The Editor’s Desk

Very disappointed with your cover. Yes her supporters realize that the presidency is not a beauty contest. You really don???t think that is why women find Newsweek???s cover offensive. Magnifying her photo was a calculated and malicious way to tarnish her image. I would love to know, why they made this decision?

I have enjoyed my Newsweek subscription for some years but, the recent Palin cover and other obvious effort to discredit her... very poor judgement. I will not renew my subscription. This is a small gesture but the only way I can strike back. We need publications to be balanced and not favor either side. I suspect some where along the way... NW has chosen to take a side. Not hard to figure which way you all see the world.

Given the controversy, I hope you will make a full-size JPG of the Palin cover available on the site. Without having seen it full-size, I'm puzzled by the fury expressed by her supporters. It's not like you made her blacker, as was done to O.J. Simpson by TIME Magazine. If the cover shows crow's feet, so what? Haven't she and her supporters figured out the presidency is NOT a beauty contest?

Mr Meacham,
I elected to receive Newsweek free in lieu of expiring airline miles. Your cover of Governor Palin confirms I made a bad choice. But thanks for saving me a few minutes; I didn't have to read the article to know it wouldn't be objective.

Jon, this statement, "But the vice presidency of the United States in any age, but especially in an age of terror, should not be a slot for the proudly mediocre. " show's how out of touch you are. If Palin is "mediocre" what's that make Obama? You're not a knee-jerk liberal? You could have fooled me. I'm just trying to figure out if you???re anti-woman, anti-mother or what because if you're talking the experience thing SHAME on you for regurgitating the same, tired Democratic rhetoric. Palin has more experience ACTUALLY running something more than a campaign! And, if mediocrity is seen as a bad thing to you then that is truly a shining example of how elitist NEWSWEEK has become. Kind of like the rest of our so called representatives in Washington D.C. I used to like NEWSWEEK for its informative articles and incite, but you???ve become a liberal blog at best, now. Tell me, how much does the Democratic Party pay you for keeping this up? PLEASE!!!!

Your magazines portrayal of Governor Palin both on the cover (photo) and in the article was shameful. I wouldn't subscribe to your liberal piece of trash magazine if it was the last piece of journalism on the planet. You can be sure that I will advise all my friends to stay away as well. In your feature article on Senator Obama, it looks like he has a halo over his head and his photo had obviously been touched up like he was some super model. I know enough about photography to know that Governor Palin's photo wasn't hardly touched at all. Even super models get touched up on close-ups. Governor Palin is obviously a strong leader and a confident and beautiful woman. You just can't handle it. You guy make me sick.

From: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/rnc-obama--acorn-fact/story.aspx?guid=%7B29569FA1-136D-4B95-9D51-4EF9E87ED547%7D&dist=hppr

Obama's Campaign Paid Over $800,000 To ACORN For Get-Out-The-Vote Efforts, But "Mistakenly Misrepresented" Their Work To The FEC:

Obama's Campaign "Paid More Than $800,000" To ACORN For Get-Out-The Vote Efforts; The Campaign Originally "Misrepresented" The Group's Work To The FEC. "U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now for services the Democrat's campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports. An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. -- a subsidiary of ACORN -- worked in 'get-out-the-vote' projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary." (David M. Brown, "Obama To Amend Report On $800,000 In Spending," Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 8/22/08)

The link below describes how some in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN, a group Obama has a long association with. See:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Shame on you for criticizing Palin, why don't you run for VP , let's see what can you do for the gov't. Let me tell you something, If Obama wins, The United States of America will go down. And United States will be considered as a 3rd World country, too. You wanna bet? If these happens in the near future after the election call me at 619-318-7999. Thank u

This is in regards to your comment about the Palin problem issued Oct. 13,2008. You don't trust Palin to be the next VP? You criticized her for not knowing some of the questions Couric asked? If you knew better than her, why don't you run for VP ? That's the time you will find out who you are. People you knew or related to you will sometimes go against you, because they envy you. That's the answer to all Palin's critics. They just envy her too much. Go, Palin , Go, Girl! We're behind you no matter what they say!

Though I'm no Palin fan, I am still amazed at the "real" Sarah I saw on the cover of your magazine this week, and it's not the first of her with thick, eight hour old makeup settling into the lines and pores of her face. This one has been upped a notch with the blatant view of every wrinkle and hair. An MSNBC anchor said that Newsweek does not touch up their cover photos. Fine. But does Newsweek not employ makeup artists to wash, wax, pluck and powder their subjects as needed prior to a photo shoot? Palin would have looked much more polished and we would have SEEN the "real" Sarah and not her facial flaws and makeup faux-pas.

