Buckley seemde to be on that path well before he died. Steve Forbes, by comparison, has no excuse.
JimH| 1.23.13 @ 9:27AM
Ditto The Economist. And while British Liberalism and American Conservatism have never been identical, over the past few years of my long subscription I’ve noticed a steady leftward drift. They have also swallowed a gallon of AGW Flavor Aid (sort of English Kool Aid).
Pecos Pete| 1.23.13 @ 10:09AM
While not a "business or finance" publication, National Geographic long ago fell off the leftist cliff. I continued a subscription of my father's that started way back ... Maybe the 1930s? Anyway, I stopped subscribing about 6 years ago having become fed up with their green liberal slant.
Bob K| 1.23.13 @ 9:39AM
If you earn your money it is taxable. But if you inherit it, like Stevey "Wonder Boy" Forbes, Jr. did it should be immune from taxation by the government. And he owns a financial magazine that the business community regards as it's bible to get those arguments before the public.
Conservative? No. Capitalist? No. Crony Capitalist? Yes!!!
Talk about increasing the taxes on inherited wealth--that is REAL WEALTH like "Wonder Boys" wealth and not the 10 or 20 million dollars that Farmers and Small Business owners leave in their estates and the so called "conservatives" and "capitalists" come out in force here on AS expressing their shock and dismay while they run to the defense of all the Stevey "Wonder Boys" of USA and their Crony Capitalist allies.
Stevey "Wonder Boy" Forbes has become the Poster Boy for a 100% tax on the inheritances of all those ugly members of the "Lucky Sperm Club"
who think that their money is somehow different than everybody else's money.
Ralphie| 1.23.13 @ 10:02AM
This is why new conservative groups are sprouting up. I believe O'Sullivan used Robert Conquest's three rules of politics
1. Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.
2. Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.
3. The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies. AARP anyone?