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“Exposing & Combating Liberal Media Bias”
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Jon MeachamAnother Palin Hit Job: Newsweek Cover Claims Former Alaska Governor 'Bad News' for Everybody
The wizards of smart at Newsweek took an image from a shoot of Palin that originally appeared in Runner's World magazine for the cover and splashed the headlines, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?" and "She's Bad News for the GOP - and For Everybody Else, Too." Mike Allen of Politico previewed the cover in the Nov. 14 edition of his "Playbook." In it, he included these comments from Newsweek editor John Meacham who blamed Palin for Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., struggles with his conservative base in South Carolina. One of those struggles for Graham was his acknowledgment that climate change is a manmade phenomenon in need of a so-called "compromise," And that backlash is somehow former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's fault: 'The Real Burkean In American Politics Right Now Is Barack Obama'"[I am] against this most monstrous of all meddling on the part of authority: the meddling with the subsistence of its people. . . . [One must] manfully . . . resist the very first idea, speculative or practical, that it is within the competence of government . . . to supply the poor with necessaries. . . . To provide for us in our necessities is not in the power of government. It would be a vain presumption in statesmen to think they can do it." -- Edmund Burke, 'Thoughts and Details on Scarcity', 1795.Jon Meacham strikes me as a knowledgeable man. Surely the author of a well-regarded biography of Andrew Jackson knows his history. Ignorance thus cannot explain how the Newsweek editor could with a straight face describe Barack Obama as "the real Burkean in American politics right now." Yet on today's Morning Joe, Meacham effectively depicted Obama as the bearer of the torch of the man often described as the father of modern conservatism . . . On PBS, Charlie Rose Pushed the Hardest Hogwash on Teddy
Al Hunt was the strangest, but at least he began to realize his exaggeration was too implausible to continue: "He didn't demonize people at all. He demonized positions, but not people. Bob Bork might have been a rare exception of that." Here are a few snippets of the conversation: Networks Ignore Chappaquiddick Anniversary; NPR’s Rudin Gets 'Ugly' Mail for Even Blogging About It
The Saturday and Sunday New York Times and Washington Post also had nothing about Chappaquiddick. Several newspapers did carry a brief, if inadvertent, mention, since on Saturday the Associated Press made it the day’s “Highlight in History” in their re-cap of big news events that happened on a July 18, beating out the start of the Great Fire of Rome in A.D. 64 and the death of naval hero John Paul Jones in 1792. MRC's Graham Discusses Newsweek Columnist's Discovery: Media Infatuated with ObamaAppearing on the June 3 "America's Newsroom" program, Graham discussed Newsweek economics columnist Robert Samuelson's gripe that the media's "Obama infatuation is a great unreported story of our time." Samuelson "is a reasonable guy" who "has got to know that we've had years of pro-Obama bias, and certainly in the pages of his own magazine, where there are syrupy pictures of Barack and/or Michelle almost weekly," Media Research Center (MRC) Director of Media Analysis Tim Graham told "America's Newsroom" host Bill Hemmer. [audio available here] Graham added: The New Opinionated Newsweek: 'A Pretty Stupid Idea for a Magazine'In a piece for the June 1 Weekly Standard headlined "Some Industries Deserve Bankruptcy," Andrew Ferguson discusses Newsweek editor Jon Meacham and the "Meachamism," which he defined as "a statement so comically banal or transparently untrue that only a man whom everybody is crazy about or hopes to not get fired by would try to put it into print." Ferguson had his own favorite Meachamism in a somewhat obscure place: "The book is called My Father, My President, by Doro Bush. On page 218, Doro prints this quotation from Jon: 'An important thing to remember about the press is there is no ideological bias.'" Ferguson then mocked the first newly designed edition of Newsweek, the one in which Meacham oozed all over Obama, how he was "moving as he wishes to move, and the world bending itself to him." Or at least Newsweek is bending itself to him. Ferguson wrote that was absurd, since Obama's broken several campaign promises and bent toward the world instead of the other way around. Maher Assaults God of the Old Testament, Meacham Merely Jokes He Was 'Cheneyesque'
