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Culture 11 Is Dead

By Matt Zeitlin - Jan 29th, 2009 at 3:28 pm

One of the big advantages liberals have in the culture at large is that most writers and journalists–even if they’re not political writers per se–are themselves liberals, so a whole lot of journalism, essays, fiction, and other forms of writing smuggle in a lot of liberal assumptions. The disadvantage this basic fact poses for conservatives is obvious, and they have tended to respond by creating conservative journalistic organs that explicitly deal with politics (Weekly Standard, Pajamas Media, National Review, etc.) to counter perceived liberal media bias in political reporting. The problem is that conservative politics, these days, is ideologically bankrupt, as well as unpopular, and the conservative media have largely been marching in lockstep with the larger political movement’s slide into irrelevance.

Into this breach stepped Culture 11. Founded by David Kuo, a former Bush administration official turned critic, and Joe Carter, a former aide to Mike Huckabee, the site sought to offer quality journalism and analysis on American culture at large. The product, to my mind, was excellent. Culture 11 had great, wide-ranging, and intellectually curious writers who covered all sorts of topics and weren’t trapped by the conservative orthodoxy that makes, say, The Corner near-unreadable. Although I disagreed with most of their political writing, their editors, especially Conor Friedersdorf, made a point of being intellectually charitable and fair.

It’s not surprising that the site ran out of money and couldn’t find any new funds. When even The New York Times and the Politico are having a hard time monetizing their online content, it’s no surprise that a small, niche, web-only venture that didn’t have any overarching ideological mission ended up penniless. But that doesn’t make its demise any less regrettable.

Andrew Sullivan has more.

Tags: culture, Culture 11, Internet