The Whipping Boy and Other Delusions: Thank You Jeremy

The Whipping Boy and Other Delusions: Thank You Jeremy
by Tim Loughner

I remember when I first had contact with departing Managing Editor Jeremy Lott back when I was operating the former Right Magazine all by myself, taking on the role of webmaster, editor and fortnightly columnist for an unorganized and sometimes messy e-zine. His words: "Who taught you guys how to spell?" I am sure my reply wasn't pleasant.

But somehow, despite our odd beginnings, I talked him into writing a few columns for me here and there. Eventually, he became the Entertainment Sectional Editor.

Fast forward: June 1999…

After a successful bit of reporting at the Libertarian Party of Washington State Convention (including our breaking story of Jacob Hornberger's cancelled Presidential hopes), you would think with our enormous reader base and continuing growth that one could not ask for too much more. But I was unhappy, very unhappy.

I got together with Jeremy and writer Chris Burlingame, who I just recently met and was very impressed with, for lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Tacoma. After some small talk, which actually was pretty intellectual with the three of us, I laid out the future of Right Magazine. Here was the future: restructure now or shut down.

Jeremy made it clear that it was a bad idea to shut down. In fact, he reminded me of my mother as he scorned me.

Why was I upset enough to shut down my years of hard work? I got tired of irregular writing schedules and having good writers in the mix with some not so good ones. I hated having to edit anything. I wanted to make money, and most of all I got tired of being a Conservative magazine.

Jeremy, Chris and I came to the conclusion that Right Magazine itself was a hindrance to its own growth. We had been doing things backward for so long that to make any changes would in itself cause inevitable self-destruction. To create writing schedules for people who wrote whenever they felt like it for a year or more would be certainly difficult. If I fired all of my volunteer writers who stuck it out with me for so long, not only would that be mean, but also I would have feelings of guilt from then on and in a sense, I would be burning my bridges.

Editing has always been my low point of mine. I hate it and I simply cannot put myself through it. I had grown tired of being a masochist and putting myself through constant torture. Someone would need to edit and it was not going to be me.

And finally, breaking out from the Conservative mold that I had created was near impossible. We were listed as a Conservative e-zine on many websites and already had that reputation. But most of all, the name Right Magazine was the biggest stigma we had. In fact, even my attempts at reworking the name to mean "correct" as opposed to "conservative" had little change over the audience. I was at a loss.

Jeremy had a solution. Now if you have never met Jeremy Lott, or at least spoke to him on the phone, it is quite a mixed experience. At first you feel like he has over stepped his bounds, then he talks down to you, then he says something funny, and finally he snatches you up with an inspiring thought. The result: you will do whatever he says. Jeremy is a natural leader and often that causes us to butt heads as I like to be in charge as well, but since I am the softy I often will bend to his will.

Somehow he talked me into firing everyone and rehiring certain key people for this crazy idea of creating a new magazine in Right's place. The idea was to revive partisanship in a single publication. We would have conservative writers. We would have liberal writers. We'd even drag in some libertarian, socialist, populist, and anarchist writers just for "shits and giggles." We would have cool features like a forum, a style guide, and a weekly big debate.

Jeremy and Mike Allen had previously discussed this and came up with the title American Partisan. But I still didn't have the single most important question I needed answered: who is going to edit all of this? Jeremy didn't want to responsibility, but I twisted his arm tight enough to get him to even go a step further and manage these writers as well.

Jeremy got an incredible group of people together. We talked Joel Miller of the former Real Mensch to design the site (but stupid me changed it!) and promote it at World Net Daily where he now worked. And I took on the financial burden as well as the administrative roles. By September we were up and running.

Then the call came…

On the machine: "Tim, this is Jeremy, we need to talk. It is pretty important."

I knew what was coming. It turns out that he had been talking with World Net Daily's Joseph Farah and got himself a job. Jeremy is going to be editing World Net Magazine, the print version of WND. My feelings were mixed. On one hand, I need Jeremy to run this thing. On the other hand, I am happy that Jeremy found a bigger medium for he himself is often larger than our limitations would allow.

Jeremy has become more than my Editor, but has also become one of my best friends. Jeremy attributed his leaving to "a parent leaving a child" (which explains his personality), but I compare it more to an employer losing a key employee (which explains my personality).

He will still be around editing a few columns here and there, but not at fire that brought the American Partisan up from the ashes of a failing e-zine.

Thank you Jeremy.