‘The spectator’ Born and Bred in Bloomington

European luminaries such as Malcolm Muggeridge and Luigi Barzini Jr. They would gather at Le Petit Café with a collection of students, professors, and local business owners in a Heartland version of the Enlightenment salon, discussing politics, literature, philosophy, and the events of the day. The magazine that brought them together, The American Spectator, is long gone from By Elisabeth Andrews Indiana, but while it was here it not only launched the careers of a loomington is generally known as Indiana’s liberal epicenter, a generation of conservative blue island in a red state. With a 43-year succession of writers but also became a Democratic mayors, the town’s reputation is distinctively significant contributor to the rise progressive, a feature both embraced and enhanced by Indiana of a new American conservatism. In this bastion of liberalism, a groundbreaking, impertinent campus University (though an occasional hindrance to Statehouse relations). It’s a part of Bloomington’s But there was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when the town drew history that, however at odds magazine attracted the best conservative thinkers and writers of a steady stream of the nation’s most influential conservative thinkers, with the city’s broader identity, the day and spread its influence all the way to the White House. who found their champion in a magazine produced in an old farm- deserves to be preserved, as it house on West Indiana 46. made a lasting mark on the Throughout the 1970s, on any given Saturday, one could run across country’s political landscape. American intellectuals such as William F. Buckley Jr. and Tom Wolfe or

(above) Indiana University student political activity in the 1960s reflected conservative as well as liberal standpoints. In this photo from October 1967, IU students demonstrate support for American military action in Vietnam during U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk’s visit to campus. Photo by IU News Bureau, IU Archives (P0052739)

(opposite) Originally titled The Alternative in 1967, the magazine became The Alternative: An American Spectator in 1974, and The American Spectator in 1977. Images courtesy of The American Spectator

116 Bloom | February/March 2015 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | February/March 2015 | Bloom 117 (left) Bob Tyrrell in his room at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house in the mid-60s. Courtesy photo Orderly Society, and the Young Americans catch students as they filed out. Tyrrell stood When students staged a sit-in at Ballan- for Freedom (YAF). Tyrrell’s Phi Kappa Psi among the throng hawking everything from tine Hall calling for creation of an African- (below) Tyrrell during a recent visit to Bloomington. Photo by Shannon Zahnle fraternity brother Tom Charles Huston auditorium tickets and yearbook subscrip- American studies department, Tyrrell and headed the campus YAF chapter and, by tions to membership in various social Von Kannon claimed control of the Rose 1965, its national organization, leading organizations. Well House — essentially a gazebo — de- pro-war rallies that, as Butler University He did so, however, in a toga and a Texaco manding Irish studies. When student groups Professor Jason Lantzer chronicled in the fire helmet. In the fervent 1960s atmosphere accused IU’s homecoming queen contest of Indiana Magazine of History, were just as of student protests and solemn sit-ins, it was promoting exclusively Eurocentric beauty well attended as their anti-war counterparts. a daring spectacle of silliness. standards, The Alternative entered a male What IU conservatives had in numbers, candidate to challenge the hegemony of however, they lacked in media outlets. After Campus Pranksters female beauty. And after the former editor of the Indiana Daily Student endorsed local SDS The stunt attracted the attention of the campus left-wing magazine slammed a chairman Guy Loftman for student body freshman John Von Kannon, who had just pie into the face of visiting University of president in 1967, Tyrrell, by then a graduate arrived on campus from Lafayette, Indiana. California, Berkeley President Clark Kerr, student in the history department, felt the campus needed an alternative voice. He named his magazine, accordingly, The Alternative (a title it would relinquish in 1977 due to the term’s left-wing associations).

