Jon Friedman, the media columnist for MarketWatch, is more than a little disappointed by the choices made by
Time and
Newsweek for their highly anticipated year-end showcase covers.
Time went with Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono for Persons of the Year; Newsweek, in its "What's Next" ish, put up a preview of "The Da Vinci Code" movie. Says Friedman: "
Time and
Newsweek both insist that they don't choose their cover subjects as a way to goose newsstand sales.... Do I believe it? Nah." For
Time, Friedman would have selected someone associated with
the Katrina disaster, which he calls the year's biggest domestic story. As for "The Da Vinci Code," Friedman doubts it was selected for any reason other than its possible newsstand allure. "Should
we believe that 'thousands' of journalists pursued this story," as suggested by
Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker in his "What's Next" introductory note? Friedman simply doesn't buy it. "From
where I sit," he writes, "it looks like the two magazines trivialized the so-called awards."
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