Liberal Heads Explode Over Prospect of Newsweek Acquisition by NewsMax

June 4th, 2010 2:56 PM

Be on the alert for exploding liberal heads.

And the reason for these impending explosions? Michael Calderon at Yahoo! News reports:

It's been almost a month since the Washington Post Co. put Newsweek on the market, and by 5 p.m. today the initial bids are due. Despite skepticism  over whether there will be bidders, Yahoo! News can confirm there's at least one: Newsmax Media.

"Newsmax Media Inc. has made a bid for Newsweek," said a company statement provided to Yahoo! News.

Oh my head! My exploding head!

However, is it really any surprise that Newsweek is now looking for a new owner? Here is the "brilliant" business plan initiated last year by Newsweek editor Jon Meacham which consisted of purposely cutting circulation in half while raising the magazine price:

Jon Meacham admits it is hard to explain, even to his own people, why chopping Newsweek's circulation in half is a good thing. 

"It's hugely counterintuitive," the magazine's editor says. "The staff doesn't understand it."

...Newsweek, whose circulation was as high as 3.1 million in recent years, plans to cut that to 1.5 million by the beginning of 2010, in part by discouraging renewals. The magazine will begin charging the average subscriber about 90 cents an issue, nearly double the current rate. 

And now that the inevitable failure of Meacham's plan has taken place, Newsweek is forced to look for a new owner. Unfortunately for many liberals, that new owner could well be NewsMax. As you can guess, liberal heads are already exploding over that prospect. Here is a a sampling of exploding heads at the Huffington Post:

There is no way I would read Newsweek if Newsmax buys it.

This potential loss to the right wing should just be another reason for Progressives/Liberals/Democrats everywhere to push back, voice their disdain for this move, and vote in the mid terms in large enough numbers to maintain our gains.

My favorite of the Huffington Post comments was this...

If NEWSMAX takes over Newsweek, I'm cancelling my subscription!

...Because it was followed up by this reply...
 Please don't, then there will be no subscribers!
The Daily Kos reaction was, as Noel Sheppard would say, absolutely delicious starting with the author of this thread, You said WHAT? NewsMax trying to acquire Newsweek!?!?:

I was fortunately not drinking coffee at the computer when I heard on the Bloomberg stream about the latest developments in the Washington Post Company's attempts to shop their money-losing Newsweek franchise.  

If I had been, there might have been serious keyboard spoilage, because among the report's list of potential buyers of Newsweek was a certain toxic far-right propaganda and disinformation outlet.

If NewsMax does purchase Newsweek I am not sure which would give more satisfaction: reading a magazine that was forced to give up its leftwing bias or watching liberal heads explode over this event.