Bill Kristol Beefs Up 'The Bulwark' With Former Weekly Standard Staffers

Bill Kristol is beefing up The Bulwark, the once sleepy conservative news aggregator site of his nonprofit, the “Defending Democracy Together Institute.”

Kristol, who will serve as editor-at-large of the operation has hired former Weekly Standard employees who spent the holiday season in the wilderness after their former parent company, Clarity Media Group, abruptly shuttered the organization last month.

“On Monday, TheBulwark.com will transform from an aggregator of news and opinion from a right-wing bent into an website that provides original opinion items, analysis, and reporting,” Jim Swift, a former deputy online editor of the Weekly Standard who is now with The Bulwark, told TheWrap.

Also Read: Trump Mocks Closure of 'Never Had a Clue' Bill Kristol's The Weekly Standard: 'May It Rest in Peace!'

Radio host and MSNBC contributor Charlie Sykes has been tapped as the site’s new editor-in-chief and will be joined by former Weekly Standard heavyweights such as Jonathan V. Last, Rachael Larimore, Jim Swift, Ben Parker, Andrew Egger and Hannah Yoest.

The first episode of Sykes’ Podcast and a new piece by Kristol are already live on the site.

Also Read: Joe Scarborough Renews Call for '25th Amendment' Solution to Remove Trump (Video)

“With the recent closing of the Weekly Standard, we think it is more important than ever to provide a voice for non-Trumpian conservatives,” reads a newly updated About page. “As much of the Right descends into sophism and trollery, we will be a forum for rational, principled, fact-based conservative commentary.”

On Dec. 14, The Weekly Standard was shuttered by Clarity Media Group and their large subscriber base was rolled into a newly-expanded Washington Examiner — also a Clarity property. The decision left a lot of bitter feelings among Standard veterans, including co-founder John Podhoretz, who said the magazine’s billionaire owner Philip Anschutz actively prevented a sale of the company, preferring instead to shutter it.

“The cessation of the Standard is an intellectual and political crime,” Podhoretz thundered in a piece for Commentary. “There is no real reason we are witnessing the magazine’s demise other than deep pettiness and a personal desire for bureaucratic revenge on the part of a penny-ante Machiavellian who works for its parent company.”

11 Media Losers of 2018, From Les Moonves to Michael Avenatti (Photos)

2018 was hard for a lot of media folks, but particularly so for this rogues' gallery. For some, it was MeToo. For others, industry headwinds were too much. And for more still, disgrace and ignominy came after just saying the wrong thing.
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Les Moonves: Once celebrated for his leadership at CBS, Moonves faced multiple allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct for which he was ultimately fired. CBS said in December that it would seek to deny him a roughly $120-million severance package.
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Laura Ingraham: Long a divisive figure (even on the right), the Fox News host might have avoided the losers' column were it not for a sponsor boycott launched against her by Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg in March. Months later, advertisers are still wary of appearing on the program.

Also Read: Laura Ingraham Compares Confederate Statue Protesters to ISIS
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Michael Ferro/Tronc: The leadership of Michael Ferro has now made Tronc synonymous with mismanagement. In addition to leaving the top job with a #MeToo scandal over his head, Ferro is now facing accusations of making anti-semitic remarks and paying off an LA Times editor who reportedly had the comments on tape.
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Media Publishers: From Mic.com on the left to The Weekly Standard on the right, publishers came in for a beating, with some closing up entirely. With few exceptions, legacy shops saw print sales decline, while digital-first properties continue to face the crushing economics of turning pageviews into profits.
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Breitbart: It's a name you probably haven't heard for a while. Once a key part of the engine which powered Trump's improbable election, the website had long fallen off most radars. A sustained pressure campaign against advertisers on the site by Sleeping Giants has also taken a bite out of revenue.

Also Read: Breitbart and Drudge Hit by Google Cloud Issue, Go Offline
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Marc Lamont Hill: Once a CNN regular, Hill lost his job as a contributor on the network after making remarks about Israel and Palestine at the UN that many called anti-semitic. A chummy photo with Louis Farrakhan -- who has compared Jews to termites -- didn't help matters for him either. He remains a tenured professor at Temple University.

Also Read: CNN Fires Contributor Marc Lamont Hill Over Israel Remarks (Video)
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CBS and "60 Minutes": Both the network and its marquee news program took a beating this year. "60 Minutes" executive producer Jeff Fager was forced out in a MeToo scandal, while details of an investigation launched by the network generally hit the press before reaching top management.
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Michael Avenatti: Just months ago, the lawyer representing Stormy Daniels in her legal fight with Donald Trump was considered a serious presidential contender. But his reputation took a hit after taking on a questionable MeToo claim against Brett Kavanaugh, and he disappeared for good after being booked on felony domestic violence charges in November (though he was not charged).

Also Read: Michael Avenatti Says He Won’t Run for President in 2020 After All
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Andy Lack: The MSNBC/NBC News chief had a rough 2018. His network's decision to pass on Ronan Farrow's historic MeToo reporting continues to reverberate. His big bet on Megyn Kelly also flopped and became a multi-million dollar ulcer which still remains far from resolved.
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Gavin McInnes: Always on the fringes, McInnes had nevertheless carved a niche for himself as an online provocateur, a host on CRTV and as the head of his own (occasionally violent/racist) fraternal organization, The Proud Boys. By the end of 2018, he was banned from Twitter, dropped by CRTV and had resigned from The Proud Boys.
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Univision: Univision spent $135 million on Gawker Media back in 2016 and has spent most of the time since mismanaging the former properties and being called out by its own writers. Amid buyouts to editorial and broad layoffs elsewhere, Univision revealed it is looking to cut its losses and unload the websites once and for all.

Also Read: Univision Unveils New Strategy to Drive Millennials From Their Phones to the TV (Exclusive)
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2018 was a rough year for media, and for this rogues’ gallery, the damage was particularly catastrophic

2018 was hard for a lot of media folks, but particularly so for this rogues' gallery. For some, it was MeToo. For others, industry headwinds were too much. And for more still, disgrace and ignominy came after just saying the wrong thing.

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11 Media Losers of 2018, From Les Moonves to Michael Avenatti (Photos)

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