Comments on: Right complaint, wrong picture

By: Laurence Glavin

Laurence Glavin — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:17:59 +0000

I think that Fareed Zakaria’s article about the United States falling behind other countries in the area of competitiveness is well worth reading.

By: Al from the North Shore

Al from the North Shore — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:24:26 +0000

thing is it USED to be a serious magazine. I started reading it more or less regularly in the 70s and it had a fair amount of gravitas. Not in recent years…

By: John A Keith

John A Keith — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:46:23 +0000

We got a Newsweek subscription as a gift, two years ago. I never cracked it open until a month or so ago. I was really impressed – I read it cover to cover. Found out that it was after their upgrade, this summer.

They’ve had a couple of misfires; the Palin cover is as off-base and insulting as any “Jon and Kate” cover on US Weekly.

If they can keep on track and be a serious newsmagazaine, without this type of junk, it might just pay off. I know I’d start reading it on a regular basis (well, it was free, after all …)

By: Al from the North Shore

Al from the North Shore — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:06:31 +0000

Newsweek is beyond pathetic at this point. It usually takes me less than five minutes to get through it when I’m in a doctors’ waiting area (about the only time I read it now). I loathe Palin and agree with Dan about her selection being the worst ever (someone being worse than Dan Quayle is quite an accomplishment)–but that cover and the images are dumb.

By: Joey

Joey — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:54:07 +0000

First, I wholly agree that Newsweek is making itself irrelevant, but that was happening long before the Palin photo spread.

Second, how is the Palin cover shot any different than the photo of Obama widely circulated just after his election, when he was vacationing in Hawaii and someone snapped a shot of him with his shirt off? For a 47-year-old smoker, the guy had a nice set of pecs (better than mine, certainly). The image was clearly intended to show off his physique, and to give some eye-candy to the opposite gender. Nobody cried sexist then. This is just more Palin whining and more wingnut belief that any criticism of the right must by definition be proof of liberal bias. Please.

Third, the photo of Palin’s legs isn’t a photo of her legs; it’s a photo of the three men in the mid-ground, gazing up at her. The legs are just a vehicle to prove the primary point, that Republican men were drooling over this supposedly smart, sexy, conservative woman. She’s only two of the three. I see scant evidence of any sexism or bias in these photos.

By: Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:22:08 +0000

Fish: There was only one time during the campaign that the Obama people were complaining about a magazine cover, and my take was that they ought to grow up.

By: Brad Deltan

Brad Deltan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:04:43 +0000

Dude, if Palin doesn’t want to be treated like a whore, she shouldn’t act like one. Her entire political presence is based on her MILF-ness and her regurgitation of Limbaugh’s so-right-it’s-wrong talking points.

She f**king WINKED at the audience during a goddamn VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE for Chrissakes!!! How can ANYONE take her seriously after she so shamelessly whores herself out for a just a few more seconds past her 15 minutes?!?

By: Dunwich1

Dunwich1 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:03:08 +0000

I’m tempted to say Newsweek and Meacham should just go away.
Then I think of related jobs going away too, and get a bit more tolerant.

By: O-FISH-L

O-FISH-L — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:10:50 +0000

I tried searching David Plouffe in your search box and got this response.

“Not Found. Sorry, you are looking for something that isn’t here.”

Shocker.

By: Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:10:21 +0000

Fish: Palin posed for the cover of a major American magazine and it ended up on the cover of another major American magazine, albeit not one as good as Runner’s World. If she was looking forward to seeing that image in magazine racks, well, she got her wish, didn’t she? Newsweek’s cover was stupid and sexist, but that’s to be expected. It’s Newsweek, after all. If the cover line had read “Ready to Run America,” I somehow don’t think she’d be objecting to the photo.

The better analogy is the close-up of her legs inside Newsweek, with several male worshippers looking like they’re going to lose consciousness. Like Obama in Africa, she knew people were taking her picture, but she wasn’t posing, and she had no way of knowing to what end the picture would be used.

Did I scold Plouffe? I don’t remember, and I don’t care. There’s a search box in the upper right. Why don’t you try using it?