Newsweek rules.
 

I'm not usually big on the political threads, but I found this item, um...interesting.







The Nation -- For a little thought experiment, go to the website of Newsweek's international edition. There, running down the left side of the page, are three covers, all the same, for the European, Asian, and Latin American editions of the October 2 issue.

Each has a dramatic shot of a Taliban fighter shouldering an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). The cover headline is: "Losing Afghanistan," pointing to a devastating piece on our Afghan War by Ron Moreau, Sami Yousafzai, and Michael Hirsh, "The Rise of Jihadistan." which sports this subhead: "Five years after the Afghan invasion, the Taliban are fighting back hard, carving out a sanctuary where they--and Al Qaeda's leaders--can operate freely." The piece begins: "You don't have to drive very far from Kabul these days to find the Taliban." (In fact, the magazine's reporters found a gathering of 100 of them in a village just a two-hour drive south of the Afghan capital.)

Now, go back to the international edition and take another look. Scroll down the page to the cover which doesn't match the others. That's the one for Newsweek's American edition. No Taliban fighter. No RPG. Instead, a photo of an ash-blond woman with three young children dressed in white, one in her arms, and the headline: "My Life in Pictures." The woman turns out to be Annie Liebovitz, photographer of the stars, and the story by Cathleen McGuigan, "Through Her Lens," has this Taliban-free first line: "Annie Leibovitz is tired and nursing a cold, and she' s just flown back to New York on the red-eye from Los Angeles, where she spent two days shooting Angelina Jolie for Vogue."

"The Rise of Jihadism" is still inside, of course; now, a secondary story. After all, Angelina Jolie is ours, while a distant botch of a war in Afghanistan..? As the magazine's editors clearly concluded, while the rest of the world considers the return of the Taliban, let us eat cake.

During the first Gulf War (and I have no personal experience of this of course) it was said by American journalists that unless a conflict is won easily and quickly, the American public gets very bored and stops purchasing publications that focus on the matter.

that doesnt suprise me hip. i think thats true of almost everywhere though.

Trying to hide the dirt under the carpet, won't make the truth disappear. That's quite fucking pathetic if you ask me.
Thanks for the highlight Savage Clone.

exactly. you cant hide it forever. unfortunatly when people do talk about things they get branded a conspiracy theorist a lot of the time. which on some cases simply isnt true.

You can't hide the facts forever, but with the help of the media you can help to ensure that people are preoccupied with other, banal things or blaming someone else. 'Woman has Baby', 'Immigrants to Blame for Everything', 'Man is Dating Woman' etc. It's disgusting.

That's why I take everything I see on tv with a pinch of salt. Because it's done in such a subtle way not to be obvious, it's quite difficult to destinguish truth from bullshit sometimes. I've trained myself to watch tv the real way. With my eyes closed, I hear better.

its strange becuase some things i have heard that sounded extremely far fetched which later turned out to be absolutely true.

What you said in your last post about the media, is so true Hip Priest. They try to make us focus on irrelevant crap, instead of important news.

true. i recall a daily mail (right wing british tabloid) headline which said 'immigrants are to blame for everything. this on the same day as an oil tanker ran aground somewhere and spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil into the sea.

american news is hilarious. it really is brass eye, day today fodder.

Once upon a time, American journalists were watch dogs--now they're lap dogs. You have to go to independent news sources--and there ain't many--like Democracy Now or NPR and such for any kind of reporting that has any real bite.

This is interesting.

Thanks, Chris.

Fuck you.

Anytime, darling.

porkmarras, i remember that conversation we had that day do you?