Alex Shephard writes in the latest issue of The New Republic that something odd has happened to Newsweek. It has become an outlet for rightwing advocacy. The Newsweek story has been covered by many media outlets over the past several years, but I had not seen those stories and had no idea about what happened to this once iconic magazine.
For half a century, Newsweek was owned by the Washington Post and was a well-respected voice in American journalism. In 2010, the Post sold Newsweek to 91-year-old businessman Sidney Harman; Harman bought it for $1 and assumption of its liabilities. Ownership turned over a few more times, from Harman to Barry Diller. Diller regretted his purchase and sold Newsweek in 2014 to a group called International Business Times Media. IBTM changed its name to Newsweek Media Group. Its owners were tied to a small Christian college (Olivet University) led by a charismatic Korean pastor, David Jang. Jang also was founder of a cult called “The Community,” according to this report in Mother Jones.
In 2018, the offices of Newsweek were raided by federal agents investigating a money-laundering operation between the publication, the cult, and the college. A few weeks later, the Washington Post reported that the editorial staff at Newsweek had descended into “chaos” when two of its top editors and a journalist were abruptly fired: they were writing an investigative report about ties between Newsweek and its owners. Despite the firings, a group of staff journalists continued reporting on the company’s finances. Late Tuesday night, their exposé was published, revealing a deep financial relationship between the parent company and a small Christian school, Olivet University.
Alex Shephard summarizes the bizarre fate of what was once a highly respected publication.
Writing in The Columbia Journalism Review last year, Daniel Tovrov depicted Newsweek, once one of America’s most distinguished magazines, as a shell of its former self. All that was left was clickbait, op-eds from the likes of Nigel Farage and Newt Gingrich, and a general sense of drift. “Nobody I spoke to for this article had a sense of why Newsweek exists,” Tovrov wrote. “While the name Newsweek still carries a certain authority—remnants of its status as a legacy outlet—and the magazine can still bag an impressive interview now and then, it serves an opaque purpose in the media landscape.”
Last week, Newsweek suggested one possible purpose: The legitimization of narratives straight out of the right-wing fever swamps. An op-edwritten by John Eastman, a conservative lawyer and founding director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, coyly suggested that Kamala Harris, who was born in California, may not be eligible to serve as vice president because her parents were immigrants. It was, as many pointed out, a racist attack with no constitutional merit, on par with the birther conspiracy theory that claimed Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Within a few hours, Eastman’s op-ed was being brandished by President Trump, who told reporters he had “heard”Harris may not be eligible to serve.
Three days after the op-ed was published, Newsweek apologized, sort of. In an editor’s note signed by global Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper and opinion editor Josh Hammer, the magazine acknowledged, “We entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted, and weaponized…. This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize.” Still, the magazine refused to recognize what was obvious—that the op-ed was intended to spark questions about the eligibility of a Black woman running for high office. Newsweek’s editors merely feigned horror that the op-ed was taken in the only possible way it could have been taken.
The publication of Eastman’s op-ed says a great deal about the state of Newsweek’s opinion section, which has become a clearinghouse for right-wing nonsense. But it also points to a larger crisis in journalism itself: The rise of the zombie publication, whose former legitimacy is used to launder extreme and conspiratorial ideas.
Even by the volatile standards of journalism in the twenty-first century, Newsweek’s recent problems are extraordinary. There are the usual issues: a sharp decline in print subscribers, Google and Facebook, the difficulty of running a mass-market general interest news magazine in an age of hyperpartisanship. But Newsweek has also been raided by the Manhattan district attorney’s office (a former owner and chief executive pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges in February) and has been accused of deep ties to a shadowy Christian cult, amid many other scandals.
This is one of the strangest media stories I have read. The New Republic calls Newsweek “a zombie magazine.” Sad.
I was reading some articles from Newsweek and I commented to my husband how skewed the articles are. I asked if he knew that Newsweek went fascist. He also noticed this, too.
