Noting that “One of the things you become conscious of when cover or write about news every day is how uninformed and/or disinterested the average person is concerning news,” Peter Ingemi, who blogs as “DaTechGuy” ponders “Will the Newsweek cover make people think Obama has come out?”
Quoting Glenn Reynolds’ joke that “If I were a GOP operative, I’d distribute thousands of those Newsweek issues to black barbershops in key precincts,” Ingemi responds:
How many people are going to see this cover in passing? How many doctor’s offices, waiting rooms, barber shops, (Black and otherwise) and other places where free copies of Newsweek go to die will this cover sit for months, perhaps all the way to election day?
And How many of those people who are too busy to read the story inside will see this cover on a magazine called NEWSWEEK without reading Andrew Sullivan’s piece and think Obama has come out as Gay?
I’m betting an awful lot.
If you think that is going to have a positive net effect on the president’s re-election effort, then you just might live in the MSM media bubble.
It seems like a long shot to me — this supposition assumes that people actually read Newsweek. (Although plenty of people with the good sense to avoid buying Newsweek have already seen the cover via Drudge and a zillion other Websites embedding its image.)
On the other hand, consider how lucky it is for Obama that Newsweek’s cover broke in May rather than October. How many low-information voters assumed that John McCain temporarily suspending his campaign in late September of 2008 at the height of the financial markets’ meltdown meant that he was permanently suspending it?
Speaking of Newsweek, a columnist there “Likens ‘Insufferable’ Ann Romney To Hitler, Stalin,” Real Clear Politics reports, with video from — where else? — MSNBC:
Goldberg found Ann Romney’s glowing praise of motherhood in a column she wrote for USA Today to be “kind of creepy.” During an appearance on MSNBC’s weekend program “Up with Chris Hayes,” Goldberg said the phrase “the crown of motherhood,” which Ann Romney used in her column, reminded her of “authoritarian societies” that give out awards for large families.
“In a lot ways, the column was totally anodyne, right? She’s, you know, yes, motherhood is beautiful. I found that phrase, ‘the crown of motherhood’ really kind of creepy. Not just because of it’s somewhat — you know, it’s kind of really authoritarian societies that give out like a Cross of Motherhood. They give out awards for big families,” Goldberg said on the program’s panel.
“You know, Stalin did it, Hitler did it,” she said.
Oh, you mean International and National Socialists. Newsweek seemed to believed that such concepts were universal, only a few years ago.
Or as blogger “Irish Spy” tweets, “Does the Romney campaign have double agents inside Newsweek? It’s the only explanation.”
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