Editing with the Most Interesting Man in the World
My first assignment for Roger L. Simon, who is ending his tenure as CEO of PJ Media on Feb. 14, didn’t go so well.
It was the summer of 2007. Roger and I drove out to the Pepperdine University campus in Malibu, where the American Freedom Alliance’s “The Collapse of Europe?” conference was taking place. My job was simple: hold the camcorder steady as Roger talked doomsday with Mark Steyn, the keynote speaker at the event. Had PJTV been around back then, that might have been the first and only time I got a chance to work with Roger. I’d like to blame my shaky camerawork on the Santa Ana winds, but I think I was just starstruck in the presence of two of my favorite writers.
Sadly, that video didn’t survive a design change we made to the site several years ago, so I can’t show you what kind of socks Steyn was wearing (or what color fedora Roger donned for the interview). But I can share one of Steyn’s memorable lines that I recall often. As he gestured out toward the Pacific on what was a beautiful Southern California day, he said that he couldn’t think of “a better place to contemplate the end of the world.” (Update: Video found! See below.)
It’s amusing to think that we were talking about the end of the world — or at least Western civilization — back in 2007, when the idea of a first-term senator with the most liberal voting record in the Senate becoming the next president of the United States still seemed unlikely. After two Obama victories, the stimulus package, Obamacare, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and the Arab Spring, those now seem like the good old days when conservatives in the U.S. could gather together to discuss Europe’s headlong decline with a feeling of relief that things were at least much better over here. Now, hardly a week goes by without PJM running a piece warning of the dangers of the U.S. becoming more like Europe, and to paraphrase Mark Steyn, I can’t think of a better person to have contemplated the end of America as we know it with over the past five years than Roger L. Simon, my boss and friend.
I realize that’s a gloomy opening for a tribute to the man I owe so much to for first hiring me as an associate editor and then having enough trust in me over these five incredibly fast-moving years to allow me to rise to the level of managing editor of this site we are both so proud of. In fact, though events in the world haven’t always gone the way the PJ Media editorial team would like, working under Roger has never been gloomy. It’s been thrilling and, frankly, very often incredibly easy. How many other editors are greeted each morning by polished and insightful articles on the main stories of the day from the likes of Victor Davis Hanson, Michael Ledeen, J. Christian Adams, Michael Walsh, and Andrew McCarthy? Roger single-handedly assembled a team of columnists that is second to none, and he deserves all the credit for making PJM, as Roger Kimball put it, the most “vigorous center-right purveyor of news and opinion going.” I can confirm, having spent hours in the same office with the man as he writes and comes up with one brilliant idea after another, that the site is just a reflection of its founder. As for the kind of man, boss, and friend Roger is, Stephen Green, Bryan Preston, and Richard Fernandez have already summed it up.
Luckily Roger will still be writing at his blog and posting at the Tatler and Lifestyle sections of PJ Media, as well as co-hosting Poliwood at PJTV. With that goods news in mind, I leave you with five of my favorite PJ Media posts from Roger over the years. It was hard to narrow it down to just five, so share your favorite in the comment section.
TALKING THROUGH MY HAT: How Ahmadinejad Made Me a Believer
Syria, Vogue Magazine, and Liberalism as Fashion Statement
Obama’s New Nomenklatura
‘Mind Your Own Beeswax!’: How Social Conservatives Can Win By Losing
Switching Sides — A Speech
Update: After this post went live, we stumbled over a copy of the interview I shot with Roger and Mark Steyn. Dig that 2007-era video quality, or the lack thereof:
Roger and Aaron,
Ignore the critics, ignore the trolls. What you have done here is simply marvelous and you’re both to be commended.
As I said yesterday, I don’t agree with every Roger has written – he is far more “centered” than me. But that doesn’t prevent me from recognizing the time invested and talent galore. The authors are excellent, the commentators simply the best. Taken as a whole, it makes the PJMedia site unique.
It is a simple exercise to simply say thank you and best wishes.
LOVE LIVE PJMedia (though I did prefer the Pajamas Media Title).
I measure political writing by how difficult it is to poke holes in its logic and research. PJM’s writers are pretty good. Compared to pieces at The Atlantic, HuffPo and many at the NYTimes for example, it is like adults compared to children. That’s because political correctness is a perceptual trap that produces blind spots that reach from the corner of your vision to take over the entire field of view.
I particularly would not want to play poker with Fernandez.
Good stuff is where you find it. Leftist propaganda, anti-racist-racism, lies and virtual censorship does not lend itself to finding good things. Pragmatists therefore have a leg up as they understand that ice is cold and sand dry.
Roger exhibits all the things you would ever want in a leader.
He doesn’t say “I” every two seconds.
He surrounds himself with independent thinkers, realizing that if he was in the room with a yes-man, one or the other would be unnecessary.
He gets his fingers in the dirt and contributes on the front lines.
He doesn’t stifle creativity, he encourages it.
He is willing to admit when his idea or analysis wasn’t perfect.
All the things we could ever want in a leader…and don’t presently have in this country. His leadership will be missed, because it’s an example that should be followed.
Sure, the graveyards are filled with indispensable people…but this is no graveyard. Roger will still give us his courage, example and insights. And, unlike our White House, this is not a place where truth goes to die.
A sober note:
Europe has not collapsed yet, and neither has America because of Obama. The “Collapse of Europe” conference was 6 years ago, and Europe’s still there.
We need a little perspective: Reality is bad enough. By constantly harping on “collapses” and “failed states,” we simply help reinforce the general public’s acceptance of the dreary “new normal,” since it’s not “as bad” as we keep predicting. Crying “Wolf” didn’t help Peter, so we shouldn’t emulate a fable character. Let’s focus on the depressing-enough realities so we can help people to aspire to better.
A photo op with all contributors in tuxedos as a cover for a collected anthology of your works, to hit all institutions of higher ed, is long overdue. Simon and Roger in centre front.
Your tremendous works will see fruition as they ‘spark the logic’ in America’s youth.
Go for it. You guys and gals are ‘tuxedo’ types and the best of America. You’re why it’ll see a bright, new dawn.
Thank you is inadequate. But it’s the SPIRIT of the thing….