‘The Alternative’ — Issue One ‘Are you tired, are you utterly exhausted by the ineffable politicalization of everything in Bloomington from sex to the delinquencies issuing from some neurotic girl’s creative gut?’ The American Spectator anism that was entirely A Creature of Doc Counsilman Referring to himself by the lofty moniker is best known today for Tyrrell stood its own. The old Bob Tyrrell had a talent for organizing his of R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. as well as writing its 1994 story about among the throng farmhouse, known compatriots. As a 16-year-old at Fenwick under a series of assumed names including what came to be known affectionately as “The High School in the Chicago suburbs, he that of The American Mercury co-founder as “Troopergate,” in hawking everything Establishment,” might decided his swim team needed to train George Nathan, Tyrrell began the first issue which Arkansas state from auditorium be the only historical during the summer, so he formed a group of his magazine by expressing exasperation troopers accused example of a right-wing called the International Nautical Shark over ubiquitous campus demonstrations. It then-President Bill tickets to yearbook ’60s commune, in which Association, outfitted it with black velour was September 1967, Loftman had won the Clinton of using their subscriptions …. disheveled young men sweatsuits, and drove them all to Blooming- election, and Tyrrell bemoaned what he services to facilitate his perched on sawed-off ton in a green ’51 Ford station wagon. perceived as an unnecessary earnestness extramarital affairs He did so, however, logs and drank from “I wanted to see Doc Counsilman’s among campus Democrats. while he was the in a toga and a Texaco mason jars while workouts,” he states flatly, as though every Referring to Loftman as “the pink-eyed governor of Arkansas. In listening to broadcasts high school sophomore made a habit of man of destiny,” Tyrrell promised a publica- referring to “Paula,” the fire helmet. of the Chicago Sym- dropping in on the legendary Olympic coach. tion suited to those who “long for a return to article instigated Paula phony Orchestra and What he saw impressed him enough that the harmless buffoonery that once reigned in 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater visits with supporters in IU’s Wright Quadrangle. (l-r) Corbin Jones’ lawsuit proposing arguments he returned as an IU freshman and adopted the Pupil’s Senate.” Students William Edward Jenner and Terry Grimm, Goldwater, Indiana State Treasurer Bob Hughes, former U.S. Sen. William Jenner, and student Tom Charles Huston. Huston led the Young Americans for Freedom student group and against Clinton, which in turn precipitated for greater intervention in Vietnam. Counsilman as his mentor, looking to the The original content in the issue came later drafted the Huston Plan for domestic surveillance under President Richard Nixon. Courtesy photo Clinton’s impeachment by the House of The culture of The American Spectator Swimming Hall of Famer for both athletic largely from Tyrrell, along with reprints of Representatives in response to statements managed to simultaneously absorb and reject and intellectual guidance. articles by presidential nominee Barry he made during the deposition. not only its era and its surroundings but also, “I’m a creature of Doc Counsilman,” he Goldwater and economist Milton Friedman He joined Tyrrell’s cause on the spot. “I was The Alternative staged its own pieing upon a All that, however, came after the magazine through its pervasive sarcasm and campus says today. “He had a restless mind. He’d give and an essay on WFIU radio programming by already a Goldwater Republican,” he says, bogus Columbia University professor. had moved to the Washington, D.C., area in hijinks, the conventions of conservatism us long lectures on all the books we should fellow swimmer Frank Octave Brunell. “but what I really liked about the magazine “We had a student run down the aisle 1985. When the Spectator started here, it was itself. Its whimsical approach inspired read, and we’d swim back and forth in the “We will have a series of essays treating was that it didn’t take itself too seriously. with the pie yelling, ‘You goddamn Commie!’” a different sort of publication, focusing not on dozens of other campus publications as well Royer Pool with opera booming from the the real problems of the university,” Tyrrell Bob had volume one, number one in hand, Tyrrell recalls, erupting into hoarse giggles. investigative journalism but on a breed of as a new breed of right-wing wit that thrives address system.” promised, “and we will offer a series of and I stood out there with him selling copies “The university was horrified and tried to call cultural criticism and political satire inspired today among writers and commentators During Tyrrell’s undergraduate years, articles diagnosing the ailments of the for 15 cents.” Columbia to apologize, only to discover that by H. L. Mencken’s writing in The American from Ben Stein to P. J. O’Rourke. student political groups were taking shape on ‘academy.’” Known as “Baron” for his aristocratic there was no Dr. Rudolph Montag. In fact he Mercury during the 1920s and ’30s. It began, however, with a swimmer, who campus, not only in the form of the Students Promotion of the magazine was accom- surname, Von Kannon came on board as was one of us, a 24-year-old undergraduate The magazine that initially flourished in came to IU in 1961 to train under Coach for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the plished in the same manner as all other publisher, adding momentum not only to the Vietnam vet.” Bloomington was more merry than muckrak- James Edward “Doc” Counsilman, and who Young People’s Socialist League but also the campus cultural offerings: by assembling magazine’s growth in staff and contributors ing and more absurdist than ideological, and had no particular interest in politics. Conservative League, the Students for an outside the field house on registration day to but also to its sardonic performance art. it reflected a brand of conservative bohemi-

