Newsweek Cover Races To The Bottom With Old Photo Of Palin
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How to solve a problem like the coverage of Sarah Palin? According to Newsweek you take the low road. The weekly magazine, which since its relaunch has opted for increasingly blogosphere-like headlines to generate readers, apparently has decided that the best way to cover Sarah Palin’s reemergence on the national stage is with an old photo from Runner’s World (Palin is well known for running marathons). Wow. Were there no other photos available? Did they perhaps neglect the Google search option in their rush to be as condescending and marginalizing as possible? Maybe so. The headline, however, would suggest otherwise.
Yesterday, Steve Krakauer noted that MSNBC had provided us with a preview of one way Palin would be welcomed back — “with marginalization, jokes and borderline sexist segments.” And I noted that without question “there will be more than enough reasons to hold Palin to account in the coming weeks without resorting to infuriating nonsense like this.” And there will be. Palin, herself, will provide ample reasons, as she usually does every time she opens her mouth. But resorting to a photo like this (and yes I realize she posed for it, though in an entirely different context) to illustrate such a condescending headline forces me conclude that Newsweek thinks Palin is an annoying little problem because she looks good in runner’s shorts, and not a problem because, as both the magazine’s articles suggest, she is the 21st century’s version of Barry Goldwater, and has broad national appeal for a whole slew of reasons, very few of which having to do with how she looks in runner’s shorts. Or because she uses this national appeal to support and promote ill-informed, inaccurate analyses of national and international policy, which is major cause for concern.
The fact of the matter is that she is a problem and the accompanying article is well-argued — pointing out history is not on Palin’s side in term’s a populist nominee winning the White House, but that she could very well “tie up Congress” — and worth a read. As is Jon Meacham’s column which touches on many of the same points. But wow does that cover make me not care what the magazine has to say, mostly because I would rather the fact that Sarah Palin is such an easy target, intellectually speaking, not also function as a green light for the media to have a field day with demeaning, sexually charged coverage. Of course, the fact that picture even exists in the first place makes me wish even more that Palin was capable of exercising better judgment and that the most powerful woman in the Republican party wasn’t quite so easy to mock.
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29 comments
Well Glyn, I have to say – first of all, she posed for this photo, in her office, with her arm resting casually on an American flag draped over a chair. She is not some naif here, this pic was taken well after the campaign – and its hard lessons – had time to sink in. Let alone that this pic is one of a series that has her posing in spandex. I got no problem with being a smart, powerful woman who is also sexy and fit but you’ve gotta know how these things will be perceived – and particularly with this flag photo, she either didn’t, or did and didn’t care.
The headline contends that Sarah Palin is bad for the GOP, and America – this picture epitomizes that, in my estimation, because it demonstrates just how bad her judgment can be. This woman is all about the gratuitous photo-op, unthinking moment, unedited Facebook post, unconsidered comment – there is absolutely no sense of careful consideration or sober second thought. This photo is a photo she posed for willingly – a photo from her mature policial life, not her beauty pageant past, which I have no issue with, or a superimposed bikini shot, which I do. No one bears responsibility for the way Sarah Palin is presented in that photo except for Sarah Palin – which is why it is the perfect illustration for this Newsweek cover.
I rarely disagree with you, but wow do I ever in this case.
Newsweek has an agreement with MSNBC, so it is understandable that they would publish this photo and the headline with a take-off of West Side Story. Ah, the liberals like to tell the conservatives that Palin is bad for us! How typical.
I would bet a bunch of dollars than Mecham, Glynnis, and Rachel never ran a marathon. So why not mock an athletic woman like Sarah?
It is embarrassing, not to Sarah, but to Newsweek. Just more mocking of strong women. When will NOW stand up and say enough is enough? Oh if only Sarah were a pro-abortion, anti-Christian woman, Meecham, McNicol and Sklar would be singing her praises.
I agree with Glynnis here, the pic is meant to scream “Hawt!” and it does. I think you give Newsweek too much credit in factoring in her judgment, Racel.
OH and PS, I kind of like Redstate’s take on this: “Does This Mean Newsweek Stands in For the Nazis?*”
OH and PPS. I wonder when Newsweek is going to put the photos up of Obama bowing, not only to the Saudi King, but now to the emperor of Japan as well…….Could be some kind of headline like:
“how do we solve a problem like Obama” — he is not good for America — first President in history to violate all bounds of protocol and world leader demeanor. When in the history of our nation has a President bowed and cow-towed to royalty? I recall when the NYTimes went after Clinton for bowing his head (sort of) to the emperor of Japan, but alas — Obama gives the big deep bow and the NYTimes, this site and others are silent?
