On Wednesday afternoon, when I drafted this blog post for Saturday publication, the Courier News website was running a poll in the carousel of its home page. The question was, “Is Newsweek’s cover shot of Sarah Palin Sexist?” At 2:40 PM that day, the responses were split 50/50.
Newsweek’s editor Jon Meacham – a Pulitzer Prize winning author – appropriated the cover photo of Palin from Runner’s World magazine without its permission, taking it completely out of its original context and salting it with the provocative statement, “How do you solve a problem like Sarah?” I didn’t know that “Sarah” was a problem. Did you? I can think of a lot more significant troubles facing this country than little ‘ole Sarah from Alaska.
Such media myopia brings to mind the unanswered question of why it is that some middle-age guys in the Fourth Estate – intelligent ones at that – have such a problem with females who look good and who strike such a decisive public impression.
In his Top of the Week essay accompanying the cover shot, Meacham exposes his insecurities as he discusses the potential threat of “Palinism,” calling her “… an heir to the Goldwater tradition.” It’s a very weak comparison. It was President Lyndon Baines Johnson, not Goldwater, who made a mess out of the Vietnam War by escalating it beyond control, a folly which cost him his second term in office.
Anyway, let’s get serious and reduce this thing to its essence: Which image is more likely to draw your attention more than once on the cover of Newsweek, that of Sarah Palin or that of suspiciously botoxed Nancy Pelosi? Crafty Jon Meacham knew which one would be most likely to boost circulation.
Showing posts with label Newsweek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newsweek. Show all posts
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
You Can Set Your Watch by It!
Almost every year, before one of the major Christian celebrations, some author or research organization comes out with a story or discovery that’s supposed to shock Christianity to its core, minimize it, or put it in a bad light. Again!
The release of such information is maddeningly timed to hit the press and media about a week before a Christian commemoration such as Easter, obviously timed to have the maximum bang-for-the buck for publishers and promoters.
The most recent example is the large red-on-black lettering on the cover of Newsweek’s latest issue, starkly proclaiming, The Decline and Fall of Christian America. In its May, 2006 issue, the National Geographic released research results of an ancient scroll entitled, The Gospel of Judas. The findings were supposed to turn Christianity on its head – I’m still waiting.
Perhaps the most notorious and monetarily successful work of its type in recent times was the book, The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. I read it thoroughly, did extensive research on its claims, wrote a paper on it, and delivered that to a standing-room audience debunking Brown’s pathetic research.
Even President Obama got into the act when, in his recent visit to Turkey, he downplayed the cultural impact of people of faith in the founding of this nation when he said that America is merely “. . . a group of citizens bound by common ideals and values.” That so, Mr. President?
If I sound ornery about this, it’s because I am. I’d like to think – unrealistic, I know – that some of us, could we please, just celebrate a religious fête without the annoyance of a know-it-all telling us what we should believe about our belief.
Meanwhile, Happy Easter to all my fellow Christians, and Happy Passover to all my brothers and sisters of the Jewish faith, without whom our Sacred Writings would be incomplete.
The release of such information is maddeningly timed to hit the press and media about a week before a Christian commemoration such as Easter, obviously timed to have the maximum bang-for-the buck for publishers and promoters.
The most recent example is the large red-on-black lettering on the cover of Newsweek’s latest issue, starkly proclaiming, The Decline and Fall of Christian America. In its May, 2006 issue, the National Geographic released research results of an ancient scroll entitled, The Gospel of Judas. The findings were supposed to turn Christianity on its head – I’m still waiting.
Perhaps the most notorious and monetarily successful work of its type in recent times was the book, The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. I read it thoroughly, did extensive research on its claims, wrote a paper on it, and delivered that to a standing-room audience debunking Brown’s pathetic research.
Even President Obama got into the act when, in his recent visit to Turkey, he downplayed the cultural impact of people of faith in the founding of this nation when he said that America is merely “. . . a group of citizens bound by common ideals and values.” That so, Mr. President?
If I sound ornery about this, it’s because I am. I’d like to think – unrealistic, I know – that some of us, could we please, just celebrate a religious fête without the annoyance of a know-it-all telling us what we should believe about our belief.
Meanwhile, Happy Easter to all my fellow Christians, and Happy Passover to all my brothers and sisters of the Jewish faith, without whom our Sacred Writings would be incomplete.
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