The contempt with which media outlets sometimes treat the American public is simply astonishing. Time Magazine, to its credit, put together an extremely readable article on the Talibanization of western Pakistan, a nation of critical importance in the region. Pakistan also happens to be floundering, with widespread dissatisfaction towards leadership and increasing extremism in the population. I don't expect people to always be interested in the machinations of central Asian political development, but hey, Time decided to run with an important and fascinating issue. They even put the article on the cover . . .
. . . for every edition except the U.S. version! The cover story here? "Why we should teach the Bible in public schools." I kid you not. It's just like when Newsweek's cover article was "Losing Afghanistan" for every edition except the U.S. Ours? Annie Leibovitz.
Registan really has the best treatment (and the actual covers) of this:
In other words, while it might be nice to learn about how American policy is failing in the country that actually attacked us on September 11, the mainstream glossies seem to think we’re more interested in lesbians who photograph celebrities and the Kansas Board of Education . . . Why do these publications hate America? I can’t really say. But seeing how they treat us with such contempt is deeply illuminating, and probably good insight into why our leaders seem to make such puzzlingly bad decisions in "the broader Middle East."This kind of stuff makes me insane.
