Time has named George W. Bush “Man of the Year” or “Person of the Year” – if you care. I don’t. I don’t read Time Magazine, except at the dentist and even then I’d usually grab a copy of Consumer Reports first. Unlike Hugh Hewitt, the only weekly magazine I read regularly in its dead tree edition anymore is The New Yorker – and I fall behind on that. There’s simply too much to read online, too much of it good and more current than the newsweeklies, like Power Line, which Time had the good sense to name its “Blog of the Year. Congrats to them – they more than deserve it. But I’m still not subscribing to Time. I wouldn’t have time to read it. (I’ll be reading “Power Line,” etc., not to mention some daily newspapers and books.)
Roger L. Simon
Blacklisting Myself Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror
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The blog of the mystery writer, screenwriter and CEO of Pajamas Media
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Simon's first non-fiction book - Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in an Age of Terror - Pub. date: February 5, 2009 |
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33 Comments
1. richard mcenroe:Huh. George Bush AND Powerline. Think maybe someone leaked them an early copy of the CBS report?
Dec 19, 2004 - 9:43 am 2. Jeffrey -- New York:Any of you confused by the list system for Iraq’s upcoming election?
Check out my blog for today at:
Iraqi Bloggers Central.
Ambassador Fayrouz and I have joined forces to double our Blogo-Mojo!
You will find a good summary and a few links worth your trouble — not to mention some killer Previous Posts on the sidebar.
*
Dec 19, 2004 - 9:53 am 3. Peter G.:Re online reading, here’s Michael Kinsley’s column today in praise of the blogosphere:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9270-2004Dec17.html
Dec 19, 2004 - 9:59 am 4. ricpic:Reading Time or Newsweek is like nothing so much as reading Sovietspeak when the Soviet Union was a going concern.
The only difference: the language of hard communist tyranny back then; the language of soft “enlightened” tyranny now.
Dec 19, 2004 - 10:04 am 5. notthisgirl:I used to subscribe to US News & World Report. No longer. Much more satisfaction on the blogs. I’ll pick up a Time/Newsweek/US News at the doctor’s, but for novelty articles only.
I wonder how much the blogosphere will cut into hard-copy publications over the next year.
Dec 19, 2004 - 11:16 am 6. Terrye:I saw the guy from Time on Fox this morning talkinb about the process for picking Man of the Year. I guess somebody actually wanted Michael Moore.
Dec 19, 2004 - 11:21 am 7. PeterUK:Terrye
Moore won best stain on the carpet category.
Dec 19, 2004 - 11:27 am 8. jedrury:Time was popular when I was in college forty years ago. It was kept next to the toilet for
a quick read at that most important moment. Its cachet then and now remains: a quick read at that most important moment, but now with its bumper sticker shorty articles, a very quick quick read. It now, however,is one of the magazines of choice at the grocery checkout counter; Time, TV Guide, or Soap Opera Weekly. I usually choose for serious political analysis the happenings on the Young and the Restless.
Dec 19, 2004 - 12:16 pm 9. richard mcenroe:On the other hand, have you ever tried disciplining a puppy with a 17-inch monitor? Mixed results.
Dec 19, 2004 - 12:21 pm 10. Dilys:I laughed harder than I would have expected. Thanks, Rich.
It’s gotten to where it’s surprising if the newspaper/newsmag/TV consumers know much of anything within a week of its breaking, and get the free-of-spin version.
Powerline and Little Green Footballs’ field goals during Rathergate were the final push into starting my own blog. I owe them big thanks. And I also believe I owe GWB big thanks for his tough stance, his courage in acting on necessarily incomplete information, his willingness to be Out There, just a rather ordinary man doing his quite effective best in the hands of destiny. I’m still in love with him shooting his cuffs after hauling in the Secret Service guy in Chile.
And I’m glad I discovered RLS during the hairiest days of the election. Thanks for the courage of your post-liberal convictions.
Dec 19, 2004 - 12:30 pm 11. asher:Off-topic, except as it relates (directly or indirectly, as the case may be) to President Bush -
Any reaction to Ali’s decision to quit Iraq The Model? He seemed pretty disgusted with certain parties in America, but he didn’t elaborate. Does anyone else have any thoughts? I’m still in shock.
