The Federalist
The Federalist's Self-Proclaimed Bias
In September 2013, co-founder Ben Domenech, a conservative writer and TV commentator, wrote that The Federalist was inspired by the worldview of the original TIME magazine, which he described as "[leaning] to the political right, with a small-c conservatism equipped with a populist respect for the middle class reader outside of New York and Washington, and an abiding love for America at a time when snark and cynicism were not considered substitutes for smart analysis."
Domenech wrote that The Federalist would be informed by TIME's 1920s “list of prejudices” for the magazine, which included principles such as:
- A belief that the world is round and an admiration of the statesman’s view of all the world.
- A general distrust of the present tendency toward increasing interference by government.
- A prejudice against the rising cost of government.
- Faith in the things which money cannot buy.
- A respect for the old, particularly in manners.
- An interest in the new, particularly in ideas.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently announced an effort to investigate the dramatic rise in autism in recent years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 36 children now has autism, an over 300 percent increase since 2000. Kennedy pledged to find the cause of the autism epidemic by September and then to take steps to eliminate it.
Kennedy’s new investigation raises several obvious questions: Why hasn’t it been done earlier? How could something as common sense as investigating the causes of autism be controversial in any way? Are Democrats, such as Elizabeth Warren, who want to make Kennedy swear to a ban on suing big pharmaceutical companies, afraid of what the investigation will find?