The view from over there.
I took out a subscription this last year to The Economist. I’ve had previous subscriptions to Time, or Newsweek, or U.S. News and World Report at various times, but always ultimately ended up letting them lapse because they didn’t really offer anything new. They had more in-depth coverage, occasionally, on the “big story of the day”, but no single magazine trumps the torrent of online coverage available these days. There weren’t any great columnists that stick out in my memory. And worst of all, there was the overwhelming America-centric nature of the coverage. I wanted to get out of that.
I’ve tried the “media of the left”, and have had subscriptions to The Progressive, and The Nation, at various times, but they are equally America-centric in range, and are hardly balanced in their coverage. I can get all of the left-focused news, political and otherwise, online as well, especially at DailyKos. I can find most of the highlights from The Daily Show, or The Colbert Report, or Countdown right here on Where’s the Outrage.
I’m old-fashioned about my reading though. I like to pick up a book, a newspaper, or a magazine, and read it while I’m waiting for my carryout order to be ready. Or on the treadmill. Or while waiting to pick up the kids from some spot or another. And I’ve finally found a magazine that I enjoy reading and which offers both an intellectual challenge and a different voice. It’s a window into all the corners of the world and not every story has to be about “how this affects me here in America”. It’s a voice that criticizes both wings and all three (or is that now four) branches of our government when criticism is called for.
And as much as I’d like to think that I may have decent writing skills, there is a reason that my day-job is in medicine, and not in journalism. This piece, following Bush’s commutation of Libby’s sentence is worth a read. A couple of highlights follow.
“Mr Libby now walks free, and his $250,000 fine will surely be met by the rich Republican supporters who campaigned for his pardon. Yet perjury and obstruction of justice are very serious crimes. Even Paris Hilton, the wags are noting, had to go to jail for a few days. “
and
“Perhaps, in the end, Mr Bush’s decision came down to a simple calculation that he has little left to lose. He is not seeking re-election, his approval ratings can barely go any lower, and any hopes for legacy-polishing bipartisan co-operation with Congress seem to have evaporated. So why should Mr Bush not please his few remaining friends and placate his vice-president by springing the loyal Mr Libby? It makes a kind of sense, but a deeply troubling one. What else, one wonders, might so isolated a president do before he goes? “
And just how low are those ratings now?
And the magazine’s two shillings worth on those numbers:
“STOP the press, George Bush is unpopular. It may be no surprise that America’s lame-duck president is deeply unloved, as the latest opinion poll by Gallup confirmed on Tuesday July 10th. But his approval rating of 29% is a record low for Gallup’s polls. “
