Hack List No. 3: Newsweek

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:15:00 +0000

This year, my annual list of the worst of political media highlights not just individuals, but the institutions that enable those individuals. The 2012 Hack List will be counting down the 10 media outlets that are hurting America over the next two days -- stay tuned! (Previous Hack List entries here, here and here.)

One shouldn't speak ill of the dead, I know. But if Newsweek has taught me anything this year, it's that death is not truly the end, because Heaven Is Real, According to Science.

Yes, that was an actual, for-real Newsweek cover this year: "Heaven Is Real." It was the dumbest, probably, but not actually the worst. This year's Newsweek covers also included naked bondage lady, and sexy lady about to fellate asparagus (a stock image that had also quite recently been used in at least two other magazines). There was "what if Princess Di was alive and my friend," too, but that was from 2011.

Pundit: GOP should buy women’s magazines

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:59:00 +0000

In a New York Post editorial, Instapundit’s Glenn Harlan Reynolds has a simple reason for why Republicans performed poorly with “low-information” female voters: The party didn't make nice in the media. Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson threw $150 million at the campaign but Reynolds would like to see the money spent on a friendlier brand of propaganda than attack ads:

My suggestion: Buy some women’s magazines. No, really. Or at least some women’s Web sites…

For $150 million, you could buy or start a lot of women’s Web sites. And I’d hardly change a thing in the formula. The nine articles on sex, shopping and exercise could stay the same. The 10th would just be the reverse of what’s there now.

For the pro-Republican stuff, well, just visit the “Real Mitt Romney” page at snopes.com, or look up the time Mitt Romney rescued a 14-year-old kidnap victim, to see the kind of feel-good stories that could have been running. For the others, well, it would run articles on whether Bill Clinton should get a pass on his affairs, whether it’s right that the Obama White House pays women less than men, and reports on how the tax system punishes women.

Salon.com > Magazines

Hack List No. 3: Newsweek

Pundit: GOP should buy women’s magazines