*Pop* Goes The Left’s Heads!
Karl Rove has been hired by Newsweek to "balance" coverage that is to be provided by Markos "Kos" Moulitsas. Both will write several columns throughout the 2008 election cycle.
Less than three months after leaving the Bush White House, Karl Rove is becoming a member of a community not all that popular with administration officials: the media.
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 did not comment at all when Kos made his announcement, figuring I'd wait. I didn't really see all that much outrage on the right over Kos getting hired. Let's see how the left handles Rove's new gig!
UPDATE: Not particularly well. 287 comments and counting and the love starts really quickly in the comments:
What was that? Karl Rove to become Newspeak distributor?
Why put Newstweak's reputation at risk with an immoral deformity?
Democrats and Progressives should seize all copies of Newsweek as soon as they appear on the stands, and then publicly burn them.
There are other, more violent fantasies as well. Yes, this is "nutpicking" from comments, but there really are some seriously deranged comments - and Huffington Post should not stand by while those kinds of people spew.
Blogosphere, Media | Gaius Thursday, 15 November , 2007
By Mwalimu Daudi, Thursday, 15 November , 2007 @ 3:44 pm
“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.
Is this the new standard for quality reporting at Newsweek - irritating everyone? Call it the shock-jock theory of journalism. Why not drop the façade and just hire Howard Stern and Don Imus?
I guess that accurate, balanced reporting is a concept that is forever beyond the ken of the self-anointed geniuses at Newsweek.
By DavidL, Thursday, 15 November , 2007 @ 4:11 pm
Why should the right get mad when Newsweak hires Kos? Newsweak has been written off for years.
Now the Rove hire does have the potential to change things for the left.