Torch and Slant in The Scene

I can’t resist quoting this Nashville Scene review of the local student media, which gives my old paper, The Torch, a very favorable write-up:

This robust commentary magazine for campus conservatives and libertarians excises the usual harpy prattle that hinders most ideological journals. Instead, The Torch presents well-reasoned arguments without condescending to its liberal readers. Recently, Ann Coulter’s engagement as a Langford Auditorium lecturer provided an interesting point/counterpoint debate between Torch’s Coulter sympathizer and its libertarian doubting Thomas. “I felt like I was listening to an insecure friend trying to use inside jokes to show she belongs,” wrote J. David Maynard about Coulter’s speech. A rightist magazine admitting Coulter’s snippy remarks look bad for the entire conservative movement? With caveats like these, The Torch is a battalion of intelligentsia any moderate or liberal could get behind.

Incidentally, Dave’s actually more conservative than libertarian. The Torch starts it’s fifth year of publication next month.

The Slant receives some good words, too:

Think penis-joke-obsessed teenage cousin of The Onion. Vanderbilt’s mockingly caustic satirist rag ruffled a few feathers when it distributed a bogus edition of The Hustler, falsely reporting Chancellor Gordon Gee’s untimely death. Two years and a few faculty censures later, the online edition of Vanderbilt’s sophomoric publication features Gee’s beaming countenance super-imposed over a busty blonde’s pasties-clad rack. The nebbish plutocrat is a popular target for The Slant’s perpetually snarky contributors. Once the Weekend at Bernie’s-style jousting recedes, The Slant proves to be a worthy contender to The Onion’s golden throne of sarcasm.

The Hustler and Orbis are comparatively panned.