# Time & Newsweek drop pretense; embrace liberalism as survival strategy! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 22, 2009, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421 "2009-01-22T07:02:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/21 "2009-01-22T10:27:15Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > They _didn’t_ have a liberal bias in the past. That’s something you _thought_ that you saw. They are going “to jettison the old straddle-the-center formula” as they put it." They’re going to stop writing for the masses and begin writing for the smart people. Does this mean we won’t be seeing eleven cover stories a year on “What Was Jesus _Really_ Like?” Shame. Gonna miss that… really. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/22 "2009-01-22T12:03:30Z")
_Time_ and _Newseek_ are left of center. This is news? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/23 "2009-01-22T12:16:19Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > This tells me that all things being equal, and in light of what people have seen liberalism wreak upon this society over the last fifty years, Americans prefer conservative governance. But what have done for us lately? Oh, crap… ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/24 "2009-01-22T12:28:09Z")
starving artist, allow me to introduce you to WORLD Magazine. [http://www.worldmag.com/](http://www.worldmag.com/) No pretense to objectivity here- conservative & Christian, maybe too much, but damned informative. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/25 "2009-01-22T12:29:53Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Does this mean we won’t be seeing eleven cover stories a year on “What Was Jesus _Really_ Like?” > > Shame. Gonna miss that… really. Yeah, because smart people wouldn’t be interested in that? Doesn’t matter- the bulk of “experts” they get are heretics & apostates anyway.😛 ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/26 "2009-01-22T12:31:33Z")
I might be mistaken, but don’t Conservatives believe that private businesses making a profit is a good thing? I guess **SA** secretly want the media to have some sort of centrally placed comissar in every media outlet to preserve the Political Balance. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/27 "2009-01-22T12:39:08Z")
I’m still waiting for them to drop the pretense that they report news. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/28 "2009-01-22T13:27:36Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > “The magazines are facing the same problems as every other part of the news business: declining revenues, shrinking audiences and a speeded-up digital culture that makes them seem slow.” > > "One answer is to jettison the old straddle-the-center formula in which the newsweeklies spoke with an institutional voice rather than publish bylines. > . . . > So now, despite years of denial of its existence by the left, liberal bias is coming out in the open and becoming standard operating procedure at two of the nation’s most influential news magazines. Interesting, you take an observation that two magazines have become marginalized and have, therefore, changed their policy, and pretend that this is an admission that they have always been “liberal.” (And, of course, you ignore the fact that they really have been marginalized in the last few years and make a claim that they are among the “most influential” magazines extant–which is rather like saying that Intrepid International is among the foremost buggy whip manufacturers. They have little to no impact on the actual views of news by the overwhelming majority of citizens or decision makers.) I guess congratulations are in order that you finally found someone “admitting” that some tiny portion of the news media has a liberal slant. What next? A confession that the WSJ has a conservative bias? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/29 "2009-01-22T13:32:28Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > _"Meacham, wearing a dark sweater in his office overlooking Central Park, says that **“we don’t edit with the idea that there is a poor and uninformed reader out there who somehow needs illumination.”** He sees his audience as “the virtual Beltway,” **which he defines as people who watch Sunday talk shows, read newspapers and buy hardcover books."** _ (No lowlife paperback book buyers in _Newsweek’s_ readership, I guess.) > > So _Newsweek’s_ editor now thinks that dumb, uninformed people who don’t know anything about the issues don’t buy his magazine anyway, so this leaves him with little choice but to abandon his magazine’s alleged mission of objectively reporting the news to the masses in order to slant his coverage toward the overwhelmingly liberal audience that he does have. This is a joke, yes? Your funny second paragraph does not follow from the first. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/30 "2009-01-22T13:47:38Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > **They are pursuing a more elite audience** , in print and on the Web Damn those bastards, why won’t they write magazines for people who don’t read magazines? It’s so WRONG!\* > [@](#): > > influential news magazines. This is a contradiction in terms. > [@](#): > > He sees his audience as “the virtual Beltway,” And there’s why these magazines are irritating and useless. Here’s a crazy freaking idea - try analyzing what’s going on instead of telling your readers what to say about what’s going on when they get into arguments! \*No, really, that’s what this is about. People are getting more and more news from the Web and the magazines are trying to go where the readers are. I don’t like biased news at all, but I think it’s disingenuous for **Starving Artist** or anybody else to be shocked, SHOCKED that two magazines are leaning left when talk radio has leaned right for decades. Unless that doesn’t count for some reason. The increased partisanship isn’t a good thing, but it’s not going away. That’s where the news came from before the standard of objectivity, impossible though valuable, came around. People like being told what they already know. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/31 "2009-01-22T14:10:48Z")
