Salon Signs Off: The Truth Outlasts the Smear

By Floyd Brown November 7, 2026 at 7:35am

Salon lasted 31 years. On Nov. 5, the editors posted a short notice titled “Goodbye from Salon.”

It said, “Today, after 31 years, we are saddened to announce that Salon is ceasing publication.” They blamed the business, writing that their “publishing model is no longer sustainable.”

I read it twice, and I’ll admit I smiled.

I take no joy in anyone losing a paycheck. The writers, editors, and designers at Salon have families and mortgages like the rest of us, and I pray they land well.

I feel differently about the publication itself. For years, it told millions of readers who I was without bothering to get it right, so I’m glad to celebrate its end.

A Little History

I founded WesternJournalism.com in 2008, and it was later renamed The Western Journal. I served as publisher until I retired in 2025, and I’m no longer involved. Still, when your early nemesis closes its doors, you say something.

Salon noticed us very early, and it never let facts get in the way of a good insult.

In 2008, Salon introduced me as a “right-wing con man.” They could have called me a critic or an opponent, but they went straight to con man.

In 2014, I became “the notorious hatchet man from Arkansas,” though Salon never said who decided that. That same year, a writer covering our conference in Phoenix called me “a Zelig-like presence on the right” and dismissed my career as that of “a journeyman pitcher of junk in the conservative gutter league.” I’ve been called worse, but rarely with that much charm.

In 2016, Salon reached back nearly three decades to sneer at “the man who created the Willie Horton ad.”

Then they went after our publication.

In 2017, Salon lumped Western Journalism in with “low-quality websites.”

In 2018, it called us “another junk publication” and complained that our new graphics were “astonishingly similar to the branding of the Wall Street Journal.” Two months later, it accused Western Journal of “a long record of fear-mongering about Muslims and spreading lies about former president Barack Obama.”

Over all those years, Salon gave its readers labels and very little evidence. That’s name-calling dressed up as journalism, and in my view it’s deception, fiction with a byline.

What We Tried to Build

At Western Journal, we took pride in accuracy. Every newsroom gets things wrong, and when we did, we said so quickly, published the retraction, and moved on better for it.

Western Journal’s own standards put it plainly: “Our first value as a company is truth.” Its mission is to serve “as a trusted source of news, commentary, and entertainment regarding the stories and views that remain untold by establishment media sources.”

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It promises readers “a complete picture of the truth regardless of our beliefs,” even when that means reporting “facts at variance with points of view we may hold.”

Standards like that only count when a newsroom actually lives by them, and we worked hard to.

Salon went a different way. Its writers reached for a sneer when they should have done the reporting, and a clever put-down always seemed to matter more to them than an honest correction.

That approach sold for a while, but eventually readers stopped buying it.

Why Lies Don’t Last

Salon’s business problems were real, but I think the bigger problem was that readers stopped trusting it.

Readers aren’t stupid, and while you might fool them for a season, you won’t fool them for a generation.

Solomon understood this three thousand years ago when he wrote, “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment” (Proverbs 12:19, BSB). Perhaps 31 years felt like forever to the people at Salon, but to God it’s only a moment.

The hopeful part is what Jesus said: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32, BSB).

I’ve never seen truth as something to beat people over the head with. It’s a gift, and it frees the reader and the writer alike. A writer who sticks to the truth never has to remember which smear he told last week.

So What Now?

I’d tell readers not to gloat over this and to go build something instead.

The old gatekeepers are crumbling one by one, and we should take that as a call to step up. Support the outlets that correct their mistakes. Hold your own side to the same standard you’d hold Salon to, and share the truth even when it’s inconvenient.

Salon said goodbye with grace, and I’ll return the favor.

Goodbye, Salon. You called me a lot of names over the years, but you never made any of them true. The truth is still standing, and so are we. Together we march.

The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.

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Floyd Brown

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Floyd G. Brown is the founder emeritus of The Western Journal and the author of several books, including "Counterpunch" and "Big Tech Tyrants."

@floydbrown

Floyd Brown has spent the last 40 years as an advocate and activist for conservative ideas. He met Ronald Reagan when he was 15 years old and worked in his campaigns and as a political appointee in his administration. In 1988, he founded Citizens United and served as chairman of Citizens United until 2008, when he founded a predecessor website that was later merged to become part of The Western Journal.