Michael Kelly (editor)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Kelly (March 17, 1957 – April 3, 2003) was an editor-at-large of the Atlantic Monthly and a columnist for the Washington Post. He died in 2003, aged 46, covering the invasion of Iraq.^[1]

Kelly reported on the Persian Gulf War in 1991 for The New Republic, which served as the basis for his book Martyrs' Day: Chronicles of a Small War (1993).

In 1996 he became the editor of The New Republic. In 1996 he became the editor of The New Republic. The writer Stephen Glass had been a major contributor under Kelly's editorship; Glass was later shown to have falsified numerous stories, which was admitted by The New Republic after an investigation by Kelly's editorial successor, Charles Lane. Kelly had consistently supported Glass during his tenure, including sending scathing letters to those challenging Glass's veracity.^[2]. Kelly was portrayed by actor Hank Azaria in the 2003 film about Glass' downfall, Shattered Glass. Kelly was fired in 1997 for clashing frequently with New Republic owner Martin Peretz.

After losing his job at The New Republic, Kelly was hired by David G. Bradley to run the National Journal. Bradley was so pleased with Kelly's work that he hired Kelly to run The Atlantic Monthly after Bradley purchased it in 1999.^[3]

Kelly was known as a neoconservative critic of anti-war movements on both the left and right.^{[citation needed]} He coined the term "fusion paranoia" to refer to a political convergence of left-wing and right-wing activists around anti-war issues and civil liberties, which he claimed were motivated by a shared belief in conspiracism or anti-government views. Kelly was a supporter of U.S. military interventionism during both the Clinton Administration and George W. Bush's administration.

In September 2002, Kelly criticized former vice president Al Gore for a speech that strongly condemned the Bush administration's efforts to drum up support for the coming invasion of Iraq. In a column in the Washington Post, Kelly said the speech was "wretched. It was vile. It was contemptible." He said Gore's speech "was one no decent politician could have delivered" and was "bereft of anything other than taunts and jibes and embarrassingly obvious lies."[1][2]

On April 3, 2003, just a few weeks following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Kelly was travelling in a Humvee with a soldier from the 3rd Infantry Division when the vehicle was fired upon by Iraqi soldiers. The humvee veered off the road and fell off a cliff into a river below.