Wankers of the Day

The editors of Time Magazine:

That is right up until the very last moment when, after someone brought up the question of the whether the Democrats will be able to present an effective alternative to Bush in the next election, Joe Klein shouted out, “Well they won’t if their message is that they hate America—which is what has been the message of the liberal wing of the part for the past twenty years.”

Excuse me, but I think this is worth some attention. It’s not about Klein per se, who after all, is best known to most Americans as the guy who lost his job at both Newsweek and CBS News for purposely misleading editors, readers and viewers in order to increase his own personal profit as the allegedly “anonymous” author of “Primary Colors.” (He also [classily] attacked the reputation of the linguist who figured out his identity in New York Magazine.) What is important, however, is the fact that Time is America’s highest circulation newsweekly. And since it fired Margaret Carlson, Joe Klein, believe it or not, is its most liberal columnist. That’s right. The most liberal columnist at the America’s largest weekly newsmagazine pretends that the message of liberals for the past twenty years has been that they “hate America,” just as if he were reading from talking points issued by Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter. (Don’t get me started.)

Once again I am forced to say, “What the hell is going on here?” How about a little noise in the blogosophere politely asking Time to hire a genuinely liberal columnist? (Newsweek has three Jon Alter, Eleanor Clift and Anna Quindlen.) My nomination would be Josh Marshall, but that’s not important. What matters is that the magazine has four million readers and sets the agenda for much of the media, globally. And it not only won’t allow any liberals in the door, it continuously slanders them, both in its cover stories and in its columns. Forty-seven percent of Americans strongly oppose George Bush. Twenty nine percent say he deserves to be impeached. And yet these many tens of millions of people are treated with complete contempt by the pundits who are invited to determine the course of the political discourse. Why do we have to take this lying down? The address for letters to the editor is letters@time.com.