Government investigations of The American Spectator caused Emmett in 2000, to market the magazine to venture capitalist George Gilder. George having a series in 2003, of financial and legal setbacks, exchanged the magazine back to Emmett and the American Alternative Foundation, the organization under which the magazine became initially started, for a dollar. This magazine was originally called The Alternative.
The owner’s name became changed to the American Spectator Foundation. This magazine then went operations back to the Washington, DC, area. Afterward that year, previous book publisher Alfred S. Regnery became the magazine’s publisher. In 2004, circulation hovered at around 50,000.
He became one of those behind the Arkansas Project, financed by Richard Mellon Scaife, to improve the Spectator’s investigative journalism. Emmett completed the project’s purposes and accomplishments in his 2007 book The Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy President’s Life after the White House.
