The State of First Things, January 2011

Next in a Continuing Series:

A) Must Read Articles
None

B) Flawed, but Worth Reading
None

I wish I was exaggerating in the above.  When I first started this series, I was wondering if my impression that there were only a few truly exceptional articles per issue was accurate.  I wondered if reading a magazine in which only, say, 2 of the articles were great and a few more were worth reading was a good use of time.  I have now reached the point where I am hoping that there will be at least a few articles that are worth my time.  This last issue didn't even rise to that standard.  Seriously, there wasn't a single article which made me think anything other than, "What was the point of that?"  Even the book reviews were bad--only one of the books reviewed was even worth reviewing (Roger Scruton's new book on pessimism), but the reviewer forgot to, you know, review the book and instead just had an axe to grind which was ground along with a summary of what one could learn about the book from reading the dust jacket.

But, I did notice something extraordinary in this issue.  Joseph Bottum is no longer the editor.  James Nuechterlein is listed as the Interim Editor.  I was shocked.  And looking back, this change happened in the last issue.  So, we now have two issues edited by an interim editor--and here is the shocking thing: Nowhere in either issue is there a mention of this change--you have to look at the masthead to see any change--there is not even the pro forma "Joseph Bottum has left to pursue another project. We wish him well" dismissal.  Nothing at all.  So, I did a cursory Google search--it seems the change was made in late October and there is still no word about the matter.  Nothing.  Nobody has said a thing.  This is incredibly odd.

The timing of this change is interesting.  It seems to have happened right after the disastrous College issue came out.  I suspect--with, I hasten to add absolutely no evidence--that there is a connection.  If the Powers That Be at First Things had the same reaction which I had to that issue, then the Powers that Be may have realized that First Things was going downhill fast.  But, even still, if Bottum was fired as editor, there is no excuse for not saying something, anything about it.  And if he wasn't fired as editor, then the lack of any notice is serious wrong.  The whole way in which this has been handled is lacking in the appearance of  Christan Charity, which for a journal of religion and public life is a pretty serious failure.