Jim's Notes

Sitting for what I believe in.
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Magazine Madness

Now I am as patriotic as the next guy.  I believe that we have some pretty special things in America.  The right to think and speak for ourselves being one of these things, among others.  Margaret Thatcher said that the difference between Europe and America is that the former was founded on history and the latter upon philosophy.  While that may be an over simplification I think that there is some truth to that.  And you'd think will all that philosophy in our blood we might have some good weighty heads on our shoulders.  In the very least we should be able to engage in discussion with the world.  And I am probably right.  For the most part we are citizens of  the world.  But unfortunately the editors of Time don't think we are engaged in the world discussion and decided to show us a different cover in a recent issue than the cover that the rest of the world sees.  The rest of the world is presented with the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and we are presented another more nationalistic story about the bible in public schools.  While that may not be that bad, you have to wonder why the editors of Time don't think that the American public cares as much about the world stage.  Newsweek did the same thing.  They presented the same story  about the Taliban to their international readers and presented America with a story about Annie Leibovitz's life in pictures.  No offense to Miss Leibovitz, but I don't even know who she is.  What this really indicates to me is that demographic and marketing studies have shown that the American magazine buying public has little concern over world matters or at least that national news is a better seller.  I am just surprised that there isn't a picture of Anna Nicole on both covers. 

Print | posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 9:49 PM | Filed Under [ Personal/Random Communication ]

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# re: Magazine Madness

Note: Annie Leibovitz is a noted American portrait photographer and is not unduly featured on the cover of Time. My point is though, that apparently national discussion and entertainment articles are more marketable in the US, than stories set on the world stage. It should also be noted that in the case of Time, and presumably in the case of Newsweek, the Taliban article made print. It just didn't make the cover.
3/27/2007 10:58 PM | Jim
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# re: Magazine Madness

If you ever tune into the BBC World News on the radio or PBS TV you'll get real news about what's going on in the rest of the planet. It's really a shame that as the broadcast options have expanded so much (print seems to be dying) that the coverage has been dumbed down so incredibly. I can barely stand to watch the network news anymore; they've just a 1/2 hour and they fill most of it with trivial junk. CNN used to be better at real news, but is slipping toward pablum like the rest. I do think The Newshour on PBS does a good job.

I don't follow the web blogs very much, but perhaps serious treatment of real news with breadth and depth is emerging there. I hope so.

3/28/2007 8:32 PM | Steve
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# re: Magazine Madness

Although Annie Liebovitz's main claim to fame is portraits of celebraties for Rolling Stone....
3/28/2007 8:33 PM | Steve
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# re: Magazine Madness

Ok, "celebrities" Thank you, Liz.
4/1/2007 10:06 AM | Steve
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# re: Magazine Madness



Keep it coming! Great entry.
4/1/2007 9:19 PM | Julie

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