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The People-ization of the Newsweeklies
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20050 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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12 / 1992 |
2,408 Words |
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Brant Clifton and Steven Kaminski
Brant Clifton and Steven Kaminski are media analysts with the
Media Research Center in Alexandria, Virginia. |
"I must say that I was struck by the expanse of their chests. They may have to put out their stats." Quick, who said that? Was it a People magazine writer discussing the finalists for "Sexiest Man Alive"? Sadly, it was not. That was Newsweek's Eleanor Clift, on CNN's Inside Politics, commenting on Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton and his running mate, Sen. Al Gore. The once prestigious newsweeklies, Time and Newsweek, have evolved from serious, extended coverage of the news to tabloids with the liberal editorial style of Mother Jones and the intellectual content of the National Enquirer.
In the October 17, 1988, issue of Time, Managing Editor Henry Muller told readers of the magazine's plans "to better serve the needs of busy, curious intelligent readers." Muller wrote that "Time's responsibility more than ever is to deliver understanding beyond the sound bites and headlines." Four years later, we now see what Muller meant by this vague declaration.
Time and Newsweek have become, as Time publicist Brian Brown conceded to the Media Research Center's publication, Media Watch, "more provocative" and "opinionated." But they still claim to be, as Muller wrote, "above all a news magazine." Yet the trend toward opinion journalism and away from news is unmistakable and inevitable because of both news magazines' commitment to delivering "understanding beyond the sound bites and headlines."
Increasingly, the news content in Newsweek has been disappearing, replaced with plenty of liberal opinion. One has only to look at its coverage of this year's Republican National Convention. In the issue following the convention, Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Molly Ivins, whom conservative, syndicated columnist William Murchison has described as "the most liberal woman in Texas," wrote a piece calling the convention "sour, mean, and dull." In the August 31 Newsweek, Senior Editor Joe Klein wrote this about the convention: "The whole week was double-ply, wall-to-wall ugly, . . . the Republican Party reached an unimaginably slouchy, and brazen, and constant, level of mendacity last week . . . [Bush] is in campaign mode now, which means mendacity doesn't matter, aggression is all and wall-to-wall ugly is the order of battle for the duration."
Getting out of hand
Newsweek has gotten so out of hand that it has begun drawing fire from other members of the media. On CNN's September 5 Reliable Sources, Newsweek's Washington bureau chief,
...
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