Newsweek
Encyclopedia
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City
. It is distributed throughout the United States
and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time
in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence. Newsweek is published in four English language editions and 12 global editions written in the language of the circulation region.
Since 2008, Newsweek has undergone a series of internal and external contractions designed to shift the magazine's focus and audience while shoring up the title's finances. Instead, losses at the newsweekly accelerated: revenue dropped 38 percent from 2007 to 2009. The revenue freefall prompted an August 2010 sale by owner The Washington Post Company to 92-year-old audio pioneer Sidney Harman
—reportedly for a purchase price of $1.00 and an assumption of the magazine's liabilities. Editor Jon Meacham
departed from the magazine upon completion of the sale.
In November 2010 Newsweek merged with the news and opinion website The Daily Beast
after extensive negotiations between the proprietors of the respective publications. Tina Brown
, The Daily Beast editor-in-chief was expected to serve as the editor of both publications. Newsweek is jointly owned by Harman and IAC.
, Arabic
, and Turkish
, as well as an English language
Newsweek International. Russian Newsweek, published since 2004, was shuttered in October 2010. The Bulletin
(an Australian weekly until 2008) incorporated an international news section from Newsweek.
Based in New York City, the magazine has 22 bureaus: nine in the U.S.: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago/Detroit, Dallas, Miami, Washington, D.C., Boston and San Francisco, as well as overseas in London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Jerusalem, Baghdad
, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, South Asia
, Cape Town
, Mexico City and Buenos Aires
.
, and Paul Mellon
, son of Andrew W. Mellon
". Paul Mellon's ownership in Newsweek apparently represented "the first attempt of the Mellon family to function journalistically on a national scale."
To launch Newsweek, the group of original owners invested around $2.5 million. Other large stockholders prior to 1946 were a public utilities investment banker named Stanley Childs and a Wall Street corporate lawyer and director of various corporations named Wilton Lloyd-Smith.
Originally News-Week, the magazine was founded by Thomas J.C. Martyn on February 17, 1933. That issue featured seven photograph
s from the week's news on the cover.
In 1937 Newsweek merged with the weekly journal Today, which had been founded in 1932 by future New York Governor and diplomat W. Averell Harriman
, and Vincent Astor
of the prominent Astor family. As a result of the deal, Harriman and Astor provided Newsweek with $600,000 in venture capital funds and Vincent Astor became both Newsweek's chairman of the board and its principal stockholder between 1937 and his death in 1959.
In 1937, Malcolm Muir
took over as president and editor-in-chief. Muir changed the name to Newsweek, emphasized interpretive stories, introduced signed columns, and launched international editions. Over time it developed a broad spectrum of material, from breaking stories and analysis to reviews and commentary.
Richard M. Smith became Chairman in 1998, the year that the magazine inaugurated their "Best High Schools in America" list, a ranking of public secondary schools
based on the Challenge Index
, which measures the ratio of Advanced Placement
or International Baccalaureate
exams taken by students to the number of graduating students that year, regardless of the scores earned by students or the difficulty in graduating. Schools with average SAT
scores above 1300 or average ACT
scores above 27 are excluded from the list; these are categorized instead as "Public Elite" High Schools. In 2008, there were 17 Public Elites. He left the post in December 2007.
The financial results for 2009 as reported by The Washington Post Company showed that advertising revenue for Newsweek was down 37% in 2009 and the magazine division reported an operating loss for 2009 of $29.3 million compared to a loss of $16 million in 2008. During the magazine's first quarter of 2010, it lost nearly $11 million.
By May 2010, Newsweek had been losing money for the past two years and was put up for sale. The sale attracted international unidentified bidders. One bidder was Syrian entrepreneur Abdulsalam Haykal
, CEO of Syria-based publishing company Haykal Media, who brought together a coalition of Middle Eastern investors with his company. Haykal later claimed his bid was ignored by Newsweek's bankers, Allen & Co.