When will Newsweek step up to the plate and address this? (HA, never, I’m certain….they are too busy demeaning conservative women while giving liberal messiah’s a free pass).
Shows what you know, Rachel placed 5th in the Ottawa Marathon in 2003, and Glynnis lettered in track at South Amboy HS.
I was actually thinking the same thing, TfT. What have we been spoon-fed for over a year now? “Isn’t it great that our President works out every day?” “Look how toned Michele Obama’s arms look!” “This Obama family is such a good-looking group!” Wait a tic, suddenly physical pride is degrading and embarassing? Since when?
The press always reveals itself when things that are an asset for Dems is a liability for Reps. Obama is a brilliant Harvard man, Bush was an idiot (even though from Yale), Clinton was an Oxford genius, Bush Sr. was stodgy and Ivy League old-boy. And don’t even think about being a conservative woman. Sexism and misogyny are the only workable descriptions, while Hillary and other liberal women are all brilliant.
Good for Rachel — and you are right, I didn’t know. Congrats to her.
Did you know that even the LA Times is asking, “How low will the new American president go…?” This in response to the low, cow-tow, bow of our President. I look forward to your article on that tomorrow. That is if you are interested in reporting on the current President.
Buckle up, the season of Palin-bashing is just getting started. Rarely, have we seen so much ordinance directed at a target not on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list. If that we could focus this hard on taking out Osama Bin Laden.
It’s a shame that Newsweek has become such a crappy liberal rag. I was a longtime subscriber, but dropped it a few years ago. These days they might was well just rename it “MSNBC: The Magazine”.
I don’t know their thought process, but I’d assume the pic was chosen to help them stand out on newsstands. I haven’t seen next week’s Time or US News, but they probably don’t have such a stunning cover image which nothing else, could cause a guy to flip through one to look for more pictures and once they open it up, especially if they do it before the others, they might theoretically take a Newsweek home.
I really don’t this this was about abstinence but the fact that after Sarah Palin preaches about abstinence, the teenagers are allowed to shair a bed together. Even an idiot knows that if you let two teanagers spend the night in the same bed, and they even kind of like each other, there is going to be sex. Itis more about how Sarah Palin has no common sense.
Vitamins
Ahhh…Newsweek and TIME. The two magazines whose only visibility is in doctor’s and dentist’s office waiting areas. Magazines that are now about 22 pages long each issue, thanks to the dearth of advertising revenue. I smile at the financial wreckage that the mainstream media industry has become and I cheer each round of layoffs.
All of this begs the obvious question:
What is it about Palin that is so threatening? I just don’t get it. Why the need to mock and belittle? Do some folks think that she is really a viable candidate in 2012? To my eyes it is all way over the top. It makes no sense. Why do you care what she says on Facebook or Twitter? Aren’t there enough truly serious problems facing our country that have nothing to do with this woman?
If it continues at this level of ferocity it will only make her a sympathetic figure.
It is truly astonishing to watch.
The photo so encapsulates everything Palin – trivial, spotlight-hogging, skin-deep, shallow, vain – how could they not use it? Dammed appropriate I say.
TfT with selective memory, as usual…
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f341/HARTWICK26/George_W_Bush_Prince_Abdullah_kiss_.jpg
I love it! Here is the answer to your question. Keep harping on the cow-towing thing. Don’t worry, this series of photos will continue to come to the forefront. Or, wait, anything that happened between 2002-2008 we’re supposed to forget. Pretend it didn’t happen.
And I love how defensive the conservative MEN get about their Sarah. If this is how you want “your women” to be depicted, by all means. David Brooks (a conservative thinker – go figure, they exist!) said it best this morning… “Palin is a joke.”
For what it’s worth (and I think it’s worth something), Meghan McCain called it “the most sexist thing I have ever seen.”
I think it’s embarrassing for Newsweek – but will sell more copies I guess. Bottom line?
Also we’re planning a live blog of the Oprah/Palin show tomorrow at 4pm. Should be great.
It’s always about the money. Think Fox “News” and Glenn Beck. SHOW ME THE MONEY BABY!!!
Steve Krakauer: It will be interesting to see if Newsweek sells more with this cover, or loses more subscribers. Sexist indeed.
Live blog — should be interesting. Will you be live blogging her appearance on Rush and Barbara Walters as well, or just her first public outing with Oprah?
Oprah on Monday, Rush and Hannity on Tuesday, I don’t know when the Walters appearance is, but I think O’Reilly has her on Thursday.
