Entry: Newsweek's cowardice. Monday, May 23, 2005



I was willing to give Newsweek the benefit of the doubt over their botched story last week.  Although they should have confirmed the story with multiple sources, I wasn't willing to blame them for the deaths due to riots last week, and by most accounts Michael Isikoff is a pretty straightforward journalist that doesn't show extreme bias in his articles.

However, this is over the line:



According to the Japanese blogger Riding Sun, the headline (writing in white) reads "The Day America Died".  And as you can see, the American flag has been stuck in a trash can.  This cover appeared in the Japanese edition of Newsweek on February 2.

Now I'm not one to get salty at someone because they disrespect the American flag, because when it comes down to it, it's a piece of cloth.  Patriotism and love of country and region comes from the heart, something that people can't burn or abuse. 

But the International and American covers of Newsweek were different than the Japanese one.  I won't post those because the photos are on his server (or, well, Blogger's) server and I'm sure enough bandwidth has been used from people hotlinking them to last a lifetime.  

But here's the International version.  It's a photo of Bush with the headline "America Leads, But Is Anyone Following?"  Both the International and Japanese versions have the lead story by Andrew Moravcsik; the International version was titled, "Dream On, America" and it was titled in the Japanese version, "America, the dream country, is rotting away."

But the American version was totally different.  Not only did they not have the anti-American sentiments of the other versions, but they didn't publish Moravcsik's article either.  The cover featured Oscar winners Jamie Foxx, Hilary Swank, and Leonardo Di Caprio.  And note: Moravcsik is a professor at Princeton University.  Why would Newsweek choose to publish an American writer in their International and Japanese versions, yet not in the American one?

Newsweek didn't because they KNEW they would catch heat in this country for that edition, especially if they would have placed the Japanese cover with the flag in the garbage can.  So they only left that and the article in the International and Japanese versions.  It's one thing to actually pull a stunt like this, but it's totally another to do it where you will get less heat from the ones you know will criticize you the most. 

Newsweek's stunt was cowardly, and if it wasn't for a blogger who noticed it, they would have gotten away with it.

   1 comments

Tokyo Tom
May 27, 2005   01:40 AM PDT
 
Expertise, I agree that (i) GaijinBiker has done us a service by bringing to our attention the Japanese Newsweek version of Andrew Moravcsik's "Dream on America" article and (ii) that Newsweek's behavior was cowardly, but there we part ways.

Have you got past the Japanese cover and read the article? At its core it is simply a report of the perception of the declining importance of the US in the world; it is unfortunate but undeniable that this perception is well-supported by many statistics showing an accelerating decline in the relative standing of the US in many important areas that affect our global power. We need to pull our heads out of the sand and start asking difficult questions about what we are doing wrong and what we should do to get back on track, for our own sake (whether the rest of the world looks up to us is another point).

It is frankly appalling that Newsweek wilted from the challenge of presenting an important reality-check piece such as this from the US edition.

Many say that Americans don't give a shit about the rest of the world any more. Yes, reality bites, but anger at reality will not make it go away.

There are very few corners in the world where people can live a traditional life unaffected by concerns about the consequences of interconnected world on jobs, cultural changes, security and the environment. The serious and unsettling nature of these changes are driving factors for increased polarization and fundamentalism. But nostaligia and resentment can't turn back the clock anywhere. For better or worse, the US lives in the world and not apart from it.

Reflexive self-justification and denial are understandable, but do not help us to deal with real problems. The US is facing a critical task to stem and reverse the serious decline in relative power that the US is now experiencing as investment and power flow to the growing economies of Asia, Europe and Latin America, as the Newsweek article in points out so well.

We should be gravely concerned that the world is turning away from us, and those who are pointing this out to us are doing us a service and should be counted as our friends. The Newsweek article is at its core a patriotic piece - Newsweek’s decision not to run it in the US is deeply disappointing, and is what should be criticised.

Yes, the Newsweek Japan cover is rather shocking, but American readers should see it as it is – an expression of very real alarm by our friends in Japan about the precipitous decline in the respect and admiration that US garners around the world, and at our unwillingness to face up to it. There is a palpable sense of disappointment, disillusion and loss in Japan as the US has turned away from its historic optimism and vitality. The cover is a wake-up call, and not a slap in the face.

Many global issues cry out for US leadership, but we refuse to accept that mantle in favor of unilateralism. Worse, the Adminstration, Congress and big business are fiddling while Rome burns (see Tom Friedman’s excellent op-ed in today’s Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/25/opinion/25friedman.html?th&emc=th).

Our place in the world will soon be much diminished, and we refuse to get our own house in order (enormous budget and trade deficits, declining technical and science skills, a frayed social support network, accelerating disparities in wealth, you name it). The wealthy are doing quite well, but otherwise, what a mess we are handing off to our children, who will have to foot the bills and the poorer America that we seem to be willing to settle for!

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