Leaning Sharply to the Left

Many political magazines will make the effort to be bipartisan or impartial in their coverage of political events. They want to be able to present both sides of an argument. Some magazines will be very unabashed in their dedication to one side of the story. They will not directly acknowledge a political bias but it is pretty much worn on their sleeve. It can be liberal or conservative although they will surely contest that what they present to you is the "truth."

One magazine like that is The Nation. This is a weekly rag that pushes the liberal agenda without shame. The bias of this magazine is obvious to anyone who reads the magazine. Many would question why someone like me who is registered "no party" would want to read something like this. It is simply because I do enjoy learning about different points of view. I receive daily emails from ultraconservative Newsmax.com and I need a little counterbalance.

The most common place for me to purchase The Nation is at train stations when I need something for the train ride home. This magazine serves that purpose well. I picked up the latest issue this week. I was at 30th Street Station and had some time to kill. That led to this purchase. It only cost $3.95 at the newsstand so it won't break the bank.

The Nation is edited by liberal stallwart Katrina vanden Heuvel. If you watch enough cable news, you'll probably have seen her make the occasional appearance. You will not hear her quote Barry Goldwater all that often. This is a long running magazine that continues to wave the liberal flag. I give them credit that they continued to espouse these views even several years ago when the "L" word was one of the worst things you could say about a person.

The magazine is relatively thin and packed with mostly political articles and columns. Celebrity folk such as Al Franken and Michael Moore are regular readers and sometimes contributors. Other liberal writers such as the late Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower have been published here.

If you are a Democrat, you will likely thrill to the weekly articles promoting various political causes. The March 26 issue had a big article about Dick Cheney and the Libby case. It advances the widely held notion that Cheney is the true puppet master. Of course, even many Republicans have conceded that Bush is a puppet so I guess there is minimal shock value to this article.

Most of the columns are brief. This is done to allow a lot of different writers voice their opinions. Of course, this is done more to establish a drumbeat than to promote true debate or dialog. I won't be too critical of them for that. As I noted at the beginning of this review, it is just as easy for conservatives to run talk shows or their own magazines doing the same thing.

The book reviews can be telling. In reviewing biographies of Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, reviewer Stephen Fraser goes off on a spiel about the Gilded Age and the robber barons. He writes a reasonably well argued debate against laissez faire capitalism but he was supposed to be reviewing these books. Sometimes, I read politically slanted magazines to get a good laugh at how one track they can be.

It isn't entirely politics. Sometimes, it is music or cinema being made into politics. In the recent April 2 edition, I learn how horribly mysogynist Black Snake Moan. I never saw the movie so I can't say for sure but the editorial by Lakshmi Chaudry seemed like whiny extremist feminism. It's just a movie. This is why donkeys lose so many elections, dear. The movie more than likely does have some elements that are sexist but the review seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill.

The Nation does promote a healthy liberal agenda. I think that people who are Democrat or liberal will really enjoy this magazine. I would also recommend it for conservative and other readers as well. (Of course, I would also suggest that liberals subscribe to NewsMax) Much of it is very well written. It is good to read all points of view so there is value to this magazine.

I can give it a recommendation solely on my strong belief in the First Amendment. I also do so because I do think that people should confront these ideas even if they disagree with them. I can't give it higher than three stars because of the extreme bias in the articles and columns. They make no effort to present the other side of the story. Were this a pure news magazine, I would rate even lower but since it is political opinion the bias becomes more acceptable.

The Nation is published 47 weeks a year. They are liberal so they apparently adopted a European type vacation schedule. The subscriptions will set you back $23. I have no intention of subscribing to this magazine but I am sure I will continue to read it from time to time. I get stuck in 30th Street Station more times than I care to admit.