Bastards. What is this, Star Trek or something? The Prime Directive doesn't let TIME magazine do its job if that job will affect the world around us?
So TIME is now saying its purpose in life is NEVER to do ANYTHING that might influence US politics. I guess that means TIME can shut down its politics division, no more writers or editors needed for that.
Read what E&P found in today's LA Times story that Michael cites in the post below:
The article details conversations involving Karl Rover, “Scooter” Libby, Matt Cooper and Robert Novak. But near its conclusion it raises an emerging issue, promoted by Michael Wolff of Vanity Fair, among others: If Time magazine had gone public about Rove’s conversations with Cooper it might have had some impact on the Bush-Kerry race for the White House last year.This is a point that, as E&P notes, Vanity Fair makes in its current issue. The mainstream media was complicit in hiding this story for two years from the American people. And we now find out that TIME intentionally influenced a US election as a result.
Not until this summer did Cooper ask Rove for a waiver to talk to the grand jury, and ultimately the public, about their conversation. The L.A. Times article today notes that he did not do this before “because his lawyer advised against it.” But the reporters add that in addition “Time editors were concerned about becoming part of such an explosive story in an election year.”
The story concludes: "The result was that Cooper's testimony was delayed nearly a year, well after Bush's reelection.”
It's one thing for TIME to do its job and ignore the effects of its reporting and overall work on US elections, it's quite another for TIME to make decisions BASED ON whether they'll influence US elections. That's about as journalistically unethical as it comes, and makes TIME no better than FOX News.
