[lbo-talk] Left alternative to The Economist? An Anti-Economist?

Joseph Catron jncatron at gmail.com
Fri Aug 17 17:10:21 PDT 2007


Although it's been a while since I followed it closely, I've always enjoyed the New Internationalist.

http://www.newint.org

On 8/15/07, Charles Peterson <charlesppeterson at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Is there a left alternative to The Economist magazine?
> And is there an Anti-Economist somewhere that debunks
> the outrageous spin, cherry picking, strawman
> constructing, and smug attitude dismissive of
> alternative points of view that characterize this
> small but highly influential rag that spreads the
> propaganda of neoliberalism throughout the liberal
> intelligentsia?
>
> Many of the most influential people "liberal" people I
> know brag about keeping up by reading The Economist,
> even if they'd never follow its voting
> recommendations. And from people like that,
> neoliberal dogma propagates into the minds and
> corridors of power. I worry that its influence far
> exceeds its base.
>
> But what could I recommend as an alternative?
>
> Of course, there was the once great (and now
> lamented?) Wall Street Journal, where you could get
> all the facts that fit (except on the editorial page,
> which has always been Fox News). But even when I
> could recommend WSJ, who can keep up with it all? I
> can hardly keep up with The Nation.
>
> What's needed is a weekly (or monthly, even) with an
> international perspective, and which covers the world
> or thereabouts in every issue (or web update). The
> International Socialist Review has a good range, but
> it also rates fairly high on spin-to-fact ratio, if in
> another direction. And, though I subscribe to ISR
> myself, I could hardly recommend it to my liberal
> friends. I continue looking for something better and
> more universal. As it is, I feel like my reading ISR
> and filtering out the spin is much like my liberal
> friends reading The Economist and claiming to do the
> same.
>
> At the USSF in June, Yes! magazine had a seminar on
> positive trends (greater democracy, opposing
> neoliberalism) in Latin America and I picked up a
> couple of copies. I like it, but honestly I worry
> it's a bit too uncritical (though it does bring needed
> perspective to a US audience who is used to blanket
> denunciations of Cuba, Chavez, etc.)
>
> Even if we on the left are nowhere near being able to
> organize the masses, the least we could do would be to
> present a clear and evolving picture of what's
> actually going on in the whole world, and constantly
> challenge the Washington Consensus, especially here in
> Washington's homeland, where The Economist may have
> its largest influence.
>
> Charles Peterson
> San Antonio, Texas
>
>
>
>
>
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