The magazine was sold to audio pioneer Sidney Harman
on August 2, 2010, for $1 in exchange for assuming the magazine's financial liabilities. Harman's bid was accepted over three competitors. Meacham left the magazine upon completion of the sale. Sidney Harman was the husband of Jane Harman
(D-CA), at that time a member of Congress from California.
, following extensive negotiations between the respective proprietors. Tina Brown
, The Daily Beast editor-in-chief, became editor of both publications. The new entity, The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, was 50% owned by IAC and 50% by Harman.
The goal of the new Newsweek Daily Beast Company is to have The Daily Beast be a source of instant analysis of the news, while Newsweek would serve to take a look at the bigger picture, provide deeper analysis, and "connect the dots," in the words of Harman, and to ultimately return both publications to profit-making.
During her tenure as editor-in-chief of Newsweek, Brown has taken the news weekly in a different direction than her predecessor. Whereas Jon Meacham
looked to make the focus solely on politics and world affairs, Brown has brought the focus back on to all of current events, not just politics, business, and world affairs (although these issues are still the focus of the magazine). This is seen in increased attention fashion and pop culture and many of her covers since taking the job.
was the first reporter to investigate allegations of a sexual relationship between U.S. President Bill Clinton
and Monica Lewinsky
, but the editors spiked the story. The story soon surfaced online in the Drudge Report
.
Newsweeks Washington Bureau Chief and later Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas
variously acknowledged the charge saying, "I think Newsweek is a little liberal," and "there is a liberal bias at Newsweek, the magazine I work for."
The magazine has been publishing articles by conservative columnist George F. Will since 1976, when he became a contributing editor, writing a biweekly backpage column. As of 2011, Will still writes for Newsweek.
stated that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay
"in an attempt to rattle suspects, flushed a Qur'an
down a toilet." Detainees had earlier made similar complaints but this was the first time a government source had appeared to confirm the story. The news was reported to be a cause of widespread rioting and massive anti-American protests throughout some parts of the Islam
ic world (causing at least 15 deaths in Afghanistan
). The magazine later revealed that the anonymous source behind the allegation could not confirm that the book-flushing was actually under investigation, and retracted the story under heavy criticism.
, a Newsweek columnist and editor of Newsweek International, attended a secret meeting on November 29, 2001, with a dozen policy makers, Middle East experts and members of influential policy research organizations that produced a report for President George W. Bush
and his cabinet outlining a strategy for dealing with Afghanistan and the Middle East in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The meeting was held at the request of Paul D. Wolfowitz
, then the deputy secretary of defense. The unusual presence of journalists, who also included Robert D. Kaplan
of The Atlantic Monthly
, at such a strategy meeting was revealed in Bob Woodward
's 2006 book State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
. Woodward reported in his book that, according to Mr. Kaplan, everyone at the meeting signed confidentiality agreements not to discuss what happened. Mr. Zakaria told The New York Times
that he attended the meeting for several hours but did not recall being told that a report for the President would be produced. On October 21, 2006, after verification, the Times published a correction that stated:
campaign wrote a lengthy letter to the editor criticizing a cover story in May 2008.
was featured on the cover of the November 23, 2009 issue of Newsweek, with the caption "How do you Solve a Problem Like Sarah?" featuring an image of Palin in athletic attire and posing. Palin herself, the Los Angeles Times
and other commentators accused Newsweek of sexism
for their choice of cover in the November 23, 2009 issue discussing Palin's book, Going Rogue: An American Life
. "It's sexist as hell," wrote Lisa Richardson for the Los Angeles Times. Taylor Marsh of The Huffington Post
called it "the worst case of pictorial sexism aimed at political character assassination ever done by a traditional media outlet." David Brody of CBN News stated: "This cover should be insulting to women politicians."
The cover includes a photo of Palin used in the August 2009 issue of Runner's World
. The photographer may have breached his contract with Runner's World when he permitted its use in Newsweek, as Runner's World maintained certain rights to the photo until August 2010. It is uncertain, however, whether this particular use of the photo was prohibited.
