Getting It Straight
By Richard Stengel, Managing Editor
These days, the press can't help being a player in the presidential campaign. We're the moderator--for better or for worse. The candidates talk to the public through the media, and the public talks to the candidates through our polls. The 24/7 news cycle--cable television, the Internet, the blogosphere--has the effect of trivializing big stories and making big stories out of trivial ones. It's disingenuous to say we're just the messenger, because we're often the message too.
There comes a time in every presidential campaign when the political parties attack the media. The high-water mark of that thus far was the Republican Convention. And while our approval ratings may not be as low as Congress's, we're far from beloved either. But I want to tell our readers that no matter the criticism, we strive to get it straight, to get it right. Our job is to tell the truth, as we see it, and if the facts don't match up with the campaign rhetoric or commercials, we tell you. We know what our job is: we work for you.
Speaking of being a moderator, last week 7 million viewers tuned in to watch the ServiceNation Presidential Forum at Columbia University, which I co-moderated with PBS's Judy Woodruff. Time was a co-sponsor of the forum and the summit the following day, which included First Lady Laura Bush, Caroline Kennedy and Senators Hillary Clinton and Orrin Hatch. It was there that Senator Hatch announced his bipartisan national-service bill, co-sponsored by Ted Kennedy. I'm proud of TIME's continued leadership on this front, and I'm already looking forward to our third annual service issue next year.
Last week, TIME.com unveiled a brand-new look. Conceived by the site's design director, Sean Villafranca, and executed by our director of product development, Shivani York, the idea was to bring the magazine's look and feel into the digital world while allowing our editors more flexibility for news, analysis and video. It looks great; have a look yourself.
This week's hard-hitting cover story on the Wall Street meltdown was penned by two of our favorite colleagues from Fortune: Andy Serwer, the magazine's dynamic managing editor, and Allan Sloan, one of America's premier business journalists. We're pleased to have them in our pages, and you will be too.
And finally, I'm delighted to announce the debut of our new cartoon page, Drawing Room, which is edited by Matthew Diffee. Diffee is one of the most talented and original cartoonists around, and his work appears frequently in the New Yorker and elsewhere. He'll be curating and contributing to the page, tapping the minds and pens of the best cartoonists in America.
Richard Stengel, MANAGING EDITOR