In fact, the cover of the April 2010 issue alone gave us pause. "AGE OF TREASON" screams the headline. Is this Mother Jones (named after the muckraker who herself was accused of treason) or The National Review? The subheading continues, "THIS SOLDIER IS READY TO TAKE UP ARMS AGAINST THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION. HE'S NOT ALONE." This is what keeps the Mother Jones crew too busy to write corrections? Staff meetings where they dream up these fear mongering covers?
Just holding the cover leaves you feeling unclean, as if Lucianne Goldberg had cornered you in an elevator while insisting did she have a boy for you!
Mother Jones offers nine pages of crazy passed off as a cover story. We'd first point out that MoJo wasn't interested in 'exposing' (or covering) resistance in the military under Bush. But if it has to do with loverboy Barry Obama, they just will not abide it.
Reading Justine Sharrock's purple prose, we were reminded that the real Mother Jones was jailed and that this magazine is supposed to embody her. Instead, it's just another pathetic rag that can't address reality because it's too in love with Barry.
Meanwhile, we feel like Extra! subscribers should thank us (and a few have e-mailed to do just that). It actually manages another issue. The first page with actual text is page three (of a fifteen page issue -- plus ad on back cover) and a headline at the top of the page proclaims, "Better to Mislead Than to Take a Side" which, more and more, appears to be the operating belief of both Extra! and the corporation which puts out the magazine: Fairness andAccuracy In Reporting.
After all, ObamaCare passed and did so not only without objection from Extra! but also without them bothering to inform their audiences of alternatives. They did manage to waste everyone's time by whining about the right-wing. Which, for the record, they do again this issue putting Glenn Beck on the cover.
How stupid are they at FAIR? Tossing your enemy on the cover? They know nothing about publishing and damn little about media which is why FAIR remains a Panhandle Media joke year in and year out.
The watch dog that couldn't bark, Extra! decides to decry ObamaCare (sort of) this issue . . . now that it'spassed via Michael Corcoran's "The Flawed Media Narrative of the Healthcare Debate." Maybe if they were less concerned about George Will's flip-flops on filibusters, they would have had time to cover issues when coverage might actually make a difference? And leave it to the idiots and liars of FAIR to whine about Will's changing position on filibusters while pretending they don't see Rachel Maddow doing the exact same thing. They helped create her and her kind by refusing to call it out. They are the reason there is no functioning media on the left. Steve Rendall -- who does bitchy quite well -- rounds up a litany of "fake quotes" from right-wing media and, Stevie, we'll take you seriously when you join Bob Somerby in calling out Rachel Maddow's creative quoting. Until then, you're just bitchy.
And laughable. Hello, The Nation. "Ten Things" maintains the headline and the subheading clarifies "Ten Things You Can Do to Help Progressive Journalism." As should be obvious to anyone, the number one thing ("Teach Them How To Write A Headline") doesn't even make the list. But it's not a list. It's not about activism, it's about how you can couch potato . . . but for the left!
Watch this, click that, Tweet this, blah, blah, bulls**t. They should be ashamed of themselves to offer such a dipsy and anti-activist piece of garbage. The closest to activism only further demonstrates how out of it The Nation is and remains:
8 Change it. Firedoglake is using its influence in the blogosphere to fire up readers. In its inaugural round of voting, FDL selected Representatives Dennis Kucinich, Alan Grayson and Anthony Weiner as its top three Fire Dogs, for whom the site is raising $10,000 and identifying 500 voters apiece for GOTV activities.
The Nation's a weekly and this is the April 19th issue. March 17th, Jane Hamsher wrote "Dennis Kucinich Will Return Money to Donors" (Firedoglake) and the mood towards Weiner and Grayson isn't what we'd call "hospitable" at Firedoglake currently.
Raising money's a passive activity. That's all The Nation is: Passive.
Harper's Magazine charts "The Vanishing Liberal" -- an article by Kevin Baker which presumes to answer "How the Left Learned to Be Helpless" -- we believe we just demonstrated that repeatedly with the above magazines. We also believe Kevin Baker jerks off for nine long pages. He starts off noting that Barack may be a disappointment (may be?) and, by page three, is back in 1870, beginning a curious sort of historical survey. Curious?
Where are the 90s? Where are the eighties other than a single sentence? This is nothing but gas baggery. It ties in nothing from the past to today and does little to inform the readers. It, quite honestly, wasn't worth printing.
It, quite honestly, wasn't worth printing not only describes Baker's cover story but the left print media today. No wonder The Nation passes off begging for money as a "activism."
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4-20-2010, Ty note: This article originally and wrongly called The Nation a "bi-weekly." I have no idea what we were thinking. I have corrected it to weekly.