Minnesota Republican Congresswoman and Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine in August 2011, dubbed "the Queen of Rage". The photo of her was perceived as unflattering, as it portrayed her with a wide eyed expression some said made her look "crazy". Sources called the depiction "sexist", and Sarah Palin denounced the publication. Newsweek defended the cover's depiction of her, saying its other photos of Bachmann showed similar intensity.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It is distributed throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence. Newsweek is published in four English language editions and 12 global editions written in the language of the circulation region.
Since 2008, Newsweek has undergone a series of internal and external contractions designed to shift the magazine's focus and audience while shoring up the title's finances. Instead, losses at the newsweekly accelerated: revenue dropped 38 percent from 2007 to 2009. The revenue freefall prompted an August 2010 sale by owner The Washington Post Company to 92-year-old audio pioneer Sidney Harman
Sidney Harman
Sidney Harman was an American businessman active in education, government, industry, and publishing. He was the Chairman Emeritus of Harman International Industries, Inc. Harman served as the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce in 1977 and 1978. As of August 2010 Harman was also the publisher of...
—reportedly for a purchase price of $1.00 and an assumption of the magazine's liabilities. Editor Jon Meacham
Jon Meacham
Jon Meacham is executive editor and executive vice president at Random House. A former editor of Newsweek and a Pulitzer Prize winning bestselling author and a commentator on politics, history, and religious faith in America, he is a contributing editor to Time magazine and editor-at-large of WNET...
departed from the magazine upon completion of the sale.
In November 2010 Newsweek merged with the news and opinion website The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...
after extensive negotiations between the proprietors of the respective publications. Tina Brown
Tina Brown
Tina Brown, Lady Evans, CBE , is a journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host and author of The Diana Chronicles, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales. Born a British citizen, she took United States citizenship in 2005 after emigrating in 1984 to edit Vanity Fair...
, The Daily Beast editor-in-chief was expected to serve as the editor of both publications. Newsweek is jointly owned by Harman and IAC.
Circulation and branches
In 2003, worldwide circulation was more than 4 million, including 2.7 million in the U.S; by 2010 it was down to 1.5 million (with newsstand sales declining to just over 40 thousand copies per week). Newsweek publishes editions in Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish, Rioplatense SpanishRioplatense Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken...
, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, and Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, as well as an English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
Newsweek International. Russian Newsweek, published since 2004, was shuttered in October 2010. The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
(an Australian weekly until 2008) incorporated an international news section from Newsweek.
Based in New York City, the magazine has 22 bureaus: nine in the U.S.: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago/Detroit, Dallas, Miami, Washington, D.C., Boston and San Francisco, as well as overseas in London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Jerusalem, Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
, Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, Mexico City and Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
.
History
Founding and early years
Newsweek was launched in 1933 by a group of U.S. stockholders "which included Ward Cheney, of the Cheney silk family, John Hay WhitneyJohn Hay Whitney
John Hay Whitney , colloquially known as "Jock" Whitney, was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and a member of the Whitney family.-Family:...
, and Paul Mellon
Paul Mellon
Paul Mellon KBE was an American philanthropist, thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder. He is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame...
, son of Andrew W. Mellon
Andrew W. Mellon
Andrew William Mellon was an American banker, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector and Secretary of the Treasury from March 4, 1921 until February 12, 1932.-Early life:...
". Paul Mellon's ownership in Newsweek apparently represented "the first attempt of the Mellon family to function journalistically on a national scale."
Originally News-Week, the magazine was founded by Thomas J.C. Martyn on February 17, 1933. That issue featured seven photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s from the week's news on the cover.
In 1937 Newsweek merged with the weekly journal Today, which had been founded in 1932 by future New York Governor and diplomat W. Averell Harriman
W. Averell Harriman
William Averell Harriman was an American Democratic Party politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was the son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman. He served as Secretary of Commerce under President Harry S. Truman and later as the 48th Governor of New York...
