The Free Press was founded on a commitment to honesty, intellectual curiosity, and moral clarity, and we can think of few people who better embody those values than Douglas Murray. That’s why Douglas was an early contributor to this publication, launching our Things Worth Remembering column. It’s also why we’re thrilled to announce that Douglas is returning to The Free Press, and with a bigger mandate.
You’ll see Douglas’s name in our pages every week, and he’ll be writing on some of the most urgent questions we face today.
For those encountering his name for the first time, Douglas is a British writer and reporter whose work has taken him to Iraq, North Korea, Nigeria, Ukraine, and Israel after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. Douglas is such a valuable voice because he never loses sight of the stakes: the why behind the who, what, and where of the biggest stories in the world. Douglas pursues those stories with courage. He’s unafraid to draw lines between good and evil and is dogged in his pursuit of truth. Douglas is unyielding in his portrayal of the world as it really is.
He has spent three decades reporting from the front lines of the most important fights of our time. Starting this week, he’ll be doing so in our pages. The Free Press is now the primary home for Douglas’s writing, and his columns are exclusively for paying subscribers. If that’s not you, you’re in luck: Subscribe now and enjoy 20 percent off.
We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Douglas back. Be sure to read his note below.
—The Editors
Back in 2022 when Bari Weiss was creating The Free Press, she asked me to be one of its first columnists. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to become part of something that had swiftly moved from a Substack to an already unmissable, news-making publication. So, of course, I said yes.
I first met Bari when she was at The Wall Street Journal, had followed her work at The New York Times, and joined her at The Free Press in the certainty that whatever she turned her attention to next would blossom. And so it did. From its very beginning, The Free Press has been an indispensable addition to open discourse in the West, and a defender of the values that underpin that discourse: fearless curiosity, rigorous standards, and a ferocious aversion to censorship.
But four years ago I was already writing several political columns a week for other publications and wasn’t sure I had another one in me. Bari suggested I write one on topics far afield of politics. She proposed the idea of the Things Worth Remembering column—a series of short essays, each on a single text, that capture eternal values and insights.
Of all the columns I have written in the past 25 years, few have given me greater pleasure to write. The response of Free Press readers moved me deeply and—not for the first time—proved that Bari was onto something. For the two years that I wrote that column, I felt like I was in a wonderful, enthusiastic, deep dialogue with readers.
But then other things—principally wars—got in the way. I remained a very occasional contributor to The Free Press. Yet I remained an avid reader and admirer of this amazing, growing publication. And I never drifted far from the FP family. One of the highlights of my past year was coming onstage in New York at a live event to introduce Coleman Hughes (who was on the trombone) and Justice Amy Coney Barrett (who was not).
Now I find myself in the very happy position of being asked to return to The Free Press as a regular columnist on the broadest possible range of topics. Nothing could excite me more.
That’s because the assault on Western values has become even more withering in the past several years. Internal critics in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and across Europe threaten to dismantle the systems that created mass prosperity, and suppress the teaching of history in favor of new ideological fashions. External enemies in the Middle East, Asia, and around the world seek to wear down opposition to their oppressive social systems, and expand their own influence throughout the free world.
The breadth and depth of issues that The Free Press covers is something that most writers dream of being a part of. And so I am thrilled to rejoin the growing bank of writers who include many—even most—of the writers that I most admire. Back here, I hope to inform readers about world events and stay in the fight for the values we share.
A lot is going to happen in the coming years. I couldn’t be happier to be back at The Free Press and am ready to go through them with all of you.
Not a subscriber yet? Don’t wait for Douglas’s next column to hit a paywall you can’t get past. Subscribe now for 20 percent off.
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Yes, yes , yes the best of the best. Show the rest of the media what true reporting and analyzing current affairs looks like bravo’