An outrage! See, people, things like the OP are why we need the Fairness Doctrine back posthaste. **SA** , thanks for shining a light on this for us. We’ve got letters to write… let’s move it move it move it! ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/32 "2009-01-22T14:14:48Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t like biased news at all, but I think it’s disingenuous for Starving Artist or anybody else to be shocked, SHOCKED that two magazines are leaning left when talk radio has leaned right for decades. Talk radio doesn’t pretend to be unbiased. But you aren’t being consistent. If it is not OK for talk radio to lean right, why don’t you object when _Time_ and _Newsweek_ (and CBS and NBC and ABC, and the New York Times and the Washington Post and PBS and the LA Times - and the SDMB) lean left? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/33 "2009-01-22T14:16:45Z")
When the tide of public opinion turns thunderously against you, who else can you blame but the media that put ideas in their head? You certainly can’t blame _yourself_… ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/34 "2009-01-22T14:23:22Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Yep, a more liberal, more elite audience. Just like we conservatives have been saying all along. The magazines are liberal, and liberals (in the main, **Zoe** ;)) are elitists. Now we have it from the horse’s mouth. Since everyone else has done a pretty good job addressing the rest of your post, I’ll just ask… why the fuck do you keep parroting this “liberals are elitists” meme? It doesn’t make any fucking sense _at all_. We want a more equal distribution of incomes. We want more equal access to education. We want equal rights. How very elitist of us. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/35 "2009-01-22T14:38:41Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Since everyone else has done a pretty good job addressing the rest of your post, I’ll just ask… why the fuck do you keep parroting this “liberals are elitists” meme? > > It doesn’t make any fucking sense _at all_. > > We want a more equal distribution of incomes. We want more equal access to education. We want equal rights. How very elitist of us. :rolleyes: Because these are closet reverse-elitists who are concerned about all the pobes in the world. It’s Compassionate Conservatives that say, “Fuck em. Let them starve.” -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/36 "2009-01-22T14:42:56Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Talk radio doesn’t pretend to be unbiased. True. On the other hand, the hosts pretend to be telling it like it is. > [@](#): > > But you aren’t being consistent. If it is not OK for talk radio to lean right, why don’t you object when _Time_ and _Newsweek_ (and CBS and NBC and ABC, and the New York Times and the Washington Post and PBS and the LA Times - and the SDMB) lean left? I’m being consistent: I said “I don’t like biased news at all,” which I believe constitutes an objection. I made no exceptions; I’m just resigned to this being the current trend in what used to be called the news. I don’t like what Newsweek is doing here, but this is the way it’s going right now. As I said, people love being told what they already know. Rush made his name as a rightwing commentator on the radio and spawned many imitators, Fox News got big, and more recently you see the rise of MSNBC on the left, and there are pundits and bloggers aplenty on both sides. If Newsweek is throwing in the towel and giving into the same kind of partisanship, that’s disappointing but not surprising. They’re going where the readers are. I don’t think it’s a good thing for the public, but the public wants what it wants. (Of course, the public doesn’t trust journalism either. They’re all biased, you know. :p) There’s a certain level of irony here in that the right has sowed distrust of journalists for years because they’re all sneaky lefties [as seen your standard “MSM is biased!” parenthetical], but now these two publications are being more open about their biases and **Starving Artist** says that shows you can’t trust any of them. I don’t think the media leans left as a whole. The SDMB does, but that’s a separate animal and isn’t related. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/37 "2009-01-22T14:42:59Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Because these are closet reverse-elitists who are concerned about all the pobes in the world. It’s Compassionate Conservatives that say, “Fuck em. Let them starve.” > > -Joe Aaaaaah! Closet reverse-elitists! _grabs NASCAR bumper sticker and cowers under desk_ _(BTW… did you mean plebes? Pobes sounds… kinda… snicker)_ ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/38 "2009-01-22T14:43:47Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I’m still waiting for them to drop the pretense that they report news. Actually, that’s pretty much the point of the thing to begin with. Newsfeeds have become commoditized, so _Time_ and _Newsweek_ can’t effectively differentiate themselves on the basis of reporting news. So they’re explicitly moving to more of a “news analysis” role. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/39 "2009-01-22T14:49:16Z")
The only thing in the OP that surprises me is the claim that _Time_ is “the best known news brand in the world.” :rolleyes: I have thought of Time as being mostly fluff for decades, now. For news other magazines do a lot better presenting news with background and history. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421/40 "2009-01-22T15:06:34Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Talk radio doesn’t pretend to be unbiased. So, what, “The No-Spin Zone” is just supposed to be a catchy title? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-newsweek-drop-pretense-embrace-liberalism-as-survival-strategy/482421.md?page=3)