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ABOUT TIME: The knocks against the "Person of the Year" choice notwithstanding, Time magazine has take a distinctly postive turn in the last year or two. Increasingly they seem willing to eschew the tired "on the one hand, on the other hand" formula of MSM news stories. Though they remain completely non-partisan, their willingness to tell the unadulterated truth is commendable. Earlier, they took a stand on global warming, declaring with a cover story that it was indeed happening and that it will be disastrous if allowed to happen unabated. Now this week they have a cover by Michael Duffy on the coming troop surge in Iraq that is an intelligent synthesis of the policy's origins and implications. It says:
Coming from Bush, a man known for bold strokes, the surge is a strange half-measure--too large for the political climate at home, too small to crush the insurgency in Iraq and surely three years too late. Bush has waved off a bipartisan rescue mission out of pride, stubbornness or ideology, or some combination of the three. Rather than reversing course, as all the wise elders of the Iraq Study Group advised, the Commander in Chief is betting that more troops will lead the way to what one White House official calls "victory."Indeed. I know nothing of the internal politics of Time, nor whether that may explain their newfound courage. But it does appear, in the post-Katrina era, that the media is finding that it can't give equal weight to both sides when the administration's claims are so plainly divorced from reality.
--Ben Adler
