The National Review’s big stand against Donald Trump has cost them … kinda sorta. On the one hand, the magazine is getting tons of attention, which was surely the point. On the other hand, the Republican National Committee is not going to be letting National Review co-host a debate in which the magazine has already come out strongly against the leader for the party’s presidential nomination. The magazine’s publisher, Jack Fowler, issued a statement saying that:
Tonight, a top official with the RNC called me to say that National Review was being disinvited. The reason: Our “Against Trump“ editorial and symposium. We expected this was coming. Small price to pay for speaking the truth about The Donald.
In short: “More attention for us as brave truth-speakers! Whoo-hoo!”
There’s some additional humor to be found here in the RNC’s struggles to find ideologically acceptable media outlets to host debates. The debate National Review has now been kicked out of was:
… already noteworthy for having been given to CNN after NBC News fell into disfavor with the Republican National Committee following the Oct. 28 debate on CNBC, which was widely held to have been a debacle. The National Review was to have joined Telemundo and Salem Radio Network in this endeavor.
Then there was the planned no-big-media Liberty University debate that fell apart because the RNC got scared. I guess it’s not easy protecting all these egos from being embarrassed by tough questions.