, and Vincent Astor
Vincent Astor
William Vincent Astor was a businessman and philanthropist and a member of the prominent Astor family.-Early life:...
of the prominent Astor family. As a result of the deal, Harriman and Astor provided Newsweek with $600,000 in venture capital funds and Vincent Astor became both Newsweek's chairman of the board and its principal stockholder between 1937 and his death in 1959.
In 1937, Malcolm Muir
Malcolm Muir
Malcolm Muir was a U.S. magazine industrialist. He served as president of McGraw-Hill Publishing from 1928 to 1937. During his tenure as president, he helped create BusinessWeek magazine in 1929, the same year that McGraw-Hill stock was publicly traded for the first time...
took over as president and editor-in-chief. Muir changed the name to Newsweek, emphasized interpretive stories, introduced signed columns, and launched international editions. Over time it developed a broad spectrum of material, from breaking stories and analysis to reviews and commentary.
Under Post ownership
The magazine was purchased by The Washington Post Company in 1961.Richard M. Smith became Chairman in 1998, the year that the magazine inaugurated their "Best High Schools in America" list, a ranking of public secondary schools
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
based on the Challenge Index
Challenge Index
The Challenge Index is a method for the statistical ranking of top public high schools in the United States by Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews...
, which measures the ratio of Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement Program
The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...
or International Baccalaureate
IB Diploma Programme
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is a two-year educational programme for students aged 16–19that provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into higher education, and is recognised by universities worldwide. It was developed in the early to mid-1960s in Geneva by...
exams taken by students to the number of graduating students that year, regardless of the scores earned by students or the difficulty in graduating. Schools with average SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
scores above 1300 or average ACT
ACT (examination)
The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...
scores above 27 are excluded from the list; these are categorized instead as "Public Elite" High Schools. In 2008, there were 17 Public Elites. He left the post in December 2007.
Restructuring and new owner
During 2008–2009, Newsweek undertook a dramatic restructuring of its business. Citing difficulties in competing with online news sources to provide unique news in a weekly publication, the magazine repositioned its content towards opinion and commentary beginning with its May 24, 2009 issue. It shrank its subscriber rate base, from 3.1 million to 2.6 million in early 2008, to 1.9 million in July 2009 and then to 1.5 million in January 2010—a decline of 50% in one year. Meacham described his strategy as "counterintuitive" as it involved discouraging renewals and nearly doubling subscription prices as it sought a more affluent base of subscribers to offer to advertisers. During this period, the magazine also laid off staff. While advertising revenues were down almost 50% compared to the prior year, expenses were also diminished in a planned strategy that the publishers hoped would return Newsweek to profitability.The financial results for 2009 as reported by The Washington Post Company showed that advertising revenue for Newsweek was down 37% in 2009 and the magazine division reported an operating loss for 2009 of $29.3 million compared to a loss of $16 million in 2008. During the magazine's first quarter of 2010, it lost nearly $11 million.
By May 2010, Newsweek had been losing money for the past two years and was put up for sale. The sale attracted international unidentified bidders. One bidder was Syrian entrepreneur Abdulsalam Haykal
Abdulsalam haykal
Abdulsalam Haykal is a Syrian technology and media entrepreneur, who lives and works in Damascus, Syria. In 2009, the World Economic Forum named Haykal as a Young Global Leader, the first Syrian to receive this recognition....
, CEO of Syria-based publishing company Haykal Media, who brought together a coalition of Middle Eastern investors with his company. Haykal later claimed his bid was ignored by Newsweek's bankers, Allen & Co.
