Media World Freaks Over Newsweek Cover

Chalk up one more for Newsweek in the magazine cover wars: Their latest headline, "Muslim Rage," runs in big black font over a photo of furious Muslim protesters. The cover article by activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali recounts her tale of emancipation from Muslim fundamentalism, but also makes an argument—that Muslims who think "blasphemers deserve to suffer punishment are not a fringe group. On the contrary, they represent the mainstream of contemporary Islam." Instead of bending "over backward to avoid further offense," Washington should "empower those individuals and groups who are already disenchanted with political Islam by helping find and develop an alternative."

The media world reacts:

• At Wonkette, Jesse Taylor derides the article as Ali self-promotion and adds: "Just be on the lookout for Muslim Rage. And if you see any in action, snap a photo of it and use it as the cover for your floundering, desperate newsweekly."
• Ali's article is "a worthy read," but "thoughtfulness has flown out the window at Newsweek this week, as Tina Brown traded in a little bit of integrity and placed her bets on Islamophobia being a big seller," writes Alexander Abad-Santos at The Atlantic Wire.
• Even the Telegraph—not your most liberal newspaper—is running an article that calls Ali's piece "a sickening piece of shock journalism that cheapens a once great magazine."
• In his first USA Today column, Michael Wolff tips his hat to Newsweek editor Tina Brown's gusto, but slams her for "trying to use old-media tricks to meld The Daily Beast and Newsweek into the kind of zeitgeist-shaping, buzz-creating, cocktail-party-fueling package that the media has, for so long, been built around—part craft, part culture, part snobbery."

Click for Ali's full article. (More Tina Brown stories.)