US Magazine's Politics

By: Sarah Harl

It may have come as quite a surprise to writers at the popular gossip magazine US Magazine that their cover featuring Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin generated so much controversy. The cover features Palin and newborn son, while the bright yellow headline proclaims "Babies, Lies & Scandal". Not only did the cover provoke a record number of comments on the magazine's website, but it also incited outrage when compared to the magazine's cover featuring Democratic nominee Barak Obama and his wife Michelle. While the cover featuring the Obama's talks about how Michelle shops at Target, watches Sex and the City, and why her husband loves her so much, the Palin cover, however, showcases her young daughter's pregnancy, and new and embarrassing surprises about the governor's family.

Now, to say that US Magazine is known for it's political reporting, would be naive, at best. It's encouraging to see that a magazine that normally covers Britney or Brad and Angelina would feature both parties major political parties candidates. However, if this magazine is going to continue to report on political issues and candidates, it is imperative that they focus on reporting that is more factual, truthful, and tactful than what they have shown with the differences in these two articles. In no way should the Palin article have talked about new and embarrassing stories about Ms. Palin's family. They are not the Osbourne's with a television show making their lives available to public scrutiny. I understand they assume some of this now with their mother running for vice president, but they should be subject to the same treatment as the Obama children, and this clearly is untrue in the case of the US covers.

I understand that US is new to the world of politics, but hopefully through this completely classless display of biased political opinion, the magazine will realize that readers want and deserve the facts presented in a tactful and respectful way, and attacking a teenager who made a mistake and a baby with down syndrome is a shameless way to sell magazines.