After graduating from Harvard, Peretz was hired as a lecturer in the
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at the university.
The New Republic In 1974, Peretz purchased
The New Republic from
Gilbert A. Harrison for $380,000, which his wife supplied. After purchasing the magazine, Peretz allowed Harrison, its editor, to continue editing it. Peretz pledged to let him continue running the magazine for at least three years. By 1975, Peretz was agitated by having his own articles rejected for publication, pointing out that he had been pouring more and more money into the magazine to cover its losses, and he fired Harrison. Much of the rest of the staff, including such prominent writers as
Walter Pincus,
Stanley Karnow, and
Doris Grumbach, were fired or quit. They were replaced mainly by recent Harvard graduates lacking journalistic experience. Peretz then named himself the magazine's new editor, serving in that post until 1979. In the
1980 presidential election, the magazine endorsed the liberal
Republican John B. Anderson, running as an independent, rather than the
Democratic incumbent,
Jimmy Carter. Over time, Peretz purged the magazine of other progressive editors and writers as the magazine underwent a dramatic ideological transformation. As other editors were appointed, Peretz remained editor-in-chief until 2012. During Peretz's stewardship of
The New Republic, the magazine generally maintained
liberal and
neoliberal positions on economic and social issues while assuming correspondingly
pro-Israel and
neoconservative hawkish stances on foreign affairs. Peretz has said, "Support for Israel is, deep down, an expression of America's best view of itself."
Alexander Cockburn and
Ken Silverstein have said that Peretz said, "I am in love with the State of Israel." In December 2012,
Caroline Glick, a columnist for
The Jerusalem Post, praised Peretz for his unshakable loyalty to Israel, writing, "As a man of the
Left, he has fought the fight for Israel and Jewish rights, increasingly alone for nearly fifty years, and has done so despite what must have been enormous personal costs as his comrades all jumped ship, and in many cases, joined the cause of Israel's enemies." Media critic
Eric Alterman wrote in
The American Prospect of Peretz's tenure as editor of
The New Republic that Peretz used the magazine to attack, tarnish, and marginalize people and institutions with which he personally or politically disagreed: "[D]uring his reign, Peretz has also done lasting damage to the cause of
American liberalism. By turning TNR into a kind of ideological police dog, Peretz enjoyed... [playing] a key role in defining the borders of 'responsible' liberal discourse, thereby tarring anyone who disagreed as irresponsible or untrustworthy. But he did so on the basis of a politics simultaneously so narrow and idiosyncratic—in thrall almost entirely to an Israel-centric neoconservatism." Peretz attacked
I. F. Stone after Stone signed a public appeal for the provision of water and medical supplies for siege victims trapped in
West Beirut during the 1982 Israeli
Siege of Beirut, writing, "So this is what I. F. Stone has come to, asking his admirers to put up money so that the
PLO can continue to fight." In 1997, Peretz fired
Michael Kelly as the editor of
The New Republic after Kelly refused to publish a
ghostwritten, unsigned editorial defending Peretz's former student and friend
Al Gore, who was then vice president and likely to run for president when
Bill Clinton's term was over. Kelly told
The Washington Post that his "firing-by-phone came days after he refused to publish an unsigned item by Peretz saying that recent allegations of improper fund-raising by Gore were overblown and old news." Kelly added: "I didn't think that should be our editorial position. I wrote him a memo saying, 'Here's why I think you're wrong and I'm right.'" In an interview with
The New York Times, Kelly said: "As long as Marty Peretz has the involvement with Al Gore and with the magazine to the degree that he does, I think the job is structurally impossible." Peretz has long supported both Democrats and Republicans. As he aged, his support moved from progressives and liberal candidates to neoliberals and conservatives. He was a major behind-the-scenes benefactor of
Eugene McCarthy's primary presidential bid in 1968. He supported Senator
Barack Obama in both his Democratic primary race and in the 2008 general election, but in 2012 wrote that he hoped that "maybe Barack Obama will be a one-term president" and that a prominent alternative candidate would run against him in the Democratic primary. Peretz later expressed disappointment with Obama, telling
