Each week when Time Magazine shows up in my mailbox it feels more and more slender. In fact, this last week even the Rite Aid flier was heftier.
But damn, do they still write good stuff.
I love Joe Klein’s political insights, but this week it was television critic and entertainment reporter James Poniewozik who wrote a blistering political critique. Although, to be fair, it did involve a former-politician / political commentator’s outrage over a television cartoon.
Check out: “An Outrage Smackdown: Family Guy Defeats Palin.”
Likening Palin to Woody Allen’s Annie Hall bit about Marshall McLuhan is brilliant. I want to quote the entire thing, honestly, but this is a key:
She’ll still get that attention, though, because the Family Guys and the David Lettermans can’t resist giving it to her. (On March 2, she’s scheduled to stick it to antagonist Letterman by guesting on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. And despite Palin’s objections to “Hollywood” intruding on her family, daughter Bristol will play herself as a teen mom on ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager.) Just as she has made her personal life the basis for her politics, so are the attacks on her consistently personal. That in turn feeds the victimization that only strengthens her connection with her fans: Hollywood is mocking me, personally, so it is mocking you, personally.
You know, even when Time devolves into a tri-fold brochure as long as they still has Klein and Poniewozik I’ll renew my subscription …
