One of the questions I routinely ask is: “What don’t we know?”
Opinion, passion, and policy are often drummed up based on reactions to incomplete information. In other words, we allow incompleteness — which may thus equate to inaccuracy — to frequently — often blindly — serve as justification. I wonder… What don’t we know?
What we don’t know can be due to either an inability or unwillingness to hear all sides of a story; it can also simply be an unknown lack of information. In moments such as those, my sense is the wise man learns to pause. The Intramuralist is more disturbed, however, when the incomplete information is intentional — or as in this week’s glaring case — in the form of potential media duplicity.
On Tuesday, Time Magazine unveiled their weekly periodical across the nation’s newsstands. Across America, an enticing photo featured a college football player, leg up in the air, accompanied by the headline, “It’s Time to Pay College Athletes.” The question of whether or not college athletes should be paid is a good one— and one which may one day end up as the subject of this respected space. However, the college athlete question was only posed to Time’s American readers.
The rest of the globe saw a strikingly different Time cover. It instead featured a confident-appearing photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the headline, “America’s Weak and Waffling, Russia’s Rich and Resurgent.”
I have 2 immediate questions: (1) What don’t we know? And (2) what is Time Magazine’s motive?
Why did Time intentionally alter their American cover?
Time contributors Joe Klein and Michael Scherer — neither of whom is known for their conservative views — wrote the following after Putin’s lead in Syria: “[Obama] has damaged his presidency and weakened the nation’s standing in the world. It has been one of the more stunning and inexplicable displays of presidential incompetence that I’ve ever witnessed.”
And…
“For generations, the American people have had a standing deal with their Presidents: Go ahead and mess with the prime-time lineup once in a while, interrupt Who’s the Boss, Seinfeld, NCIS: Los Angeles, or whatever. But you better make it count. You better have something new to say. And when it comes to speeches of national security, you better leave the impression that you have this thing under control.
On Tuesday night, President Obama decided to test this unspoken pact. For 16 minutes from the East Room, he took over the nation’s televisions to repeat the same complex and contradictory case for bombing Syria that he has been making for two weeks, even though he acknowledged at the end, there is no longer an imminent need for the country to make a decision. He delayed the start of America’s Got Talent to announce he would be delaying a congressional vote.”
Time was highly critical of the President’s handling of Syria. However, their criticism was intentionally hidden from American readers. Why would the rest of the world receive a different cover? In fact, why would the rest of the world receive the same cover — and ours be so strikingly different?
What was Time’s motive?
Why would they do that?
Why would they hide constructive criticism of an American president?
And yes… what don’t we know?
Respectfully,
AR