Newsweek magazine recently published an op-ed written by some sort of psycho-social PhD, titled "Taylor Swift is Not a Good Role Model." The author John Mac Ghlionn is not a trained journalist, but a right-winger psycho-sociologist. I'm not sure of his religious faith, but the patriarchal points he makes beg the question: Is he arabic? Is he ultra orthodox? Is he an evangelical Christian? Who knows? But like me, many are asking why Newsweek would publish such a piece.
Here's Why
First of all, today's Newsweek isn't the Newsweek we once knew as the main competitor to Time magazine. Due to a change in ownership and leadership, Newsweek now preaches to right wingers.
One of Newsweek's 50% owners, Dev Pragad, was born in India but came to the USA via the UK. He's very well-educated but not as a journalist; in fact, he trained as an engineer and tech guru with strong credits in business management.
The other 50% owner, Johnathan Davis is married to former Olivet University president Tracy McBeal Davis, and they are both former members of the Olivet, a Christian-right group started by Korean evangelical pastor David Jang. According to Wikipedia and Mother Jones, Jang's group was in hot water several years ago for money laundering in connection with Newsweek's finances.
Also, the opinion editor of Newsweek, Batya Ungar-Sargon, is a conservative who recently published: "Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy." That title seems ironic since Ms. Ungar-Sargon may not have been promoted up the Newsweek ladder if she'd been a middle-road Methodist named "Mary Johnson."
As for the author of this anti-Taylor Swift piece, John Mac Ghlionn, he's got a doctorate in psycho-social studies, but is not a trained journalist. Still, he's managed to place opinion pieces all over conservative media (NY Post, the American Conservative, etc.) and is involved with the conspiracy-theory group, the Brownstone Institute, according to Important Context.
Journalism is not about the truth anymore.
This is frightening, since news junkies like me now have to research who owns what media to assess the slant of their messages. These seem to be less about the truth than whatever philosophy the owners and editors want to propagandize to a broad base of readers—all for profit, of course.
Decades ago, Rupert Murdoch of Fox News (News Corp) led the charge to right-wing tabloid journalism, with almost zero adherence to journalism ethics. I cannot wait until Mr. Murdoch crosses the rainbow bridge, so we can see whether FOX TV pundits will stop lying to the American people every night.
According to what I've read, Murdoch's children will decide Fox News's leadership. Right now, it's led by Murdoch's son Lachlin, who is reportedly as right-wing-nutty as his father. But once the other three heirs vote, we'll see if Murdoch's younger son James will win out. Again, from what I've read in Vanity Fair, James left the family business because he wanted to lead Fox back toward the center.
Here's the link to the anti-Taylor-Swift Newsweek article, if you want to bother reading it. As for me, I don't want to give these zealots more publicity than they deserve. All I hoped to do with this post was alert you that Newsweek is no longer a trust-worthy source of mainstream news. And whenever you Google, Facebook, X, Instagram, or You Tube, please double check the source of any news story, because far too much of it cannot be trusted.
Content Sources: Wikipedia, Google, Mother Jones and other links above
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