Bloom’s Greatest Hits: ‘The American Spectator’ Born and Bred in Bloomington

American Spectator
American Spectator
“The Alternative” (later known as “The American Spectator”) writers and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity members (l-r) Bob Tyrrell; Kent Owen; Steve Tesich; Steve Smith; and Alan Sommers, who recently retired from his Bloomington neurology practice, in a photo that originally appeared in the “Phi Kappa Psi Alumnigram” in 1978. Courtesy photo

BY ELISABETH ANDREWS

In this bastion of liberalism, a groundbreaking, impertinent campus magazine attracted the best conservative thinkers and writers of the day and spread its influence all the way to the White House.

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Bloom Magazine June/July 2026 (Issue 120)

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