I love the Palin haters. The woman was the Governor of the Largest State in the Union but you think you are so much smarter than her. Since I’ve never seen Obama’s College Grades or Transcripts, I can only assume that being able to read a TelePrompter is now the standard of intelligence, along with spreading the cancer that is Socialism while apologizing to the world for all the Evils of America.
Imagine if Newsweek posted that picture of Barry the Child King taking a hit of that doobie in College with the story line, “Is this Pot smoking, Cocaine using Drug Dealing Marxist good for America?”. (He was just soooo cooool, wasn’t he?) AG Eric Holder would be knocking at Newsweeks door the next day along with the little enforcer “nine fingers” Raum .
Or imagine Hillary “cankles” Clinton wearing that one piece swimsuit on that same cover. Oh boy, the Feministas would be howling like stuck pigs, a proper analogy if there ever was one.
We get it you don’t like Sarah Palin. She has the nerve to discuss the “Constitution” thingy that you Libtards have no concept of. The State Run Media, which is actually the DNC in drag, can’t handle anyone going against the concept of their Socialist Utopia.
Instead of discussing what is happening in this country, let’s ridicule those who dare to have a differing opinion. The Media is nothing but a bunch of Liberal Pandering Elitists who try to destroy anyone who dares to question their power over the ignorant masses.
How’s that Hopey, Changey, Commie thing working out for you?
I forgot the most important reason all the Liberals hate Sarah Palin.
She dared to give birth to a Child with Downs Syndrome. When faced with the same decision, the typical self absorbed Liberal would rather kill the baby than have to deal with the responsibility of raising an “imperfect” child.
After all, to paraphrase the Boy King, we don’t want to be punished with a baby, right? Especially a baby that would require self sacrifice and would effect the Narcissitic lifestyle that Liberalism promotes.
Oh the Compassionate Liberals, always thinking up ways to steal your neighbors property and labor to lessen your self loathing guilt. Why should you sacrifice, when you can use your vote to elect people that have no trouble stealing from another to give to you.
When the Parasites outnumber the Hosts, it is over. With Obummer in the White House, along with Queen Pelosi and Dingy Harry running the Legislature, we have reached that point.
@tjl: You do understand the difference between Bush’s kiss and Obama’s bows, right? The former is how equals greet, while the latter indicates subservience.
Bush’s actions can be seen as a lot of things, from being overly friendly to a foreign nation to paying “lip service” to Arab protocols to get ahead. However, it can’t be seen as ceding America’s place as a sovereign nation, taking a subservient position with respect to other world leaders or groveling.
Plenty of world leaders kiss each other. None bow.
You can always tell the left nowadays. They operate from a standpoint of ridicule, but never want a real intellectual discussion. The Palin situation is a case in point. You might think that a debate over ideas would play a role in public discourse in these troubled times. But then the left would be forced to defend spending ten trillion dollars borrowed from China that we can never pay back. Much easier to focus on Sarah Palin’s dress.
Sarah, looking forward to seeing you drop kick the Commie-Wuss and his gaggle of Mao-loving dingbats and Marxist fruits and nuts down Pennsylvania Avenue in 2012! Go girl!!
“Of course, the fact that picture even exists in the first place makes me wish even more that Palin was capable of exercising better judgment and that the most powerful woman in the Republican party wasn’t quite so easy to mock.”
Whereas the rest of us could’ve lived our whole lives without needing to see Obama’s abs.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ US! Somebody under 50 years old, please buy this magazine and read it. We might get ads in the next issue. Please!
Hmmmmm. Sarah looks GREAT in shorts. And — for other reasons — this ATHEIST will vote for her at any opportunity. Her heart’s in the right place, she needs only to brush up her peace-thru-strength points and read some Mises, Rothbard, Friedman, Posner and Rand —- well within her intellectual capabilities — although I expect that the average Democrat would either doze off and never finish —- or his head would just explode with the knowledge that he is wrong, wrong, wrong. Hey. Sarah Palin. Long may she wave.
Oh, by the way. David Brooks is a joke — the sort of sell-out whom Murray Rothbard ridiculed as a bought-and-paid-for “court intellectual.”
Newsweek is grasping at the wrong straw (to maintain circulation) by taking this picture from another publication. I long ago dropped my subscription to this rag of a news magazine when its bias toward sensationlism became very evident. It has continued to cater to a smaller and smaller audience. Newsweek’s time as a viable magazine is limited. It’s a shame that they pay more attention to its liberal editors and writers than to the general public that reads magazines.
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