By MARC MCDONALD
Outraged progressive commentators across the Web are asking their visitors to cancel their subscriptions to Time magazine in the aftermath of that magazine's puff piece on fascist nutcase Ann Coulter.
The Time April 25 cover story offended progressives (and, for that matter, all sane Americans) with writer John Cloud's contention that he "didn't find many outright Coulter errors."
This, despite the fact that Coulter's vicious hatemongering is absolutely smothered with blatant lies that have been extensively documented in print media and across the Web.
While many progressives are angered by this whole episode, I think it's actually good news for American public discourse.
I think it's great that progressives are finally starting to see Time magazine for what it really is. A jingoistic, right-leaning, anti-union, business-friendly publication that masquerades as "unbiased" serious journalism. A magazine that gave acres of coverage to the partisan witchhunt against Clinton and then snoozed through critical stories like GOP's stealing of the 2000 election and the disenfranchisement of Ohio voters in 2004.
There are those of us who've been shouting from the rooftops for years that Time leans Republican. Now, it appears the Left will finally take notice. And hopefully, more than a few progressives will cancel their subscriptions.
To get an understanding of Time magazine's conservative leanings, it's important to take a look at the magazine's history, which has always been steadily pro-business and pro-GOP since launching in 1923.
Before that, founders Henry Luce and Briton Hadden were noted for having turned their college paper (the Yale Daily News) into a "propagandist sheet promoting intense patriotism" during World War I (according to "The People's Almanac" by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace).
"The People's Almanac" documents Time magazine's historically conservative bias, including the magazine's take on events when the U.S. was in the grip of hard times during the 1930s economic meltdown:
"The Depression would go away if one worked and prayed hard enough, and if some people starved, well, it was pretty much their own fault. Luce never had any sympathy for losers."
Time later propagandized for the U.S. to enter World War II, "The People's Almanac" notes. But not for the purpose of saving democracy, or the British, but to establish American dominance in the world:
This was to be, Luce said, the "American Century." America must take charge of the world because no one else was worthy. Military supremacy was essential.
Time magazine's pro-GOP leanings continued after the war, "The People's Almanac" notes. "By 1950 Time had become almost the house organ of the Republican party."
Despite Time magazine's historically pro-Republican leanings, I'm a bit baffled as to why it would dignify human filth like Coulter. I suppose it all comes down to profit. After all, the mainstream media's embrace of "unbiased" news has really always been about profit.
If you claim to be unbiased, then, in theory this will increase readership and boost your profits. It sounds like a plausible theory on paper. But the fact is, I think this approach has finally caught up with America's mainstream press.
Big Media's credibility is lower than ever these days. The Right has long condemned the media for a supposed "liberal" bias. And now the Left is also starting to catch on that Big Media is not to be trusted.
The bottom line is that the corporate media titans these days are dinosaurs and headed for extinction. With the rise of the Internet, the media is splintering into thousands of independent voices, that corporate America (much to its horror) cannot control. Across the Web, tens of thousands of online publications are emerging and few of them make any ridiculous pretense at "non-partisanship."
Time shot itself in the foot with the Coulter fiasco. And Big Media's loss is a big plus for all of us who believe in putting the truth (and people) before profits.
J.D. Whines About Being Checked On His Lies
6 hours ago
3 comments:
your jealousy of the gop is showing
if you think ANY of the media is pro-gop you need to get your head examined!!!
In response to the previous poster, oh, so in your view Fox News isn't pro-GOP? (You know, the network that employed Bush's own cousin to call the 2000 race in favor of Bush). If Fox ain't pro-GOP, then the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda wasn't pro-Hitler.
My predictions are famous. I have however refused to disclose the US future for fear of reprisals, plus being labeled anpatriotic, until today when I have been threatened in such way that I had to triangulate the stars, the winds of good and evil and look at the tea leaves.Sorry children but this is what I see on June 20 of the year 2026.
1.The US is now governed by an Executive Committe chaired by George W. Bush
2. The Vice President, Dick Cheney is still active thanks to a molecular recalibration controlled by nano dynamics of the inner cortex of the perigram escardio in the sub-oriented oxygenated filiforming estestesis.
When asked about our progress in Iraq, he replied:
"We have turned the corner, we are staying the course and the insurgents are in their last throes!"
His aids are afraid to tell him that the Insurgents are now organized into the Muslin World Society and control 85% of the people of the planet.
3.The US Congress was terminated in 2009
4. Mexico purchased most of the Middle West plus Indiana and Maine in 2010, when Japan bought the West Coast, Fidel castro bought Cuba and Reverend Jackson took over the Deep Sath states.
5. Condoleezza married Oprah and they adopted Tom DeLay and Ralph Reed
6. The members of the Supreme Court were drafted into the Peace Corp and are now somewhere in Central Africa and the Himalayas
7. The Peso has replaced the dollar
8. Industrial activity in the country is in the hands of a conglomerate named Halibhuston, Inc., who also happen to be the sub-contractors in charge of running the Armed Forces.
9. 150 million Americans emigrated to Australia, New Zealand and Burkina Faso since 2010
10. A new religion was introduced in the US in 2012.Alberto Gonzalez and Karl Rove are the Exhalted Masters, supported by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.
Worst of all, the US Soccer Team was again eliminated in every World Cup since 2006
Merry Xmas!
geronimo
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