the empire strikes back (II)

The title of the last post was intended to refer to the legacy media, which—as Martin Peretz of The New Republic describes—is busily circling the wagons in the wake of the Newsweek flushing fiasco (more here). It was also a nod to the fact that I haven't delivered follow-up posts to Fisking Lucas's moral universe; but all in good time.

First up is more Newsweek bashing. This example of malfeasance by that weekly rag is from January, so it can hardly be a response for last week's events. What it is, however, is clear evidence of a media tantrum over the reelection of George W. Bush—and more shamefully, a tantrum thrown by a domestic media company, but acted out on the world stage.

(Image via Riding Sun.)

A reader at LGF provides translation of the Japanese text.

The red text at the left just above the “Newsweek” logo says:

“America forsaken.”

The big white and yellow text says:

“The Day America Died — The ideal of ‘freedom’ falls to the ground due to Bush continuing in office.”

Forget about the Bush-bashing; that's merely to be expected. What is so very telling is that a domestic media company that seemed eager to run a thinly-sourced story on alleged desecration of the Koran has no problem with desecrating a US flag for one of its international editions.

I think I'm beginning to hate these guys.