My husband compared TIMES and NEWSWEEK over the years and he even knew the families involved.
YES, Newsweek has become a ZOMBIE magazine and this is indeed SAD.
Thanks for this article, Diane.
BTW, just had to mention that Covid-19 infections are higher than EVER and NO thanks to that DUMP.
Stay SAFE and MASK UP.
Stay SAFE and MASK UP. Not a time to let one’s guard down, despite the pandemic fatigue that we all feel. Looks like much of the staff of Pence the Dense has contracted the virus. Heckuvajob, Mikey! Way to protect Americans!
It’s going to be a tough Winter.
Bob,
You are GREAT. 👍🏽
Mask up…hahahaha this aged well. go hide in your basements, that’s where the government wants you spineless wimps
What a moronic comment. On so many levels. Ignorant AND idiotic.
When you encounter Covid viruses, do you show them what big muscles you have, Glenn? Such a manly man.
i recently read an opinion piece in newsweek and i thought it was bent and immature. so when i said in a comment that i thought the author of the opinion piece was immature they kicked me off the comment page. i was shocked by their thin-skin reaction. so after i read your article, i found out why. thanks for the enlightenment
Newsweek has become not-so-Breitbart or the Epochly Stupid Times, though it is trying to do this AND simultaneously pretend to still be an actual news source.
Good one, Bob. So true.
I support FAIR TEST.
Will be sending a small check to Fair Test as soon as I catch up with bills.
Should I use this address?
FairTest
196 Spring Street,
Arlington, MA 02476
There is a donate button in the top, right-hand corner of the FairTest home page. https://www.fairtest.org/
I so enjoy your comments, Yvonne!!!!
I enjoy your comments, too, Bob. 👍🏽
It’s great reading something intelligent amidst the dump lies.
Thank you for the link.
pretense taking over so much of our ‘news’ outlets
I started my Newsweek subscription in college. I ended it when they put Michelle Rhee on the cover with the most biased and poorly researched article I had read on the subject – and that is saying something. They have been going downhill for a long time, and this latest iteration is the logical outcome. I respect good journalism from all sides, and hate to see any magazine or newspaper go out of business, but I hope it just folds. The last thing we need is more garbage journalism being spewed.
It is sad to see a major news media lose its moral way as they play such an important role in informing the community. It is good to see that it is being investigated, and that we are being informed of that. Magazines and newspapers play a huge role in our lives and so should provide material of the highest standard.
I have DEEP concerns as to whether our
democracy, such as it is at present even,
can survive the onslaught of money taking
precedence over journalism.
For many years I took the Columbia Journalism Review.
It has been evident for some time how this is happening.
Without quality journalism democracy cannot exist.
Things get scarier and scarier.
Newsweek had become another outlet for the “Alternative Faux News” media that prints what its audience wants to hear, and Trump is a member of that audience.
For people like Trump, there is no need to fact check if it’s what he wants to hear.
it’s funny as I read this both CNN and WaPo have paid a little HS boy for their false narratives and libelous lies….irony…you all need to get a clue and good deprogramming
Nice try, Ted. Whataboutism is all the defense left for this rag.
lies by another libtard with a brain tumah
Speaking of brain issues, be sure never to get vaxxed and never to wear a mask. We will miss you.
owners were tied to a small Christian college (Olivet University) led by a charismatic Korean pastor, David Jang. Jang also was founder of a cult called “The Community,” according to this report in Mother Jones.”
Funny. The first thing that came to mind when they said “Christian”, “Korean pastor” and “cult” was the Moonies.
And sure enough, Jang began his “ministry” on the Moonn — and apparently never left.
They should prolog rename the magazine “Moonspeak”
Oh my. This story is a real tragedy for Newsweek & our media environment already poisoned by Fox & the Murdochs & Breitbart.
Another cnn brain washed uninformed undereducated talking out their a.. either that or just plain stupid.
