Posted 8:30 AM by steve

Howard Kurtz finally reports what has been evident for quite some time: Time and Newsweek have abandoned their once traditional practice of providing straight news coverage to readers in favor of a more partisan cheerleading of liberal causes.

And note the absence of any kicking and screaming from reporters and editors objecting to becoming arms of the Democratic Party. Note the lack of criticism of an approach that drops (the pretense of) being neutral reporters in favor of becoming open advocates of liberal programs and politicians.

Of course, the reason for the lack of noise is because this is what the MSM has always wanted. They've chafed at restrictions imposed by old tired journalistic norms that required them to present both sides of a debate, to avoid favoring one side over another. They got into this business, not because they wanted to present the Who, What, When, Where and Whys, but because they wanted to use their platform to 'make a difference' (with 'difference' being defined as criticizing anything and everything 'conservative').

So now, reporters get to do openly what they've had to be secretive about in the past. No more having to use subtlety to get a point across, no more hoping readers read between the lines to get the partisan point the reporter was trying to make.

But while reporters are getting what they want (not only in the pages of Time and Newsweek but elsewhere throughout what we call the MSM), they will find it a Pyrrhic victory: they're gaining their freedom but losing their ability to influence the public.

By becoming openly partisan, they're going to lose (and are losing) the readers (of all slices of the political spectrum, but predominately those to their right) who want their news played up the middle, who were willing to put up with the subtle partisanship but aren't going to subscribe to - or read - what has become no different than openly partisan publications such as The New Republic.

And with these reader losses, the MSM loses the ability to influence people who aren't already sold on the liberal program. Sure, the readers they have left, being of the liberal persuasion, will eat up the advocacy, but that's simply preaching to the choir.