118 Bloom | February/March 2015 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | February/March 2015 | Bloom 119 Support from Far and Near Despite this peculiar atmosphere — or perhaps because of it — the magazine began to attract a string of esteemed visitors. In addition to Tyrrell’s hero, William F. Buckley Jr., founder of the National Review, these dignitaries included New York Times columnist and Nixon speechwriter William Safire,Wall Street Journal writer and later CNN reporter Robert Novak, and French author and philosopher Jean-François Revel. A number of IU professors also gravitated toward the publication, among them both traditional conservatives and longtime Democrats who took issue with the anti- institutional rhetoric of the left. Tyrrell’s graduate advisor, Robert Ferrell, was a frequent guest at The Establishment, as were history Professor Robert Byrnes and political science Professor Charles Hyneman. Although Tyrrell and Von Kannon describe relations with the university as estranged at best, Kent Owen, who was then an English professor and IU administrator, says that IU Chancellor Herman B Wells (above) Legendary IU President and Chancellor Herman Known as “The Establishment,” this old farmhouse on West Indiana 46 was The Alternative’s site of production as B Wells had a high opinion of The Alternative in its early well as the residence of several staff members and a destination for conservative leaders. Courtesy photo approved of the magazine. He recalls a days. Photo courtesy of IU Archives (P0023858) conversation with Wells in which the (right) Alternative writers and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity The Establishment: greatly admires Mr. chancellor “expressed his cordial congratula- members (l-r) Bob Tyrrell; Kent Owen; Steve Tesich; A Parody of Itself The environment [at Kristol. We assume tions on what Bob Tyrrell and his co-workers Steve Smith; and Alan Somers, who recently retired from his Bloomington neurology practice, in a photo By this time the magazine The Establishment] his life has its were accomplishing in providing a more that originally appeared in the Phi Kappa Psi Alumni- had moved to the farm- unpleasant moments sensible, coherent, conservative alternative gram in 1978. Courtesy photo house, The Establishment, ‘was something such as when, in his to the radical policies and intentions from its original produc- between The House of kindness, he grants advocated by the leftists of that era.” what Bob was doing was upholding those tion facilities in an Indiana interviews to people The magazine’s conservative credentials American values.” Avenue trailer park. Its the Seven Gables and like our editor.” also attracted local financial support, first Once a month, Tarzian and other local content had expanded, the Bates Motel.’ The Establish- from pharmaceutical heiress Ruth Lilly, who allies would gather with the staff ofThe featuring book reviews, ment, meanwhile, advised Tyrrell to create a tax-exempt Alternative and its out-of-town guests for poetry, critiques of news coverage, and was a parody of itself. The grand title belied a 501(c)(3) foundation to publish the magazine what Tyrrell dubbed the “Saturday Evening satirical essays, such as one writer’s account dilapidated structure populated by some 10 (a move that helped secure a sizable grant Club.” Its purpose, in Owen’s words, was to Harvard Professor James Q. Wilson, Paul H. Steve Tesich (Breaking Away) and Whit Still- of his attempt to publish his dissertation: The staff members and twice as many inbred cats. from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, philanthro- “drink beer, listen to chamber music, talk Weaver (later of Fortune magazine), and man (Metropolitan, The Last Days of Disco); Influence of the Peanut on American Foreign The bathroom was such an abhorrent mix of pist Richard Mellon Scaife). politics, and worry about the meaning of life Irving Kristol’s son, William Kristol, now presidential speechwriters Pat Buchanan, Policy, 1783–1812. mold and falling plaster that the men relieved Another longtime benefactor was Sarkes and the human condition and what God editor of The Weekly Standard. John Podhoretz, and William McGurn; FOX While the magazine went after its themselves off the front porch. With Tarzian, an Armenian immigrant who built really looks like.” “It was thrilling to have a venue where we News Channel correspondent Greg Gutfeld; political opponents with merciless epithets, mattresses on bare floors in the bedrooms a highly successful business in Bloomington could write regularly,” Lenkowsky says. and a host of writers who have re-congregat- calling one local activist “a second-rate and lawn chairs arranged as seating, the envi- manufacturing radio and television parts. Attracting Elite Writers “There were a few other outlets for conserva- ed at The Weekly Standard, including intellectual and a full-time sissy,” describing