As Maher suggested he was too bright to believe in Jesus the "Jewish Zombie," Meacham also lauded how America has moved beyond a "public piety," as symbolized by Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ. "It doesn’t feel to me that we’re in the same place in terms of public religiosity and public piety that we were when Mel Gibson released The Passion of The Christ five years ago, when basically, he made an anti-Semitic film, and the only thing you can say about it is it’s the best film ever made in Aramaic." Surprisingly, Maher said he liked the movie, and he didn’t find it anti-Semitic, but that "the priesthood" had Jesus killed because he threatened their power. Meacham Tells Maher Obama's Not a Messiah, Just a 'Very, Very Hardball, Hardcore Practical Politician'Newsweek editor Jon Meacham appeared on Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and acted like a great moderator in the debate over Barack Obama, that he was neither the "Indonesian sleeper agent" the right imagined, or the "Messiah" the left imagined, but just a "very, very hardball, hardcore practical politician" willing to commit "great sins" in war time. Meacham also assailed what he called the "fundamental illogic" of Dick Cheney’s remarks, saying he isn’t fighting Obama so much as his old Bush colleagues. Bill Maher was very upset the Democrats were such "pussies" on closing Guantanamo, and assailed that "dusty old dumbass" Harry Reid for enabling a 90-6 vote against funding a Gitmo closing until the White House has a plan for it. Meacham agreed that it was "insane." But then he added:
Newsweek Editor: Woo Hoo! Our Magazine Circulation Is Being Cut in Half!!!
And just before my father would have smacked me upside my head for being so absurd, I would have quickly pointed out that the editor of Newsweek, Jon Meacham, is celebrating the fact that his magazine's circulation is being cut in half. Of course, back when I was a kid Newsweek at least made an attempt to be balanced and no magazine editor in his right mind would have been happy about such a drastic decline in circulation. However, that is exactly what Meacham is doing as reported in the Washington Post by Howard Kurtz:
Newsweek’s Jon Meacham: ‘We're Not A Partisan Magazine’
O’Reilly asked Meacham about the magazine’s liberal leanings after the Newsweek editor argued in favor of investigations of Bush officials over interrogation tactics. O’Reilly also asked for Meacham’s opinion on a recent political cartoon in the New York Times that criticized those interrogation tactics by depicting the Statue of Liberty brandishing a whip, but Meacham refused to comment: "I'm not going to comment on somebody else's editorial decision." In frustration, O’Reilly replied: "You're an American. Forget you're editor of Newsweek, you're an American. You see this thing, what do you think? You think this is fair?" O’Reilly went on to reference new photos of prisoner abuse about to be released: "Yeah, do you think this is fair? Do you think that's good for the country? Are you looking forward to putting those pictures coming out next week in Newsweek magazine, of abusing the prisoners, you looking forward to doing that?" He later added: "...you won't comment on that -- on that Statue of Liberty with a whip? Come on, you're an American, too. You know, I'm fighting the battle here alone. It's me and the Wall Street Journal, and couple of other guys on Fox, against a juggernaut of media apathy that you're a part of at Newsweek magazine, with all due respect." Bozell Column: The End of Newsweek?