The magazine was sold to audio pioneer Sidney Harman
Sidney Harman
Sidney Harman was an American businessman active in education, government, industry, and publishing. He was the Chairman Emeritus of Harman International Industries, Inc. Harman served as the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce in 1977 and 1978. As of August 2010 Harman was also the publisher of...
on August 2, 2010, for $1 in exchange for assuming the magazine's financial liabilities. Harman's bid was accepted over three competitors. Meacham left the magazine upon completion of the sale. Sidney Harman was the husband of Jane Harman
Jane Harman
Jane Margaret Lakes Harman is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1993 to 1999, and from 2001 to 2011. She is a member of the Democratic Party....
(D-CA), at that time a member of Congress from California.
Merger with The Daily Beast
At the end of 2010, Newsweek merged with the online publication The Daily BeastThe Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...
, following extensive negotiations between the respective proprietors. Tina Brown
Tina Brown
Tina Brown, Lady Evans, CBE , is a journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host and author of The Diana Chronicles, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales. Born a British citizen, she took United States citizenship in 2005 after emigrating in 1984 to edit Vanity Fair...
, The Daily Beast editor-in-chief, became editor of both publications. The new entity, The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, was 50% owned by IAC and 50% by Harman.
The goal of the new Newsweek Daily Beast Company is to have The Daily Beast be a source of instant analysis of the news, while Newsweek would serve to take a look at the bigger picture, provide deeper analysis, and "connect the dots," in the words of Harman, and to ultimately return both publications to profit-making.
During her tenure as editor-in-chief of Newsweek, Brown has taken the news weekly in a different direction than her predecessor. Whereas Jon Meacham
Jon Meacham
Jon Meacham is executive editor and executive vice president at Random House. A former editor of Newsweek and a Pulitzer Prize winning bestselling author and a commentator on politics, history, and religious faith in America, he is a contributing editor to Time magazine and editor-at-large of WNET...
looked to make the focus solely on politics and world affairs, Brown has brought the focus back on to all of current events, not just politics, business, and world affairs (although these issues are still the focus of the magazine). This is seen in increased attention fashion and pop culture and many of her covers since taking the job.
2011 redesign
Newsweek was redesigned in March 2011. The new Newsweek moves the "Perspectives" section to the front of the magazine, where it serves essentially as a highlight reel of the past week on The Daily Beast. More room is made available in the front of the magazine for columns by columnists, editors, and special guests. A new "News Gallery" section features two page spreads of photographs from the week with a brief article accompanying each one. The "NewsBeast" section features short articles, a brief interview with a newsmaker, and several graphs and charts for quick reading in the style of The Daily Beast. This is where the Newsweek staple "Conventional Wisdom" is now located. Brown retains Newsweeks focus on in depth, analytical features and original reporting on politics and world affairs, as well as a new focus on longer fashion and pop culture features. A larger, revamped culture section named "Omnivore" features articles and columns written about art, music, books, film, theater, food, travel, and television, including a weekly "Books" and "Want" section. The back page is reserved for a "My Favorite Mistake" column written by a celebrity guest columnist about a mistake they made that defines who they are.Lewinsky scandal
Newsweek reporter Michael IsikoffMichael Isikoff
Michael Isikoff is an investigative journalist for NBC News, formerly with the United States magazine Newsweek. He joined Newsweek as an investigative correspondent in June, 1994, and has written extensively on the U.S...
was the first reporter to investigate allegations of a sexual relationship between U.S. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and Monica Lewinsky
Monica Lewinsky
Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
, but the editors spiked the story. The story soon surfaced online in the Drudge Report
Drudge Report
The Drudge Report is a news aggregation website. Run by Matt Drudge with the help of Joseph Curl and Charles Hurt, the site consists mainly of links to stories from the United States and international mainstream media about politics, entertainment, and current events as well as links to many...
.
Claims of bias
A 2004 study by Tim Groseclose and Jeff Milyo asserted that Newsweek, along with a number of other mainstream news outlets, exhibited a "liberal bias." While liberal media watchdogs described the study as "riddled with flaws," their opposite numbers had similarly commented on Newsweeks alleged liberal bias.Newsweeks Washington Bureau Chief and later Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas
Evan Thomas
Evan Welling Thomas III is an American journalist and author. He currently teaches journalism at Princeton University.-Life and career:Thomas was born in Huntington, New York and was raised in Cold Spring Harbor, New York...
variously acknowledged the charge saying, "I think Newsweek is a little liberal," and "there is a liberal bias at Newsweek, the magazine I work for."