ronment “was something between The He also founded and ran the WTTV The rightward drift of disenchanted tive journalism, but there weren’t a lot of Christopher Caldwell, Richard Starr, and rival student journalists as “pompous hinds House of the Seven Gables and the Bates television station, on which Tyrrell hosted a Democrats was occurring in the Ivy League them, and Bob was easy to work with.” Andrew Ferguson. and literary dwarfs,” and consistently Motel,” recalls Paul Helmke, a Phi Psi commentary and interview program. as well. Recognizing, again a movement The list of writers Tyrrell managed to “It’s really hard to find somebody who’s on referring to the IU student newspaper as contemporary who later served as mayor of Tarzian’s son, Tom, recalls that his father without a mouthpiece, Tyrrell seized the attract is staggering. Among the dozens who the right politically who didn’t have close “The Daily Stupid,” it was also willing to Fort Wayne, Indiana. viewed Tyrrell’s efforts as a bulwark in opportunity to enlist new writers. have gone on to notable careers are Malcolm contact with The American Spectator at some respectfully engage with moderate liberals The most prized item in the house was a defense of American ideals. “There were a bunch of us who got Gladwell, best-selling author and staff writer point,” says writer Andrew Ferguson, who such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a New piano, around which the voices of The “My father loved America, and he loved involved as Bob was starting to branch out,” for The New Yorker; Erich Eichman, now of came to Bloomington to attend graduate York Democrat whom Tyrrell came to Alternative could be heard belting out H. L. the founding principles of freedom and recalls Leslie Lenkowsky, who was then a The Wall Street Journal; P. J. O’Rourke, school in journalism but dropped out in 1983 consider a good friend. Mencken’s proposed new national anthem, “I limited government,” he says. “He saw that Harvard University graduate student and satirist, contributor to many magazines, and to join the staff. He explains that what made For all his verbal venom, Tyrrell was also am a 100 percent American, I am, goddamn I era’s progressives attempting to characterize went on to serve in the federal Corporation author of 20 books; George Will, whose the magazine so appealing, over and above its self-deprecating, writing in his 1969 preface am!” the founding as essentially bunk or, if not for National and Community Service before commentary for The Washington Post won a politics, was its rollicking writing style, to an interview with The Public Interest bunk, then no longer applicable. He felt that coming to IU as a public affairs professor. He Pulitzer Prize; Roger Rosenblatt, essayist for which, for someone who aspired to win co-founder Irving Kristol, “The Alternative names among his cohort of Spectator recruits PBS Newshour and Time; screenwriters readers, “was like gold,” he says.

120 Bloom | February/March 2015 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | February/March 2015 | Bloom 121 New Address, New Focus Ultimately, it was Tyrrell’s Reagan connec- founding, most of the writers that made up for people to get published, and the Spectator tions that pulled him and the Spectator out of its first wave of neoconservative talent have provided that forum.” Bloomington. “I believed Ronald Reagan had moved on, retired, or passed away. Ferguson theorizes that there are “two pacified the region,” he offers as explanation strains in conservative publications. One for the move. Lasting Legacy comes from the National Review, and the Ferguson, who went with the magazine to The Spectator’s legacy, however, reaches other line comes from The American the Capitol, says that once Tyrrell’s friends far and deep. Nearly every major conserva- Spectator. The Spectator strand is more were in the White House, nothing could keep tive campus newspaper, including those at raucous, more irreverent, more intent on him away. “In those days of high Reaganism, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and Dart- being humorous,” he says. with all these people he’d known now in power, Bob didn’t want to be left out,” he says. Ferguson takes partial responsibility for the changes that followed. “I decided we ‘The writing in ‘The American needed more investigative reporting,” he says. “When I look at that now, I think that Spectator’ had the weirdest was probably a mistake.” The shift in focus led, in the early ’90s, to combination of attributes – two enormously influential articles — first “The Real Anita Hill,” which attempted to discredit the attorney who had accused this mix of very high diction and then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, and two elegant phrasing with totally years later the Clinton Troopergate exposé. The two features turbocharged the maga- off-the-wall humor.’ zine’s circulation, climbing from 41,000 when it left Bloomington to more than 300,000 at its peak. mouth, traces its roots to The American In other words, if a media outlet leans The success of those articles also spurred Spectator, says Lenkowsky, who for several right, and it’s at least trying for some humor, a long, expensive, and ultimately unfruitful years directed the nonprofit Institute for its lineage most likely traces to Bloomington. investigation into Clinton’s gubernatorial Educational Affairs that helped launch those And there are many Spectator supporters — expenditures, now known as the “Arkansas publications. The network of student papers readers and writers alike — who say they Project.” Referring to that period, Sabatier eventually was made up of some 60 publica- wish the magazine had stayed put. Bob Tyrrell (second from “The writing in The American Spectator had the Spectator’s address provided both novelty and credibil- says, “They went down some foxholes that tions, several of which had the word Says Ferguson, “While it was there, it was left) and Tom Charles Huston (third from left) weirdest combination of attributes — this mix of very ity for readers and backers in D.C. and New York. were just freaking embarrassing. It went “spectator” in their names. part of a fantastic community. It wasn’t just recently returned to IU at high diction and elegant phrasing with totally off-the- Ferguson says the public-university atmosphere flake-ola. I’m so glad I wasn’t there.” “The American Spectator was the model journalists, but also academics and business the behest of Paul Helmke (left) for a 50th anniversary wall humor,” he describes. “You were never more than gave the Spectator “a populist feel,” fostering a style of The Arkansas Project also resulted in a for so many of them,” Lenkowsky says. “It people, having these really freewheeling commemoration of Barry half a sentence from a joke. That’s a tremendous thing writing that was scholarly and clever without the federal investigation, which, though it was the first, and all these others were the discussions. When it got to Washington, the Goldwater’s presidential campaign. Helmke and for a reader, to never know when there’s going to be a remote and insulated tone of the Ivy League. “The most revealed no wrongdoing on the part of the second generation.” diversity went away, because everyone was a Leslie Lenkowsky (right) thrown elbow. I thought, ‘I want to be able to do that.’” admirable parts of the magazine can be traced back to Spectator, cost the magazine approximately The influence of theSpectator is undeni- politico.” are now faculty members in IU’s School of Public that setting,” he says. “I just don’t think the magazine half a million dollars in legal expenses and able among Washington speechwriters and For Tyrrell, though, keeping the magazine and Environmental Affairs, Midwest Credibility could have taken root anywhere else.” considerably more in lost financial support. advisors, on The New York Times best-seller in Bloomington would have cost him his which sponsored the event in the Indiana Memorial The other attraction, of course, was Bloomington. The Spectator’s rising profile also lifted Tyrrell, The magazine struggled as a result and was list, and in the present abundance of proudest victory: contributing to Clinton’s Union Solarium. The magazine moved in the mid-70s to an office on whose status as a Hoosier intellectual in East Coast sold in 2000 to investor and longtime conservative media outlets. The writers who impeachment proceedings. “Would Clinton Photo by Shannon Zahnle the corner of North Walnut and East 6th Street, above circles made him “a shiny star,” Sabatier says. “Let me Spectator contributor George Gilder, who sold joined the magazine in its Bloomington have had an easy time of it,” he muses, “if we what was then the Betty Jean candy shop. Overlooking tell you something, when he was in Bloomington, there it back to The American Spectator Founda- heyday are among the most prominent voices were out there in the Midwest?” Bloomington’s iconic courthouse, the location was no one who wouldn’t take his call.” tion’s board of directors two years later. in modern conservatism, whether they are Even recounting the judicial inquiry that channeled “a Midwest sensibility and grounding,” says She’s not exaggerating. Tyrrell was in direct contact Today the magazine is a mostly online speaking on talk shows, running foundations, did so much damage to the magazine, he Lou Ann Sabatier, who started at the Spectator as a with Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and outlet, with approximately 16,000 print or writing nationally syndicated columns. asserts, “I’d do it all over again. It was a secretary and rose to become its assistant publisher, hosted New York events for each of them. Writer Byron subscribers but more than 2 million monthly “I don’t think ‘create’ is too strong a verb terrific amount of fun for me.” later becoming CEO of MediaDC, the company York argues in The Atlantic that by personally introduc- page views. It still boasts influential — the Spectator created a cadre of conserva- “On the whole, looking back on 47 years, responsible for The Weekly Standard, Red Alert ing Reagan to his cadre of neoconservatives, Tyrrell contributors, including Washington tive writers,” says Von Kannon, who is now I don’t think I would have done anything Politics, and the Washington Examiner. played a meaningful part in making the California Examiner Commentary Editor Philip Klein, vice president of The Heritage Foundation, a differently,” says Tyrrell, his eyes twinkling. “What the Midwest represents is an honesty, a sense governor palatable to East Coast influencers. RealClearPolitics Editor Joseph Lawler, and conservative think tank. “Today it’s different. “It’s been a ball.” that you don’t b.s. people,” she says, explaining that the The Daily Caller Managing Editor W. Jim Everyone has an outlet on the Internet. But * Antle III, but nearly 50 years after its back then there were very few opportunities

122 Bloom | February/March 2015 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | February/March 2015 | Bloom 123