A cover that declares a "War on Christians" is bound to get some attention. Writing in the February 12 issue of Newsweek, author Ayaan Hirsi Ali's argument is just as blunt. Enough with all this talk "about Muslims as victims of abuse," because really it's the other way around: A wholly different kind of war is underway–an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm. To suggest that a genocide is underway is, of course, a serious charge. And [...]
Jan
27
2012
When Experts' Bitter Medicine Is Really Snake Oil
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Niall Ferguson is undoubtedly an expert. As the bio on his Newsweek column points out, he's "a professor of history at Harvard University. He is also a senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford University, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution." His latest column (1/23/12) is about the need to sell the public on the policies recommended by experts: To the kind of people who spend their careers inside elite institutions, the technocratic turn is welcome. Decisions about economic policy, they reason, are too difficult to be entrusted to the people's elected representatives…. But there's a catch. The [...]
Oct
19
2011
Newsweek's Funny Numbers on Green Jobs
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An article in the new issue ofNewsweek (10/24/11)–"Obama's Big Green Mess: How the White House lost its Eco-Mojo"–presents White House policy as a series of failures. It starts off with federal inspectors finding serious problems with various weatherization projects. That's just the tip of the iceberg–from Solyndra to stimulus, things aren't looking good. But writers Daniel Stone and Eleanor Clift seems to want to give White House critics an assist with things like this: Overall, as the $787 billion economic stimulus–the primary engine for the green-energy agenda–came to an end September 30, it is clear that the program created far [...]
Aug
26
2011
Zakaria, Libya and Iraq: Don't Remember What I Wrote
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Fareed Zakaria cheers the Libya War in Time magazine this week for not following the Iraq model: It has been prosecuted with the memory of the Iraq war firmly in mind. Only this time the approach has been to view the last war as a negative example. The international coalition–and even the Libyan opposition–is doing pretty much the opposite of what was done in Iraq. Zakaria explains that Obama "was clearly trying to avoid the mistakes of Iraq." Among the mistakes the Bush administration made: Had UN weapons inspectors been given more time in the spring of 2003, the UN [...]
Aug
17
2011
She Was After His Money: Newsweek's Anonymous Strauss-Kahn Rumor Mill
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A few weeks ago Newsweek's piece on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn rape case offered a welcome break from some of the sloppy, offensive coverage of the case we've seen elsewhere in the media. The magazine even cast doubt on some of the reporting coming from the New York Times. This week, though, is another matter. John Solomon has a piece outlining the Strauss-Kahn defense, and he includes this: Now sources familiar with Strauss-Kahn's case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, say the defense could speculate that the encounter went bad when housekeeper Nafissatou Diallo discovered she would not receive any [...]
Jul
25
2011
Mistakes, Madeleine Albright and Dead Iraqi Children
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Newsweek has a feature called "My Favorite Mistake," where a famous person talks about something they've done wrong.http://www.fair.org/blog/wp-admin/edit.php This week (7/24/11) it's former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The mistake she cited was when she wore the wrong pin to a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and then said something critical about his Chechnya policy. (The best mistakes are the most self-serving ones, apparently.) When I saw the headline, I was half-wondering if she'd talk about her famous defense of killing Iraqi children on 60 Minutes (5/12/96): Leslie Stahl asks Albright: "We have heard that half a million children [...]
Jul
25
2011
Diallo Speaks: Are There Holes in the 'DSK Case Crumbles' Narrative?
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Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel maid who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is now speaking out publicly–weeks after press coverage took a turn against her, based on the notion that something about her made her allegations less credible. "Strauss-Kahn Prosecution Said to Be Near Collapse" was the July 1 New York Times headline. One of the strongest bits of evidence was the claim that Diallo spoke to a friend, in prison on a drug charge, about Strauss-Kahn's wealth–the implication was that she and a criminal associate were plotting out how to profit from the assault. Newsweek's cover story this week is based [...]
Jul
13
2011
Newsweek Touts Palin's Wonky Insights on the Price of Slim Jims
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Will the outrages ever stop? Newsweek's "I Can Win" cover story about Sarah Palin is awful. But Palin fans will have a hard time trying to figure out how to square this puff piece with the notion that the mainstream media is out to get Palin. The premise is that Palin could run for president–and win. Because, well, that's what she says. That's sort of the theme for the whole article, as it is full of quotes and observations from Palin family members and associates who are trying to 'set the record straight' about her political career. Like how she [...]
Jul
11
2011
Newsweek Covers Egyptian Election…Via Israel
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Here's the headline and subhead in a Newsweek piece (7/10/11) about the Egyptian presidential election: Egypt's Rising Power Player Amr Moussa is on track to succeed Mubarak. And that spells danger for Israel. Reporter Dan Ephron characterizes Moussa like this: "long and vocal history of anti-Israel diatribes" "his anger against Israel" "one of Israelâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s most relentless detractors in Egypt" "He confronted Israelis at conferences and attacked them in television interviews" "His tirades even made him the subject of a hit song" "his longstanding dislike of Israel" "anger at Israel is genuine" This would be a lot more convincing if there [...]
Jun
13
2011
Newsweek's Nostalgia for Arab Dictatorships
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If you feel like there hasn't been enough attention paid to the fact that the democratic movements in the Arab world are undermining the power of U.S. elites to have troublemakers tortured and/or killed, rest assured that Newsweek's Christopher Dickey has you covered this week (6/12/11): Among American spies there's more than a little nostalgia for the bad old days. You know, back before dictators started toppling in the Middle East; back when suspected bad guys could be snatched off a street somewhere and delivered to the not-so-tender mercies of interrogators in their home countries; back when thuggish tyrants, however [...]
May
31
2011
It CAN Happen Here–But Newsweek Doesn't Notice
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Newsweek has a new piece wondering why it is that the United States doesn't seem to muster protest movements like we're seeing in Europe and in a number of Arab countries. The headline and image on their website: If you read that caption you see that protest happened on March 12* May 12– one of several mass mobilizations that have attracted almost no corporate media attention–a subject we discussed on CounterSpin last week with journalist Allison Kilkenny, who's been covering them for a variety of independent outlets. Yes, there could certainly be a sensible discussion about why the political system [...]