Dec 19, 2004 - 12:53 pm 12. Hitman:Asher beat me to it. but Ali quiting is troubling news.
IRAQ THE MODEL
Sunday, December 19, 2004
This is the last time I write in this blog and I just want to say, goodbye. It’s not an easy thing to do for me, but I know I should do it. I haven’t told my brothers with my decision, as they are not here yet, but it won’t change anything and I just can’t keep doing this anymore.
My stand regarding America has never changed. I still love America and feel grateful to all those who helped us get our freedom and are still helping us establishing democracy in our country. But it’s the act of some Americans that made me feel I’m on the wrong side here. I will expose these people in public very soon and I won’t lack the mean to do this, but I won’t do it here as this is not my blog.
At any rate, it’s been a great experience and a pleasure to know all the regular readers of this blog, as I do feel I know you, and I owe you a lot.
Best wishes to all of you, those who supported us and those who criticized us as well.
Yours sincerely,
Ali.
- posted by Omar @ 01:27
Any inside info Roger on what prompted this?
Dec 19, 2004 - 12:58 pm 13. TmjUtah:George W. Bush, Man of the Year.
Do you realize that is recently as a calendar year ago, Time wouldn’t have hesitated to put up Michael Moore or maybe some anthropologist living with a fecund tribe in the Amazon?
They would have had their best and brightest staff write multiple articles from all the angles – humble beginnings, professional achievements, politically correct victories over unscrupulous government or ideaological (sp?) opponents…
A slick and tidy issue that would frame the reality they thought we needed to embrace.
Those days are gone. Good for Powerline and you, Roger, and most of all good for all of us both in the leading edge or just benefitting from this personal communication/investigation/debate tidal wave called blogging.
Time and their compatriots in old media just spent the last two years (plus a massive block of credibility they are just now beginning to miss) trying to destroy G.W. Bush.
If you look back at the coups and revolutions of the last century there was always a commonality of strategy: the usurping forces siezed the organs of mass communication. Radio, TV stations, newspapers, printing presses… recognized as key to controlling populations and hamstringing resistance.
We are participating in a revolution right now. We are perched over the shoulder of every pundit, producer, and editor. This revolution is different in that we hold keyboards, not guns, and our demand is to know what is happening – not to control what others know.
This is a very, very good time for free men everywhere.
I wonder if Time’s decision represents a tipping point? They could have gone with another Man of the Year and gotten all the kudoes from all the media that used to matter. Or maybe not?
Dec 19, 2004 - 1:04 pm 14. jack risko:Powerline is great and deserved to win, but TIME shouldn’t diss Glenn Reynolds.
http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2004/12/19/using-rathergate-as-a-cover-up-of-swiftboatvets/
Thanks, Jack Risko
Dec 19, 2004 - 1:22 pm 15. Morgan:asher, Hitman:
I suspect this bit from Ali in the comments of his previous post tells you what you need to know:
“…What I said is that I’m not going to support any [US] party over the others, and that these parties should remember that it’s not all about them. Some people just have forgot about us and deal with Iraqis as pawns to win more control inside the US. All they are interested in is news, not what these news mean in term of humans that are involved. They just look for news that support their stand; good news for the right and bad for the extreme left.”
Dec 19, 2004 - 1:28 pm 16. Terrye:Morgan:
That kinda explains it but not really. Is he is saying he is sick of politics? Can’t say as I blame him for that. Maybe he feels like he is being used. I wonder if this has anything to do with the visit to the White House?
Dec 19, 2004 - 1:32 pm 17. Hitman:Morgan, I read that when he posted it and felt some bad vibes then. He is right in his assertion that the political poles (not a typo)are being pulled in opposite directions as to the future success of the region and of the election in Iraq. Success does put chips in the rights pile and failure reinforces the left. But I still do not understand the comment about being on the wrong side. Is he talking about the elections in Iraq or the political difference here? There is a lot of bad news that we are deluged by in the media everyday and to find the good news and the progress being made in Iraq one has to go to the blogoshere and the right side of it at that. Iraq the Model has been a source for the truth and I hate to see it being dismantled and want to know why.
