Alas, poor Newsweek

The story grows. Newsweek published a small story about prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay. Riots occurred in the Middle East. Folks on the right are blaming Newsweek for the riots. Newsweek partially distances itself from its own story by noting that its original anonymous source is no longer so certain about the specifics of the abuses that he once told Newsweek reporters about. Folks on the left are pissed that Newsweek is backing off of its story and thinking that they are caving in to political pressure.

Some folks think that they should boycott Newsweek because it reported the original story--"not supporting the troops" and all that. Some folks think that they should boycott Newsweek because it's not fully standing by its story--which has been reported elsewhere anyway.

And I don't even shed crocodile tears.

I ended my subscriptions (mine and the gift one for Mama) last year. After many years of subscribing for both of us, we both decided that we just didn't like some of the things that were showing up in Newsweek. Like the reports that John Kerry had selected John Edwards as his running mate that included not one, not two, but three homoerotic references to their camaraderie. Like the report on plans for the Democratic Convention that concluded with the snarky comment that the convention would be a John Kerry party, "whatever that is." Neither of us saw the need to pay hard earned money for that kind of crap in news stories, when all we wanted was news.

Let me point out that this was not a decision lightly made. I discovered Newsweek in my first stay in East Africa. Young and apolitical, I was starved for news from home. On my island field site, I had no television, no radio. I picked up the national newspaper now and then, but there was little news from the U.S. One of the little local shops was dedicated to school and office supply sorts of things, and, on one of my visits, I saw a copy of Newsweek there. It turned out that someone on the island was a subscriber and hadn't pick up his/her copy that week. So I was lucky enough to be able to buy it instead. Thereafter, I made regular trips to the little shop and sometimes managed to have the same luck. On those days, I read the thing from cover to cover. It was there that I first heard of Watergate. It was there that I learned that Sissy Farenthold was running for governor. It was my link to sanity for the fourteen months that I lived in a very different world.

When I came home, as soon as I could afford it, I became a subscriber to Newsweek. This means many years of reading the magazine, many years of watching the changes from serious news to ever lighter fare. As much as anything, Newsweek was an old friend. When Newsweek arrived each Tuesday, I would again sit and read the whole thing from cover to cover. It was just what I would do on Tuesdays. And I was really antsy when it didn't arrive until Wednesday.

But my old friend let me down. I decided that Newsweek needed to get along without me--if only for a year or so--while I got over my snit with its slips toward bias. What I didn't realize--until today--is that I really don't miss it.

I will feel some sadness if Newsweek suffers too much from this brouhaha, but not enough to spend my hard earned money for more crap.

UPDATE: So lemme be a bit clearer on the story itself. As Arthur Silber points out the Stateside response against the original Newsweek story is being reoriented to: "Newsweek lied, people died." That is also crap. Newsweek didn't lie. It just used a shaky anonymous source to report a story that had already been widely reported in an attempt to present the story as one that could be corroborated by a more or less official U.S. source rather than those "suspect" allegations obtained from released detainees from Guantanamo. People died, but not because of Newsweek. They died because of resistance to the repressive regimes under which they lived and/or because of protests against much larger issues with the U.S., which also include the widespread perception that the U.S. is making war on Islam.

I still don't care much for Newsweek. When my mama reads a supposedly objective news magazine and then asks me in a shocked whisper-- "Are they saying that Kerry is gay?"--I have to think they crossed the line into some alternate reality. When George Will's comments are printed in Newsweek, they are clearly labeled as opinion. I don't have to like what Will says to be able to tolerate his opinion in a news magazine. I do have to question how Michael Isikoff's reporting continues to be tolerated by the editors when he couldn't find objectivity with instructions printed on his keyboard.

The criticism from the right--including the White House now--is, as Silber suggests, just another attempt to intimidate the press. Too bad my subscription cancellation won't be strong enough to counter that, but it's all I've got.