If Chris Hughes knew anything about journalism, he’d throw a big party in New York and another in Washington and the media wags now heaping abuse on him would be hailing him as the last of the Medicis. But the 31-year-old owner and editor in chief of the New Republic doesn’t know a damn thing about journalism, which is why scores of hungry and thirsty journalists won’t shut up.

Hughes is getting it from the left, nostalgic for a magazine that hasn’t existed in a while, and the right, nostalgic for a magazine that never really existed at all. In their estimation, Hughes is guilty of destroying one of America’s great cultural institutions. His two top editors, Franklin Foer and Leon Wieseltier, resigned last week, spearheading a mass exodus of staffers and contributors. In his response, published in the Washington Post last weekend, Hughes writes: “I didn’t buy the New Republic to be the conservator of a small print magazine whose long-term influence and survival were at risk. I came to protect the future of the New Republic by creating a sustainable business so that our journalism, values and voice — the things that make us singular — could survive.”