The New York Times Magazine: "I'm not sure I feel betrayed, but it's close... our first African-American president has done less to fight
AIDS in Africa than
George Bush. He's done nothing on human rights." Peretz is further known for his support of the
2003 invasion of Iraq. He retained majority ownership of
The New Republic until 2002, when he sold a two-thirds stake in the magazine to two financiers. In 2007, Peretz sold the remainder of his ownership rights to
CanWest Global Communications, but remained editor-in-chief. In 2009, Peretz repurchased the magazine with a group of investors led by ex-
Lazard executive Laurence Grafstein. In late 2010, Peretz gave up his title of editor-in-chief at
The New Republic, becoming instead editor emeritus, and terminated his blog
The Spine after other editors and writers at the magazine said they found it offensive and that Peretz would never have had the opportunity to write it if he had not been the magazine's owner. He no longer has any association with the magazine. In December 2014, journalist
Robert Parry wrote, "Though
The New Republic still touts its reputation as 'liberal', that label has been essentially a cover for its real agenda: pushing a hawkish foreign policy agenda that included the
Reagan administration's slaughter of Central Americans in the 1980s, violent U.S. interventions in Iraq, Syria and other
Muslim countries for the past two decades, and Israel's suppression of
Palestinians forever."
Accusations of bigotry Throughout his career, Peretz has drawn criticism from several of his fellow commentators, particularly
Jack Shafer of
Slate,
James Fallows of
The Atlantic, and
Eric Alterman of
The Nation for making bigoted comments, often directed towards Arabs and
Muslims. He has written (among other things) that "'
Arab society' is 'hidebound and backward' [and] [t]hat the
Druze are 'congenitally untrustworthy'". On September 4, 2010, Peretz drew media attention and controversy when he posted an editorial which concluded: But, frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the
Imam Rauf there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the
First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse. In September 2010,
Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for
The New York Times, denounced Peretz's comments, asking: "Is it possible to imagine the same kind of casual slur tossed off about blacks or Jews?" Peretz issued an apology on September 13. In his statement about Muslims and the First Amendment, Peretz said: "I wrote that, but I do not believe that. I do not think that any group or class of persons in the United States should be denied the protections of the First Amendment, not now, not ever." Peretz also said that his comment that "Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims" was "a statement of fact, not of value" and pointed out that Kristof himself agreed that Muslims have not adequately condemned violence perpetrated by Muslims on fellow Muslims. On September 17, 2010, Peretz issued yet another apology: On September 20, 2010, five major
Harvard University student organizations, citing Peretz's long "history of making terribly racist statements", urged Harvard not to go ahead with honors planned for Peretz. The organizations—the Harvard Islamic Society, Latinas Unidas, and the Harvard Black Students Association—asserted that Peretz, over more than a decade, had not only made racist comments against Muslims but also regarding African Americans and Mexicans. Following the controversy, Harvard University canceled Peretz's scheduled September 25 speech on the 50th anniversary of Harvard's
Social Studies Department where Peretz once taught.
The Atlantic's
James Fallows summarized Peretz's reputation, concluding that if his legacy were settled that day, despite being "beloved by many students and respected by some magazine colleagues", he would be considered a bigot. Fallows also wrote: "Martin Peretz has been undeniably shamed. And lastingly shamed."
Marc Tracy wrote in the Jewish magazine
Tablet: [I]f you will—this is not the first time he has written something racist, and it isn't the fifteenth time, either... But the tonnage of these quotations and the consistency of their content demonstrate that Peretz's insensitivity and bigotry toward Muslims and Arabs (er, and black people) yank him out of the realm of people you should be reading on the subject.
Jefferson Morley, a Peretz friend who worked at
The New Republic from 1983 to 1987, told
Jack Shafer of
Slate, "I could never reconcile this intellectual strength with his racism and unpleasant attempts to play the bully." ==In popular culture==