The Economist Surrenders

What was once an attempt at a real news magazine has abandoned all pretense

Image credit: The Economist

The Economist news magazine was founded back in 1843 to oppose protectionism (the British Corn Laws) and sought to engage the minds of more educated and thoughtful members of society. Unsurprisingly, its readership was modest, yet the magazine managed to establish a position and slowly expanded its readership; by the beginning of the twentieth century The Economist was acknowledged as an important publication that reached a great many of the people who had influence over the direction of the United Kingdom.

Naturally The Economist had its flaws as well as its shining facets, but in general it maintained an editorial posture that was in favor of liberal norms that favored free trade and mutual prosperity, individual liberties, and strong government oversight of powerful entities so as to ensure they were not unduly able to take advantage of their power and thus in the words of Adam Smith, “defraud the general population.” In modern parlance we’d say The Economist was in favor of anti-trust regulations that pushed back against cartels and monopolies.

As the twentieth century rolled on and an ever-larger percentage of the general population learned to read, the news media increasingly doubled-down on context-free irresponsible…