I was on a plane this weekend and read a bunch of magazines. I was starting to feel good that we had hit bottom and were starting to trend upwards in so many different ways – jobs, loans, home sales, stock market and attitude.
But then I read The Economist cover story on the April 4th issue called “Under Attack – Get the Rich - The Rise and Fall of the Wealthy”. According to our friends at The Economist, if you have a net worth – all in - of more than $1 million, you are part of the problem and your days are numbered. 
And then I read Newsweek on this Easter weekend and its cover story on ”The Decline and Fall of Christian America” and according to it, if you are Christian then you are on the outs in America and around the world and certainly in politics and in cultural influence. The article had a certain written glee about it. Also within was another story title ”The Fall of Russia’s Richest Oligarchs”. Those bad new Russian capitalists are getting theirs too according to these reports.
I also read “The Descent of Country Music in America” and how folks that like country music are hackneyed and out of touch with the new America.
Yikes. No wonder no one is reading or subscribing to news magazines anymore.
I guess misery loves company.
In my humble opinion Brian L needs to take a chill pill and relax. The fans that were being appreciated were all the fans, but specifically the ones in attendance at the final regular season home game. Unfortunately for you, Brian, most of those people were season ticket holders and last I checked the number of season ticket holders has grown in the last month. The tickets are more than affordable courtesy of Mr. Leonsis’ generous Power Pay plan that he’s extended to most of his season ticket holders. He’s a businessman and realizes the significant investment. It comes out to about $150 per month for seat in the mezzanine ends.
The solution is simple. If you don’t like how much money you’re earning now, change the books you read (or don’t at the moment) and the people you associate with. Those two simple changes will work on your thought process and you may find yourself a completely different individual five years or so from now.
Those unfortunate folks who are wealthy, Christian and like country music must have it real bad then…..
As I told my daughters years ago as they were growing up, you never bring yourself up by bringing someone else down. How can one say they value jobs but not those who create them! Class warfare has been the tool of the demagogue throughout history, and we will all pay the price if we don’t wise up! Capitalist aspire to being everyone up, socialist aspire to bring everyone down! I don’t believe in this kind of change, I’ve read a few history books – I like freedom!
You make a really great point, Ted. Let’s also make the point that all of those types of people *tend* to be conservative. Not all, of course, but some and, I might gander, most.
Our print media have no fear of alienating parts of their audience to advance their own opinions or agendas. Time and Newsweek should not be partisan magazines (leave that to National Review and the American Prospect) but clearly, CLEARLY they are. That’s the reason I stopped my subscription to both. I’m tired of wanting to pick up a newspaper or magazine and finding my views, no matter how sensible, under attack – not just talking politics but social, spiritual, you name it.
Happy Easter and Congratulations on a wonderful season! Couldn’t be more excited going into the post-season! Let’s get those Rangers!!!
C’mon ted when are caps playoff tickets going on sale to the general public? Don’t snub us people who aren’t rich enough for seasons tickets… or we peasants will riot outside the Verizon Center!!!
Fan Appreciation week: Thanks for supporting our team, unless you can’t drop a grand on seats.. then screw you!
For me, this is easy to understand. We just elected the most liberal, left-wing President in our history. Their agenda is perfectly portrayed in the litany you just rattled off.
So, the solution for tree-based media that are bleeding readership is…
…to publish articles that are certain to get them written off by even more readers?
Pardon me if I don’t quite see the wisdom in that.
The author of the Newsweek piece you alluded to published a follow-up in a web exclusive http://www.newsweek.com/id/193008 to clarify the spirit in which he wrote the initial article.
That’s why I stopped reading Newsweek a few years ago. I hung onto Time, but for too long . . . currently they have a cover on how all the species are going extinct and it’s all our fault: I counted a half-dozen totally unsubstantiated assertions and wild assumptions and I couldn’t believe a serious editor let it all through. But one did. I’m pretty much going to stick to the WSJ, National Review, Weekly Standard, Commentary, New Criterion, and yes, the NYT — because so much of it does have good reporting, though the op/ed page drives me mad.
Re: the Economist, I still read it from time to time because no one else does what they do, but I left it as a regularly weekly read about five years ago when they turned on Bjorn Lomborg and did a 180 on their own climate change approach — again, w/little or no substantiation or explanation. Plus it drives me wild that they don’t have bylines; you try to figure out: “Did some new writer/editor take over this beat, and the other was ousted?” . . and it’s nigh impossible to suss out.