Because I write for Maclean's, I've had a ton of mail asking what I think about the notorious Canadian magazine cover showing Bush as Saddam. Well, I think it's meretricious bilge and, if anyone in Toronto ever thought to ask my opinion about anything, I'd have told 'em so. And it doesn't seem to be justified by the story. Nothing worse than a tease you can't live up to.
But the idea that Maclean's is some kind of "left-wing magazine" is ridiculous. Maclean's is the Canadian equivalent of Time and Newsweek. No doubt it has its share of ghastly Trudeaupian squishes, but it carries me and the great Barbara Amiel as columnists, which is more than Time or Newsweek do. It's also edited and published by Ken Whyte, who's regarded as way to the right by most of the media establishment. If he was ever appointed editor of Time or Newsweek, Howie Kurtz & co would be writing columns fretting over a right-wing coup placing a disturbing question-mark over the future of a beloved institution, etc. |