'Newsweek' Morphs Into 'Crossfire'

"Some people in our business believe print should emulate the Internet," wrote Newsweek editor Jon Meacham a few weeks ago. "We disagree."

Meacham intended that as a put-down of Time, but now I'm starting to think what he really meant was that Newsweek should emulate 24-hour cable news. How else to explain his latest pair of acquisitions: ex-White House schemer Karl Rove and left wing outrage-surfer Markos Moulitsas?

As a headline-grabber, the double hire more than makes up for the magazine's shrug-inducing redesign last month. But is it good journalism? Columnists should have a point of view, of course; there's nothing more boring than an opinion writer who tries to play every issue down the middle. But they should also be capable of taking positions that surprise you. Nothing I've seen from either of these guys hints at such potential.

Moulitsas, naturally, approves of the move: " Newsweek actually got this right, for once. They balanced out a movement progressive with a movement conservative."

Is that what it's about? Balance? So you have a liberal shouting on one side, and a conservative shouting on the other side, and if their voices exactly cancel each other out, you've done your job? That sounds like Crossfire, or like the obligatory post-debate spin room, not like a magazine with an outsize regard for its own reputation.

Explaining why he brought in Rove as a contributor, Meacham told the Washington Post, "Our readers are sophisticated enough to know that what they get from Karl has to be judged in the context of who Karl is...Readers will have to decide if he's simply an apologist." So now it's the reader's job to decide that? What happened to the editor?