Karl Rove and Markos Moulitsas Newsweek Gigs
Earlier this week, news that Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga would be given a regular Newsweek column created quite a stir in the blogosphere. Now, the other shoe has dropped, with an announcement that Karl Rove would be his right-wing counterpart:
Newsweek has signed the president’s former deputy chief of staff as a commentator who will turn out several columns on the 2008 campaign through inauguration day. The move is not likely to prove popular among liberals who believe the mainstream media have been too soft on the Bush administration.
“We want to give readers a feel for what it’s like to be on the inside,” says Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham. “Our readers are sophisticated enough to know that what they get from Karl has to be judged in the context of who Karl is…Readers will have to decide if he’s simply an apologist.”
Newsweek (which is owned by The Washington Post Co.) will announce tomorrow that it is granting regular space to both Rove and Markos Moulitsas, the liberal firebrand who founded the Web site Daily Kos. “I’m fully prepared for both the right-wing and left-wing blogosphere to be outraged, which means we’re doing our job,” Meacham says.
I’m not at all outraged by either choice, frankly. Both men are firebrands who are going to draw large audiences but whose rhetorical styles won’t change many minds. That’s not my cup of tea but, goodness knows, there’s a huge market for that kind of thing and neither is any more over-the-top than many who have gone before.
What does strike me as rather odd, though, is the pairing of the two as equals. What Kos has done in building far and away the most important blog community is certainly quite extraordinary. Still, its not comparable to Rove’s role as the chief architect of two successful presidential campaigns and the chief domestic advisor to a two-term president. Wouldn’t, say, James Carville have been a better analog to Rove? Or, if freshness were the goal, Mike Krempasky or Erick Erickson a more appropriate counterpart to Kos?
As a Newsweek subscriber, I am outraged by both choices. If I wanted commentary, there’s any number of opinion magazines I could subscribe to instead; I want news coverage.
Hiring two people with such obvious conflicts of interest is a gross violation of journalistic ethics and is sadly typical of the continuing decline in standards at the magazine.
Stormy – in 2005 or so I emailed Newsweek after the false story about the flushing of a Koran in the toilet which lead to protests which injured or killed a few Soldiers – basically Newsweek took the word of an anonymous source who turned out to have made it all up and published the story – i wrote them a not-so-nice email and told them to just cancel my subscription – they canceled my subscription and even gave me my money back despite not requesting it. They will only learn by their declining subscription numbers.
I agree that they aren’t exactly counterpoints to each other in terms of experience and political history, but I don’t see a big deal out of hiring either one.
I don’t read Newsweek unless I am a doctor’s office and desperate for some reading entertainment.
They chose Markos knowing Michelle Malkin’s panties would twist up so tight, she’d squeak when she walked.
I would not wipe my ass with a copy of Newsweek. I actually prefer the Washington Post, or New York Times.
Do you think Newsweek could include some kind of scented aromatic in the ink? And perhaps go to the porous and absorbent paper that flushes well?
I think the choices are actually rather appropriate. Both men are strictly concerned with the winning and losing of elections. Kos takes pride in his anti-intellectualism and has more than once announced his boredom with esoteric policy debates. Rove is a deeper thinker, but he was always far more effective as a political strategist than as a policy advocate.
I would love to hear why you think Rove is a deeper thinker.
What would they write about? Banning people?
I would love to hear why you think Rove is a deeper thinker.