At the end of 2007, Newsweek reduced its "base rate" (or circulation guaranteed to advertisers) from 3.1 million to 2.6 million, a 16 percent drop. At the end of 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported that Newsweek, faced with an estimated 21 percent decline in ad pages, could soon drop that circulation number by another 500,000 to 1 million readers. In February, the magazine confirmed the million-issue drop, saying it would drop to a base of 1.9 million in July and 1.5 million readers by January 2010. WaPo's 'On Faith': Pope's a 'Politician' Who Can Learn From ObamaHappy Easter, Catholics. Your pope is not much different from a secular politician exercising damage control. Fortunately, President Obama is helping him "repent faster" when he steps into controversy. That's the message being sent by the "On Faith" editorial staff with their excerpts "From the Panel" published in the April 11 print edition of the Washington Post. A partnership with Newsweek, "On Faith" is edited by the magazine's Jon Meacham and the Post's Sally Quinn. "What's Behind Pope's Apologies?" asks the headline. An editorial note gives readers the question asked "On Faith" panelists: For the Media, It's Un-Holy WeekMost regular church-goers have heard their less scrupulously observant fellows called "Christmas and Easter Christians." Well, they also have their counterparts in the mainstream media: "Christmas and Easter Anti-Christians." How else to explain the spate of skeptical, negative stories that inevitably accompany the two most important Christian holy days? This Holy Week has been typical. Newsweek proclaimed "The Decline and Fall of Christian America" on its cover. The Washington Post/Newsweek "On Faith" blog featured a post that belittled the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection. The Discovery Channel aired a documentary that painted Jesus as little more than an opportunistic politician who caught a bad break in a trial. These are just the most notable recent instances of secular media's disdain for traditional Christians and the tenets of their faith. Anti-Christianism is the last acceptable prejudice. The assault on Christian beliefs and morality is ongoing. Take for example the howls of outrage when the Pope reiterated Catholic teaching on abstinence. But because Easter is so central to understanding Jesus and His purpose, and to Christians' own understanding of the world, the secular attack escalates during Holy Week. It takes on more existential dimensions, questioning Christianity's relevance in the modern world, the meaning of Christ's lessons and ultimately, His divinity. Depending on your point of view, Jesus was either a charismatic populist crusader, a doctrinaire Marxist or "do your own thing" feel-good guru. Anything but the Son of God. If that's what you think of Him, it's easy to see why you would question His relevance. Newsweek Editor Welcomes Easter with the 'End of Christian America'Newsweek editor Jon Meacham welcomed "The End of Christian America," with the arrival of new statistics from a new religious identification study. Even though he later tries to stipulate that his own magazine’s headline is a little overwrought, he’s thrilled that the country is maturing beyond uptight Christian orthodoxy and beyond any Christian claim to insist on social conservatism:
Newsweek Boss Jon Meacham: 'I Did Not Drink the Obama Kool-Aid Last Year'
Bozell Column: We're Not All Socialists
Our news media have insisted on playing the White House soundtrack on this battle, to wit: the "stimulus" is vitally necessary, and by opposing it, Republicans are risking being flattened by the Great Obama Steamroller. A partisan victory is okay, but they’d much rather the vote for Obama’s plans be unanimous. Why, as Newsweek’s cover proclaimed, "We’re All Socialists Now." Inside, Newsweek’s uber-elitist editor Jon Meacham scolded Sean Hannity and Rep. Mike Pence for stooping to call this Congressional pork-wagon "the European Socialist Act of 2009." Using the S-word in a negative context threatens to doom America to a "fractious and unedifying debate." A Big Lie: Newsweek Claims On Cover 'We Are All Socialists Now'
The "cover story," if you can call it that, is a brief editorial by Newsweek editor Jon Meacham and former Washington bureau chief Evan Thomas, and it began by attacking Sean Hannity and Mike Pence for being in denial about Socialist America and threatening to foist on America an "fractious and unedifying debate" that refuses the terms of surrender: Newsweak: Shrinking Mag to Include a 'Bluffer's Guide'
As is the case with its fellow declining competitor Time, it never occurs to these people that their legacy of bias, double standards, and inexplicable sloppiness have chased away so many readers that whatever business model they adopt won't work without an accompanying fundamental philosophical shift towards fairness, balance, and due diligence that is nowhere on the horizon. In Newsweak's case, all you need to remember is the "Quran flush" debacle of 2005 and Drudge's trumping Michael Isikoff on Monica Lewinsky in 1998 (with plenty of other examples in between and ever since, as you can see by typing "newsweek" at the Media Research Center's search page). Here are excerpts from a New York Times puff piece on the magazine's plans (the picture at the top right is from that story), including a bizarre new "feature" straight from the "Can't Make This Stuff Up" Department (in bold at the end): Newsweek: Celebrating America as a New, Socialist France
We are a European country and we like it, claim the Newsweek duo. Unfortunately, they seem to misunderstand so very much about what they speak. |
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