Dec 19, 2004 - 1:50 pm 18. Foobarista:I read _The Economist_ in dead-tree form so I can have something to read while on the crosstrainer, and it is far better than most of the MSM. However, it’s been off its game lately in that it’s bought into global warming and had an Andrew Sullivan-like meltdown about Abu Ghraib. It also endorsed Kerry this year in a truly nonsensical “endorsement”, so I’m considering whether another dead-tree mag may be better.
Dec 19, 2004 - 2:07 pm 19. asher:Foobarista,
I know what you mean about the Econ. I’ve felt that way about The New Republic ever since they sold out to the Saudis.
Dec 19, 2004 - 2:15 pm 20. LemonDrop:I care that Bush is “Man of the Year”. If Michael Moore had been on the cover, I would have required years of therapy.
Time saved me years of anguish.
Dec 19, 2004 - 2:18 pm 21. Morgan:Hitman,
I wonder about that line, too. Translation error (”on the wrong track”)? Maybe not. Ali apparently feels betrayed by people he thought were allies:
I guess we’ll get details when Omar and Muhammed get back. I wonder if they’ll abandon the blog altogether? It would be a poorer blogosphere for it.
Dec 19, 2004 - 2:18 pm 22. Morgan:Terrye:
From Ali’s post (above), it is unclear whether it had something to do with the trip to the White House or not, but certainly something happened on his brothers’ trip.
Dec 19, 2004 - 2:20 pm 23. richard mcenroe:Forget Time ó What does Rolling Stone have to say?
Dec 19, 2004 - 3:39 pm 24. Terrye:Morgan:
I hate this kind of thing. If he can’t tell people why he is walking away from the blog now, I wish he had waited to to even mention it. The blogosphere is great for gossip. The internet is worse than a bunch of old ladies in a beauty shop.
Dec 19, 2004 - 3:59 pm 25. richard mcenroe:Terrye ó That’s why I’m just going to wait until we hear what’s the what.
Dec 19, 2004 - 4:04 pm 26. Morgan:Terrye:
What, are you joining Katherine with a “K” and Jamie Irons in antipathy for sweet little old ladies?
Dec 19, 2004 - 4:22 pm 27. Terrye:Morgan:
There are folks out there who would say I am an old lady myself, I prefer “mature”. Although I have never been accused of being sweet..
Dec 19, 2004 - 4:42 pm 28. Katherine:Morgan,
The ìHate Sweet Little Old Ladies Secret Societyî grows daily. You think that itís the Illuminati who rule the world? We took over that joint years ago! Hahahaha!
But seriously, I quite agree with Terrye. Ali should have either provided full explanation or just announced a break in blogging until he was ready to write on the subject. The comments in ITM at this point resemble Conspiracy Central. Rogerís name was dragged into this with some lunatic speculating that he is one of the exploitative ìextreme conservativesî.
Dec 19, 2004 - 4:52 pm 29. Morgan:Katherine:
Yuck. Just read through the current tail end of the comments at ITM – I’ve never seen so much ugliness there.
I suppose that Ali posted when he did because that was when he made the decision. I think he can be forgiven for not considering whether people would be tortured wondering wha???
The blame for all the silly speculation rests primarily with those who are speculating (e.g. me), not with him.
Dec 19, 2004 - 5:12 pm 30. asher:… right now they’re arguing about the practice of drawing smiley faces …
Dec 19, 2004 - 5:24 pm 31. Katherine:Morgan,
True. Ali is not responsible for the idiotic comments. And I can easily see him being very upset about something and posting the way he did. But I still wish he wouldnít.
Dec 19, 2004 - 5:26 pm 32. David Thomson:ìBut I’m still not subscribing to Time. I wouldn’t have time to read it.î
I am a subscriber to Time—and around another fifteen to twenty publications (Iíve lost count). Increasingly, these items sit around for around a week until I actually read them. Half of my reading may now be taking place on the Internet. I subscribe, for instance, to both the paper editions of the National Review and The Weekly Standard. The only reason why I continue to do so is primarily out of a sense of obligation.
Dec 19, 2004 - 6:28 pm 33. Todd Pearson:You have to subscribe to Time to read the Powerline story? What’s up with that?
Dec 20, 2004 - 12:20 pm