The magazine has been publishing articles by conservative columnist George F. Will since 1976, when he became a contributing editor, writing a biweekly backpage column. As of 2011, Will still writes for Newsweek.
Guantánamo Bay allegations
In the May 9, 2005 issue of Newsweek, an article by reporter Michael IsikoffMichael Isikoff
Michael Isikoff is an investigative journalist for NBC News, formerly with the United States magazine Newsweek. He joined Newsweek as an investigative correspondent in June, 1994, and has written extensively on the U.S...
stated that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay
Camp X-Ray
Camp X-Ray was a temporary detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of Joint Task Force Guantanamo on the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.The first twenty detainees arrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002....
"in an attempt to rattle suspects, flushed a Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
down a toilet." Detainees had earlier made similar complaints but this was the first time a government source had appeared to confirm the story. The news was reported to be a cause of widespread rioting and massive anti-American protests throughout some parts of the Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic world (causing at least 15 deaths in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
). The magazine later revealed that the anonymous source behind the allegation could not confirm that the book-flushing was actually under investigation, and retracted the story under heavy criticism.
Iraq war planning
Fareed ZakariaFareed Zakaria
Fareed Rafiq Zakaria is an Indian-American journalist and author. From 2000 to 2010, he was a columnist for Newsweek and editor of Newsweek International. In 2010 he became Editor-At-Large of Time magazine...
, a Newsweek columnist and editor of Newsweek International, attended a secret meeting on November 29, 2001, with a dozen policy makers, Middle East experts and members of influential policy research organizations that produced a report for President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and his cabinet outlining a strategy for dealing with Afghanistan and the Middle East in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The meeting was held at the request of Paul D. Wolfowitz
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...
, then the deputy secretary of defense. The unusual presence of journalists, who also included Robert D. Kaplan
Robert D. Kaplan
Robert David Kaplan is an American journalist, currently a National Correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly...
of The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
, at such a strategy meeting was revealed in Bob Woodward
Bob Woodward
Robert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post....
's 2006 book State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III is a book by Bob Woodward, originally due to be published October 2, 2006 , that examines how the George W. Bush administration managed the Iraq War after the 2003 invasion...
. Woodward reported in his book that, according to Mr. Kaplan, everyone at the meeting signed confidentiality agreements not to discuss what happened. Mr. Zakaria told The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
that he attended the meeting for several hours but did not recall being told that a report for the President would be produced. On October 21, 2006, after verification, the Times published a correction that stated:
An article in Business Day on Oct. 9 about journalists who attended a secret meeting in November 2001 called by Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense, referred incorrectly to the participation of Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International and a Newsweek columnist. Mr. Zakaria was not told that the meeting would produce a report for the Bush administration, nor did his name appear on the report.
2008 elections
In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the John McCainJohn McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
campaign wrote a lengthy letter to the editor criticizing a cover story in May 2008.
Editorial of Ramin Setoodth
Palin & Bachmann covers
Former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah PalinSarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
was featured on the cover of the November 23, 2009 issue of Newsweek, with the caption "How do you Solve a Problem Like Sarah?" featuring an image of Palin in athletic attire and posing. Palin herself, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
and other commentators accused Newsweek of sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
for their choice of cover in the November 23, 2009 issue discussing Palin's book, Going Rogue: An American Life
Going Rogue: An American Life
Going Rogue: An American Life is a personal and political memoir of Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican candidate for U.S. Vice President. The book became a New York Times #1 bestseller in its first week of release, and remained there for six weeks...
