“Enough about the war, was Anna Nicole murdered?”
First it was Newsweek, and now Time Magazine is getting into the dumbed-down cover for the American edition game. On the left is the cover here in the U.S., on the right is the cover of the Europe, Asia, and South Pacific editions. (Larger versions here and here) :
Replacing the more-newsworthy story about a Taliban resurgence with a human interest story that you’d expect to find in Reader’s Digest is pretty egregious, but the stories at the top are even more revealing. Last week’s Keane-inspired Reagan cover story that’s finding its way into the international editions is nicely balanced out by a Rudy Giuliani puff piece. But that’s not as bad as the juxtaposition on the opposite corner. While the rest of the world is presented an interview about “Africa’s Moment of Need”, Americans are patronized with a Desperate Housewives reference. It’s as if the editors of Time magazine think we Americans are too stupid and shallow to care about “real news”. Ugghh..
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Now, now, the domestic version of this week’s cover photo is not really that different from the international version: State-imposed religious fundamentalism is depicted in both cover stories. Time magazine openly endorses trashing the quintessentially American concept of separation of church and state. That should tell you how closely US values mirror Afghanistan’s. They don’t call the religious rightwingers the American taliban for nothing.
Comment by gylangirl — March 26, 2007 @ 7:32 pm
“It’s as if the editors of Time magazine think we Americans are too stupid and shallow to care about “real news”. Ugghh..”
You must live in the smart part of America pal, because from what I can see Time is probably right.
Oh wait, wait, America fell for all that Bushit they’ve been gobbling because GW is such a silver-tongued & slippery little fellow that he bamboozled them with his charm wit & intelligence.
Give me a break.
Anyway, I wouldn’t single out Time. The entire mainstream news media appears to be aimed at ADD suffering 6 year olds.
Since they don’t appear to going belly up from lack of funds or viewers, I’d say that they’re probably dead on in their assessment.
If you don’t believe me, I’ll introduce you to the Cricket phone salesmen who tried to convince me that Cricket service covered Washington D.C. by taking me to a map & pointing to Washington State or the co-worker who overheard my buddy & I talking politics & asked us, “What’s a state?” & “What’s a capitol?” & “What’s a country?”
None of these are isolated incidents.
Comment by Richard — March 26, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
Actually, mainstream media outlets have been losing market share (and profits) to the Internet for some time now, and it keeps getting worse.
Dumbing things down is just a desperate, cost-cutting measure that won’t work in the long term.
Comment by Doobie — March 26, 2007 @ 11:23 pm
Bring back the Soviet Union and give them compitent leadership, please… I am certainly NOT joking. We need to be afraid of threats that could at least be argued as being real again. Assuming they didn’t make the Russians up too… Oh wait, they did.
Comment by Josh Marx — March 27, 2007 @ 5:38 am
Erm… they didn’t “make up” the Soviets, they exaggerated the threat. Different.
Anyway, another interpretation:
LH: Republicans! Republicans! Ra! Ra! Ra!
RH: Oh, those crazy Republicans! (But some of them are friends with Bono!)
The uniting theme: how far right can you persuade your audience?
Comment by me — March 27, 2007 @ 9:02 pm