Tina Brown: Did I say it was a launch?

Mickey Kaus Columnist
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Newsweek editor Tina Brown has defended her widely panned launch issue, claiming it is only one step in an “iterative evolution.”

[W]e’re going to be doing a great many other changes to the magazine. And you’ll see it’s rolling over over the next year.

The problem is that the what’s disappointing about the issue isn’t legacy Newsweek awfulness, it’s fresh Tina awfulness (the Hillary hagiography, the women-on-the-march gasfest, the mediocre pieces by bigshot Tina buddies).  Not things you’d want to iterate. … P.S.: The magazine, on the inside, is not as dreary as the cover, if you ignore the centerpiece features. The front of the book is at least trying (really hard) to be livelier. It’s still doomed. … P.P.S.: Highlights include the CW’s confident prediction of “no NFL lockout” and a piece building up “Atomic Anne” Lauvergeon, France’s glamorous champion of “clean, green” nuclear energy! She’s a woman! …

Admission: I tried to read the cover story on Hillary Clinton. I really did. It is unreadable. It would be easier to swim the Bering Strait. It’s like one of those full page advertisements Kim Il Sung used to buy in the New York Times, except that the Kim articles had some style.

Final Offer:  The Daily Beast describes Hillary Clinton’s speech to the Beast‘s Women in the World conference as “electrifying.” Here’s the speech.  How about making this a test case? If the speech is “electrifying” I’ll shut up, recognize Daily Beast and Newsweek as trustworthy sources of truth and bake Tina Brown a box of cookies. If it’s not “electrifying,” then the Beast‘s Howie Kurtz has to write a piece expressing concern that Brown’s publications have turned into embarrassing shills for her ally Hillary. And we know how tough Kurtz is about conflicts of interest. Deal? …

Update: NY Observer gets at the desperate Beasty self-infatuation