. "It's sexist as hell," wrote Lisa Richardson for the Los Angeles Times. Taylor Marsh of The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
called it "the worst case of pictorial sexism aimed at political character assassination ever done by a traditional media outlet." David Brody of CBN News stated: "This cover should be insulting to women politicians."
The cover includes a photo of Palin used in the August 2009 issue of Runner's World
Runner's World
Runner's World is a globally circulated monthly magazine for runners of all skills sets, published by Rodale Press in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, in the United States...
. The photographer may have breached his contract with Runner's World when he permitted its use in Newsweek, as Runner's World maintained certain rights to the photo until August 2010. It is uncertain, however, whether this particular use of the photo was prohibited.
Minnesota Republican Congresswoman and Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine in August 2011, dubbed "the Queen of Rage". The photo of her was perceived as unflattering, as it portrayed her with a wide eyed expression some said made her look "crazy". Sources called the depiction "sexist", and Sarah Palin denounced the publication. Newsweek defended the cover's depiction of her, saying its other photos of Bachmann showed similar intensity.
Contributors and reporters
Notable regular contributors to Newsweek include:- Steven LevySteven LevySteven Levy is an American journalist who has written several books on computers, technology, cryptography, the Internet, cybersecurity, and privacy.-Career:...
- Jonathan AlterJonathan AlterJonathan Alter is an American journalist and author who was a columnist and senior editor for Newsweek magazine from 1983 until 2011. He is currently a lead columnist for Bloomberg View, a new commentary website. He is also a contributing correspondent to NBC News, where since 1996 he has appeared...
- Stryker McGuireStryker McGuireStryker McGuire is a journalist working in London. McGuire is a London-based senior editor at , a monthly publication of Bloomberg News. From October 2009 to March 2011, he was the editor of , a magazine published by the London School of Economics and Political Science...
- David AnsenDavid AnsenDavid Ansen is a reviewer and senior editor for Newsweek, where he has been reviewing movies since 1977. He came to Newsweek after several years as the chief film critic at Boston's The Real Paper...
film critic - Eleanor CliftEleanor CliftEleanor Clift is a political reporter, television pundit and author. She is currently a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine. Her column, "Capitol Letter" is posted each week on the Newsweek and MSNBC websites...
- David GatesDavid Gates (author)David Gates is an American journalist and novelist. His first novel, Jernigan , about a dysfunctional one-parent family, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. This was followed by a second novel, Preston Falls , and a short story collection, The Wonders of the Invisible World...
- Anna QuindlenAnna QuindlenAnna Marie Quindlen is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist whose New York Times column, Public and Private, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. She began her journalism career in 1974 as a reporter for the New York Post...
- Robert J. SamuelsonRobert J. SamuelsonRobert Jacob Samuelson is a contributing editor of Newsweek and The Washington Post where he has written about business and economic issues since 1977. His columns appear in both publications. His articles also appear in the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and other influential newspapers...
- George WillGeorge WillGeorge Frederick Will is an American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winner best known for his conservative commentary on politics...
Cultural references
- The 2000 film Harrison's FlowersHarrison's FlowersHarrison's Flowers is a 2000 French film by Elie Chouraqui. It stars, among others, Andie MacDowell, Elias Koteas, Brendan Gleeson, Adrien Brody, Marie Trintignant, Gerard Butler and David Strathairn....
is the story of a Newsweek photojournalist lost in the war-torn former YugoslaviaYugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
.
See also
- List of magazines by circulation
- Newsweek ArgentinaNewsweek ArgentinaNewsweek Argentina is an Argentine weekly news magazine, published as the local edition of Newsweek. The magazine sells over 18,000 copies per week. Its editorial director is Alex Milberg, and its senior editor is Matías Loewy....
- Newsweek PakistanNewsweek PakistanNewsweek Pakistan is published by AG Publications, a company wholly owned by Associated Group , under license from The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC. The licensing agreement with AG Publications follows similar publishing alliances for Newsweek editions. Newsweek's Asia Pacific edition,...
- The Washington Post Company