… at Newsweek, of all places, the magazine that first gave rise to George W.’s dislike of the national media by portraying his father on the cover as a wimp during the 1988 presidential race. This report comes from the conservative Web site newsmax:
Less than three months after he left his post as the White House’s deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove has agreed to become a Newsweek contributor and will pen opinion pieces for the magazine and its Web site.
Rove will turn out several columns on the 2008 campaign up until inauguration day, according to the Washington Post.
In a statement, Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham said: “Newsweek has a long tradition of asking practitioners and opinion-makers to offer our readers the benefits of their experience in occasional opinion essays.
“Whether one agrees or disagrees with Karl, there is no arguing that he has been a critical player in the political world with insights and experiences that we think will give our readers something unique.”
Rove has not been a friend of the press in the past. Last year he suggested that journalists frequently criticized political figures because “they want to draw attention away from the corrosive role their coverage has played focusing attention on process and not substance.”
He also charged that the press has an “obsessive reliance” on polls.
And as for media criticism, he told Rush Limbaugh: “If you have to wake up in the morning to be validated by the editorial page of the New York Times, you’ve got a pretty sorry existence.”
Newsweek will also give regular space to Markos Moulitsas, the far-left founder of the Web site Daily Kos.
Said Meacham: “I’m fully prepared for both the right-wing and left-wing blogosphere to be outraged, which means we’re doing our job.”
