time is not on your side

as with most of the blogosphere, i've been watching over the last two weeks the not-so-slow-motion trainwreck of joe klein's "well beyond stupid" hit piece on the democrats' restore act and time magazine's craven and clownish defense of klein — even after klein stopped defending himself — as doggedly documented by glenn greenwald:

although i've posted nothing to date of my own on the fiasco, i sympathized with those who voiced continued frustration with the democrats' puzzling silence in the face of yet another fact-free and callow smear. such silence only contributes to the ongoing right-wing narrative of left-wing weakness. to date, i can recall only one response from any democratic official, that of rep. rush holt of new jersey, one of the bill's authors: what's really in the restore act.

well it seems that the silence of the democrats was not due to any clichéd lack of spine on their part, as glenn revealed today in yet another revelatory post: time magazine refused to publish responses to klein's false smears:

sen. russ feingold submitted a letter to time protesting the false statements in klein's article. but time refused to publish it. sen. feingold's spokesman said that the letter "was submitted to time very shortly after klein's column ran but the letters department was about as responsive as the column was accurate."

feingold was not the only democrat getting stiff-armed — incredible as it is to believe, every democrat who tried to get a hearing on time's pages was ignored:

rep. rush holt — before he published his response in the huffington post detailing klein's false claims — asked that he be given the opportunity to respond to klein's false column directly on time's swampland, where klein was in the process of making all sorts of statements compounding his errors. but time also denied rep. holt the opportunity to bring his response to the attention of time's readers.

a letter was also sent to time jointly from house judiciary committee chairman john conyers and house intelligence committee chairman silvestre reyes. although they communicated with time in advance and advised them that the letter was coming, time has not published this letter either. [empasis mine]

and while time is free to publish whatever it deems fit on its letters pages,

at least 100 individuals wrote letters to time's editors protesting klein's article and responding to its claims. i know this because that's how many people (at least) cc'd me on their letters, forwarded them to me, and/or copied their letters to the editor in the comment section here. managing editor rick stengel's voice mail and email box overflowed with responses. nonetheless, time — while publishing 15 separate letters on a whole array of topics in its print edition this week — did not see fit to publish a single letter about the klein falsehoods. at every step, they sought to hide from their readers — and continue to hide from their readers — just how outrageous and severe were klein's false statements by suppressing all responses. [empasis mine]

these latests revelations simply boggle the mind. the ever-more-deeping corruption of time magazine is once again laid bare. i would daresay that, without a wholesale change in management, time's reputation is now irrecoverably damaged.

i would urge those who care (a group that does not include myself, since i do not read time) to let time know what you think of their complete surrender to the dark side, but as glenn has demonstrated yet again, it's clear that they don't care either.

greenwald v. klein and time magazine the tone-deaf democrats by joe klein too many of them — in congress and the presidential campaign — still don't get national security. [11/21/07] joe klein: both factually false and stuck in the 1980s the time pundit spouts pro-capitulation advice to democrats that is as obsolete as it is grounded in falsehoods. [11/21/07] time magazine's fisa fiasco shows how beltway reporters mislead the country joe klein passed on outright gop lies about the house democratic fisa bill to 4 million time readers and now obscures what happened. [11/25/07] time magazine lavishly rewards journalistic malpractice the newsweekly's behavior under managing editor rick stengel enthusiastically promotes fact-free journalism. [11/26/07] joe klein digs time's hole deeper still the still-uncorrected errors in the time article are made far worse by klein's ongoing deceit. [11/26/07] demand answers from time magazine the time editors responsible for joe klein's "shameful journalism" arrogantly refuse to account for what they did. [11/27/07] everything that is rancid and corrupt with modern journalism: the nutshell time's "correction" reads like satire. [11/27/07] bad stenographers referring to the role played by our establishment press as stenography is truly an insult to the work of professional stenographers. [11/28/07] time tries again the editors went today and corrected yesterday's correction. they should keep trying. [11/28/07] the chicago tribune vs. time magazine the newspaper clearly and unequivocally states that joe klein's statements were false. update: gop rep. pete hoekstra outs himself as klein's source. [11/29/07] time magazine refused to publish responses to klein's false smears both sen. feingold and rep. holt asked to respond to joe klein's falsehoods. both were blocked from doing so. [12/4/07] update: protecting privacy by sen. russ feingold klein calls the democrats' position on reforming the foreign intelligence surveillance act "well beyond stupid" but without getting his facts straight. [12/3/07] setting the record straight on fisa by rep. john conyers a comprehensive and detailed response to the president's accusations of obstruction, the misinformation in the time magazine column, and the debate over warrantless surveillance. [12/5/07]