Newsweek editor Jon Meacham explains in his latest editor?s note how the magazine has changed with the latest edition. Among the changes is the type of article Newsweek will publish:
There will, for the most part, be two kinds of stories in the new Newsweek. The first is the reported narrative ? a piece, grounded in original observation and freshly discovered fact, that illuminates the important and the interesting. The second is the argued essay ? a piece, grounded in reason and supported by evidence, that makes the case for something.
What is displaced by these categories? The chief casualty is the straightforward news piece and news written with a few (hard-won, to be sure) new details that does not move us significantly past what we already know.
In other words, ?since we can?t do news, we?ll give you more opinion.? Of course, that last quote is fabricated. It?s my attempt to speak the truth on Meacham?s behalf.
If my attempt to put words in the Newsweek editor?s mouth rubs you the wrong way, perhaps you?ll have the same reaction to another instance of the same offense in the latest edition of Meacham?s magazine.
Struggling to find some bit of evidence that would put a positive spin on Nancy Pelosi?s recent statements about the CIA and waterboarding, writer Tina Brown gives up and writes the following:
She couldn’t say what I suspect was the truth: “Look, we were conned about torture in the first briefing, and then, when I found out, it was too late. What was I going to do? Sure, Jane Harman sent her letter. Good for her. I was trying to fight this next horror show coming down in Iraq. The Republicans were killing us, and you in the press rolled over, too. You have to pick your battles, guys. This was hardball.”
The House speaker couldn?t come up with a good statement on her own, so Newsweek will do it for her. A new focus for the magazine indeed.
