US Weekly Attack Costs them Subscribers "Left AND Right"

Last week, US Weekly had a cover story about Sarah Palin.

I'm sorry, but regardless of your political stance, you have to admit - this was just wrong. After reading the article, I thought, "They really did just spin the title COMPLETELY to destroy a candidate and sell more magazines."

In this case, it didn't work. They are losing subscribers "left AND right" - pun intended.

This is one of the saddest things I have ever even HEARD OF in journalism. For those who haven't seen the cover (and no, we would not soil the web pages of this free blog by displaying such trash) it depicts a smiling Sarah Palin and her newest baby. The headline, which says "Babies, Lies, & Scandal", was designed to make people believe that there were babies that were lied about and there is a scandal coming up. It was cleverly worded in a way that people standing in a grocery story line might buy the magazine or (gulp) form a negative opinion based solely upon it.

The lies as discussed in the article are not from the Palin family. They are not from the McCain campaign. They aren't even from the GOP. The lies in the article are from the media. Us Weekly, knowing this, still worded the headline and cover photo in a way to make the casual reader believe that Palin was in some way lying about the babies and that it was somehow scandalous. This is irresponsible journalism. Regardless of whose side you're on, you have to admit that this was completely wrong on several levels.

The video below depicts a Senior Editor looking like a high school sophomore being interviewed by the principal after getting caught spray painting tasteless graffiti on school grounds. He knows it was wrong. He knows it was a calculated strategy to mislead the people and tarnish the image of a person. Most importantly, he knows that he was trying to sell more magazines.

Thankfully, the American people are, for the most part, too smart for that.
For more stories about Sarah Palin and the Media, read this blog.



***UPDATE***
Sorry, I had to post this once I realized that *someone* is pulling every copy of this image from the internet and Google. Couldn't find it anywhere! Weird. I expect the S&D letter any time now.