Newsweek Fiasco
When, exactly, did the MSM become this sick puppy it's turned into? These news organizations have got to take a close, serious look at the composition of their staffs. Something is badly wrong when major U.S. publications are competing day after day, in a time of war, to see who can most effectively do the work of Al Jazeera.
Newsweek editor Evan Thomas apologizes, regrets, and explains, but does not retract. What a weasel.
Every military operation by the US beginning with Viet Nam has been a two-front war, with the greater threat from our own viciously anti-American media.
I subscribed to Newsweek for 30 years, and it was worth reading. Then it gradually morphed into a predictably left-liberal rag without much substance, and I finally dropped it. This latest mess is entirely a product of the ideological agendas of the people who work at Newsweek; they cannot put out a fair publication with the staff they have on board. The idea of a weekly news magazine became ridiculous some time ago, with even daily newspapers and network news broadcasts hopelessly late with everything. So, Newsweek revamped, going with lots of pictures, People Magazine-style splashy feature articles about celebrities, and relentlessly adversarial "Gotcha!" journalism. Thus, their trip to into the journalistic toilet.
Even if it had been true, publishing a story like this was beyond excuse, utterly destructive and irresponsible on every level. My guess is that they had finally wrung the Abu Ghraib story completely dry and were desperate to find another way to give the Bush Administration and the military a black eye. They will suffer some financial losses over this, and a few people might be fired. But nothing will really change until a new kind of editor or ownership comes in and cleans house top to bottom. It will not happen, because the Washington Post Co., which owns Newsweek, will replace Tweedledee with Tweedledum. Or Tweedledum with Tweedledummer. Both the NYT and CBS have had major changes at the top as a result of phoney news scandals, and neither one has changed a bit. Both Keller at the Times and Schieffer at CBS are ideological clones of the men they replaced. The liberal left is a largely discredited enterprise, but it will retain its hold for a long time in two places, the MSM and the universities, both of which are heavily staffed and thoroughly dominated by people stuck in a 1960s worldview. ABC, NYT, CBS, NPR, AP, BBC, New Yorker, Reuters, the identical agenda, hammered unceasingly.
Newsweek editor Evan Thomas apologizes, regrets, and explains, but does not retract. What a weasel.
Every military operation by the US beginning with Viet Nam has been a two-front war, with the greater threat from our own viciously anti-American media.
I subscribed to Newsweek for 30 years, and it was worth reading. Then it gradually morphed into a predictably left-liberal rag without much substance, and I finally dropped it. This latest mess is entirely a product of the ideological agendas of the people who work at Newsweek; they cannot put out a fair publication with the staff they have on board. The idea of a weekly news magazine became ridiculous some time ago, with even daily newspapers and network news broadcasts hopelessly late with everything. So, Newsweek revamped, going with lots of pictures, People Magazine-style splashy feature articles about celebrities, and relentlessly adversarial "Gotcha!" journalism. Thus, their trip to into the journalistic toilet.
Even if it had been true, publishing a story like this was beyond excuse, utterly destructive and irresponsible on every level. My guess is that they had finally wrung the Abu Ghraib story completely dry and were desperate to find another way to give the Bush Administration and the military a black eye. They will suffer some financial losses over this, and a few people might be fired. But nothing will really change until a new kind of editor or ownership comes in and cleans house top to bottom. It will not happen, because the Washington Post Co., which owns Newsweek, will replace Tweedledee with Tweedledum. Or Tweedledum with Tweedledummer. Both the NYT and CBS have had major changes at the top as a result of phoney news scandals, and neither one has changed a bit. Both Keller at the Times and Schieffer at CBS are ideological clones of the men they replaced. The liberal left is a largely discredited enterprise, but it will retain its hold for a long time in two places, the MSM and the universities, both of which are heavily staffed and thoroughly dominated by people stuck in a 1960s worldview. ABC, NYT, CBS, NPR, AP, BBC, New Yorker, Reuters, the identical agenda, hammered unceasingly.
posted by Byron | Monday, May 16, 2005
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home