One answer is to jettison the old straddle-the-center formula in which the newsweeklies spoke with an institutional voice rather than publish bylines. Each magazine’s lead columnist — Time’s Joe Klein, Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter — is liberal. Newsweek has been running columns by Jacob Weisberg, the liberal editor of Slate, another Post Co. property. Newsweek also ran a controversial cover last month headlined “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage” — “one of the last great civil rights issues,” Meacham says. And its top writers appear regularly on liberal talk shows on MSNBC, with which it has a news partnership.
“I’m not going to be silly about it,” Meacham says. “A lot of people think we’re left of center. I think it depends on the week and the issue. . . . I’m not ideologically driven by any means.” He notes that Barack Obama’s campaign limited cooperation with the magazine when Newsweek ran a cover photo of arugula last spring to symbolize his elitist image. Meacham himself wrote a post-election cover piece on why America is still a center-right nation.
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