Time for the thinking members of society to do more than “preach to the choir”. There needs to be a loud, accurate, ubiquitous and articulate movement to counter these false narratives and incendiary “press”. They will win if those who know truth and history to speak up and speak loudly!
Great and awesome sir. Thanks for this detail.
SO sorry to hear that such a well-respected magazine like “Newsweek” has now become an outlet for right-wing bullshit! Don’t we get enough of that crap from pathological liars like Carlson + the rest of those scumbags on FUX News?!?
This is the largest load if poo I have ever had the displeasure of reading.
No critical thinking whatsoever. Loads of thise buzz & trigger words though, good job there.
Is Fair Test really necessary?? How much more dumbed down do you want our population to get? I know exactly how expectancy effect works, do you? Think before repeating the same shit crap over & over & over. It does not work, it has not worked over the last 30 years and will never work. Because it is so divisive. Assuming people need extra help based on race or gender is the most discriminatory thing. ever conceived. First woman this, first black that… as if a woman or black person are otherwise too ignorant??? Think what you ate promulgating.
I should be shocked by the vacuous rantings of the followers of the demented one. This entire “class” of people communicate infantile insults by way of changing the letters in the name of the target of their ire. Somehow this satiates the primal impulses in the leftie beast. It is therefore wise of the knowing ones to maintain an adequate arsenal along with copious amounts of ammunition. I should be, but I am not.
I have noted this as well. A lot of right-wing bias. They are now pushing “progressive” anti-abortionists.
Typical left wing propaganda caused by anything relating to Christianity. Remember if u voted for President Trump u were part of a cult. Those lefties have serious mental problems and can’t escape their evil hate. They will regret their actions one day.
Those who voted for the fraudster Trump will wake up one day and realize they were conned. He is the best at separating people from their money.
What you call propaganda is truth. You might want to reconsider the money you spent in college because you learned nothing. Take a semester of history, Civics and ethical behavior classes. World history, American history, Sociology and Civics. When you know the facts, the truth, the history from the beginning, you see that propaganda is easy to identify. Blindly believing Right Wing propaganda without proof of the facts is why those who learned nothing in school are so easily scammed. Anyone with an education, took one look at Trump and knew that he was a circus clown, parading around with paid cheerleaders and unpaid band. Trump has refused to pay to use music he didn’t ask permission to use. Trump owes many cities millions for security during his visits leaving the citizens to pick up the tab. He misappropriates donations, children, babies, women and girls. And then sent the DOJ or his corporate lawyers to cover for him. There are still over a 1000 children, stolen as babies and infants, that have not been returned to asylum seekers and immigrants. We shipped their parents back to countries where their lives were in danger. Some had walked 1000s of miles with all their belongings in their hands to ask for asylum.
Newsweek is now a skewed, slanted misinformation right-wing, Trumpsterish rag!! Do not trust anything they say… from an ex-journalism professor
And have you noticed that MSNBC is published tons of Newsweek’s article. I notice because it’s totally apparent the article is filled with fake facts and then I see another and another skewed articles. Why do you suppose this is happening? Are they paying to get their stories in the headline news?
I came across this article while doing a bit of independent research. It’s answered most of my questions regarding why Newsweek is no longer the reputable publication I used to know. For example, dozens of negatve salacious hack pieces about Meghan and Prince Harry. All of which demonstrated a lack of fact checked objective journalism. I won’t be wasting my time reading anymore Newsweek ilk.
Newsweek is a compilation of all the garbage, corruption, evil, disruption , disgraceful, incompetent, cheap, crude, idiotic fucken stories and news; which is the narrative for the main stream media dumbos.
The Oliver school you mentioned in your article is entirely unconnected with Newsweek’s Olivet. Perhaps next time you could favor us with some high school level research?
I’ve noticed the bias too. This blog plots explains a lot. In my opinion, Newsweek is no longer a trusted news source I’m sorry to say.