Shame on you and this whole pathetic magazine Why are you and so many afraid of Sarah Palin? I admire her perseverance in light of all the trashing you and others have done to her and her family. She won't back down. You should be focusing your concern on Obama and his group of "close" friends ...Wright, Ayers and Farakan...now there is a fine group of charecters. I am guessing that won't happen. By the way...ACORN...have you heard of that? Are you looking into that? Doubt it. So long Newsweek.

You're kidding, right? That cover photo, untouched and brazenly biased, said all that needs to be said about Newsweek's so-called balanced views.

Let me stipulate this right off: "Newsweek", IS the problem, Mr. Meacham, not Sarah Pahlin. Stuart Taylor Jr. summed it up perfectly when he concluded that one can no longer expect objective reporting and election analysis from the media. You and your magazine should be ashamed for having reinforced that grim, but true, indictment . Instead of your cover story smearing Gov. Pahlin one month before the election, Why didn't you simply run a flattering photo of Barack Obama, unlike the one you ran of Pahlin, and declare that "Newsweek" endorses Obama for president. You wear your bias on your sleeve, Mr. Meacham. At least you recognize that we live in an age of terror. However, instead of your concern that the vice-president's slot is not for the "proudly mediocre," you should really be concerned that the slot of the presidency is not for the profoundly inexperienced. If Obama does win the election, he can thank "Newsweek," and its ilk for putting him on a pedestal and not checking out his past, and he does have a past. You have let down the electorate, sir.

I can't claim credit for the wording, but I agree with this statement from the CultureMush.com blog:

"Maybe the correlation between words and imagery is lost upon the true elitists of society, but wouldn???t an untouched photo of a naturally attractive woman help the public relate to her as one of the folks a lot more than a heavily photoshopped image that shows nothing but artificially flawless skin and false perfection? In my opinion [...] this cover in an artistic sense is genius, correlating it???s words with a matching image. Mrs. High and Mighty with her high society status and beauty pageant past, has charmed the hoozeymawhatsits off of our rear ends, donchaknow???and she now is looking like one of us if our faces were magnified times two. Talk about a headline making sense: Now that we can see her flaws, we can all see that she is in fact, one of us!"

Oh, btw, I will be renewing my subscription to Newsweek, since people seem to think that to be a pertinent fact to drop while making their comments...

Newsweek, confirming the end of objective journalism!

A Cemetery in the Closet
Inspired by Dr. Seuss???s Green Eggs and Ham

Barack and Biden

Biden and Barack

That Barack-and- Biden!
That Barack-and- Biden!
I do not like that Barack-and-Biden!

???Do you like
closets to hide in????

I do not like them, Barack-and-Biden.
I do not like
Closets to hide in.

???Would you trust us
here or there????

I would not trust you
here or there.
I would not trust you anywhere.
I do not like
closets to hide in.
I do not like them, Barack-and-Biden.

???Would you like a racist preacher?
Or a terrorist for teacher????

I would not like
a racist preacher
or a terrorist
for teacher.
I do not trust you
here or there.
I do not trust you
anywhere.
I do not like
closets to hide in.
I do not like them,
Barack-and-Biden.

???Would you let us
steal and lie?
Let Fannie Mae
dip in your pie????

Not with a lie.
Not in my pie.
Not racist preacher.
Not terrorist teacher.
I would not trust you
here or there.
I would not trust you anywhere.
With all the closets you two hide in,
I would not vote Barack-and ???Biden.

I have subscribed to Newsweek for nearly 35 years. My economic stimulus packages is getting a refund after canceling my subscription. Goodbye, Newsweek.

I was done with you a long time ago, but I am hoping lots of other readers will take suit. I would think you would at least "attempt" to mask your complete disdain for Palin and the Republican party a little better. You take a beautiful woman, blow up her face so we can see an enlarge pore, teeth in an unflattering light, eyes tired, nose looking ugly...all in an attempt to make her appear "ugly" to us. Sexism at its finest! Compare this to your cover of Michelle Obama. An ugly woman taking so far back to try to make her look better, air-brushed her flaws out, and have her hair wind-blown too. Let me guess. You want us to maybe vote for the pretty lady's husband and not for the very ugly hideous VP candidate?