Did Newsweek set out to make Michele Bachmann look like a loon?
Does Michele Bachmann鈥檚 of the current issue of Newsweek make her look like a loon?
It鈥檚 not flattering, that鈥檚 for sure. The shot shows her staring out with wild eyes, as if she just stepped on a slug and is trying to not scream with revulsion in front of the photographer.
Or perhaps, just before the shutter snapped, someone in the room said, 鈥淥h look 鈥� CNN says Rick Perry is getting into the race!鈥� And she鈥檚 reacting to that, because, you know, Perry would be a formidable competitor for a Bachmann core constituency 鈥� 海角大神 evangelicals.
The cover headline 鈥� 鈥淨ueen of Rage鈥� 鈥� multiplies the overall wingnut effect of the presentation.
Newsweek has received lots of criticism for the cover package. Even the National Organization for Women, which disagrees with Rep. Bachmann about pretty much everything else, .
鈥淚t鈥檚 sexist.... Surely this has never been done to a man,鈥� said NOW president Terry O鈥橬eill.
Really? As practicing journalists, we have perhaps a different view of this controversy.
1. Yes, yes they would do this to a man. We鈥檙e old enough to remember when news magazines used the word 鈥渨imp鈥� in cover heads about George H. W. Bush. In a way, it鈥檚 a compliment to Bachmann that she鈥檚 the target of this rough treatment. There are probably many unflattering photos extent of Newt Gingrich, say, or Rick Santorum. But they鈥檙e not doing well enough in the polls to merit the coverage.
2.The question is not whether they would do this to a man. It鈥檚 whether they would do it to a Democrat 鈥� particularly a sitting Democratic president. We鈥檒l be waiting to see if Newsweek runs an Obama cover story titled 鈥淜ing of Socialism,鈥� or something like that.
3. Newsweek knew what would happen, and is pleased with the response. In meetings photo editors sit around talking endlessly about their photo options. Of course they do. And Newsweek/Daily Beast editor Tina Brown famously began her career in the rough and tumble world of British journalism, where 鈥淧rincess Anne Not a Horse 鈥� See Inside鈥� counts as a restrained headline.
4. This is not the most damaging news coverage Bachmann has received this week. The actual Newsweek cover story is mild, noting only that the 鈥減rincipled rigidity of her position has caused some problems for her campaign,鈥� and then talking about how she used to be a government lawyer, and maybe a relative鈥檚 farm got government subsidies. In contrast, the New Yorker has tracing the roots of Bachmann鈥檚 beliefs, including her past involvement with such controversial thinkers as the evangelical Nancy Pearcey, a creationist and advocate of the theory of 鈥淒ominionism,鈥� which holds that 海角大神s are biblically mandated to occupy secular institutions until the return of Christ to earth.
