Newsweek Owner: Gayness Can Be Cured

Last year IBT Media co-owner Johnathan Davis and his business partner bought Newsweek from the Daily Beast. Earlier this month the 80-year old title returned to print with an article that has been met with controversy as its main subject denies being "the face of Bitcoin," as Newsweek's cover story about the virtual currency declared. In fact, the man claims to have never even heard of Bitcoin until a reporter contacted him. But the real story, for us here, is the revelation that Davis, an evangelical with ties to a fringe pastor, apparently believes that homosexuality can be cured.

Via the Guardian:

Davis said in an interview that their work and faith were separate, and that he wanted “the journalism to speak for itself” both at their new magazine and at the International Business Times, a news website that was IBT Media’s flagship title until it bought Newsweek. Similarly, he dismissed the notion that readers should be troubled by the little-known fact that he has personally endorsed the view, espoused by the so-called “ex-gay” movement, that gay people may have developed their sexuality as a result of being sexually abused as children, and can be cured by therapy to make them heterosexual. In a Facebook post in February 2013, Davis described as "shockingly accurate" an op-ed article written by Christopher Doyle, the director of the International Healing Foundation (IHF), which works to convert gay people. Davis said it “cuts like a hot knife through a buttery block of lies”.

Christopher Doyle, of course, is the well-known "ex-gay" crackpot and NARTH backer that has been featured on JMG many times over the years. In just one of his many outrageous claims, earlier this year Doyle declared that American gay activists are to blame for the religion-motivated murders of gay men in Africa. The Guardian asked Davis about that Facebook post:

When asked if he believed that gay people could be cured, Davis said: “Whether I do or not, I’m not sure how that has any bearing on my capacity here as the founder of the company. I’m not sure how it’s relevant. People believe all sorts of weird things. But from a professional capacity, it’s unrelated.” The post was then removed from his Facebook page.

After the Guardian story was published, staffers at IBT Media received the below statement from Davis.

I want to reiterate to all of you that our company, myself included, has and always will respect diversity in our workplace. This is reflected not only in our daily work but also in our hiring and personnel practices. Our team members are hired and retained based solely on their ability to perform the task. We welcome and support a diverse range of opinions and values. We believe this diversity is critical to success as a world-class journalism organization, and also creates a richer and more productive culture and environment for all of us.

Davis and his wife have fringe evangelical entanglements that go far beyond an endorsement of Christopher Doyle. Hit the first link and read the Guardian's excellent story.

Newsweek To Return To Print

Newsweek stopped producing print copies over a year ago, but it's coming back.

The magazine expects to begin a 64-page weekly edition in January or February, said Jim Impoco, Newsweek’s editor in chief. Mr. Impoco said in an interview that Newsweek would depend more heavily on subscribers than advertisers to pay its bills — and that readers would pay more than in the past. “It’s going to be a more subscription-based model, closer to what The Economist is compared to what Time magazine is,” Mr. Impoco said. “We see it as a premium product, a boutique product.” Newsweek’s return to print is a positive sign for a magazine that struggled mightily in the digital age. At its height in 1991, the magazine had 3.3 million readers. In 2010, Newsweek’s owner, The Washington Post, sold it to the billionaire investor Sidney Harman for $1. Mr. Harman, who also assumed $40 million in liabilities, then merged it with The Daily Beast, the website owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp.

Petition Of The Day

Details.

The Latest Newsweek

#LastPrintIssue

Newsweek ends its print run with an appropriate hashtag headline.

Next Issue Of Newsweek

Newsweek Goes Digital-Only

Not very surprising. From Tina Brown:

We are announcing this morning an important development at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Newsweek will transition to an all-digital format in early 2013. As part of this transition, the last print edition in the United States will be our Dec. 31 issue. Meanwhile, Newsweek will expand its rapidly growing tablet and online presence, as well as its successful global partnerships and events business. Newsweek Global, as the all-digital publication will be named, will be a single, worldwide edition targeted for a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context. Newsweek Global will be supported by paid subscription and will be available through e-readers for both tablet and the Web, with select content available on The Daily Beast.

Newsweek: Heaven Is Real

The Friendly Atheist rolls his eyes:

This is what it boils down to: He’s a doctor. Colton Burpo (the subject of the similar, bestselling Heaven is for Real) was 4 when he “experienced Heaven.” But they’re practically saying the same thing. You get the feeling an agent somewhere was thinking, “If the American public fell for what a four-year-old boy said, just think of what’ll happen when a doctor says it!” But a fancy title doesn’t mean we should believe everything the person says. Doctors can be wrong, Presidents can be wrong, and we all know Pastors can be wrong. Just because you have an honorific in front of your name doesn’t mean you automatically deserve respect.

HomoQuotable - Andrew Sullivan

"If Obama wins, to put it bluntly, he will become the Democrats’ Reagan. The narrative writes itself. He will emerge as an iconic figure who struggled through a recession and a terrorized world, reshaping the economy within it, passing universal health care, strafing the ranks of al -Qaeda, presiding over a civil-rights revolution, and then enjoying the fruits of the recovery. To be sure, the Obama recovery isn’t likely to have the same oomph as the one associated with Reagan—who benefited from a once-in-a-century cut of top income tax rates (from 70 percent to, at first, 50 percent, and then to 28 percent) as well as a huge jump in defense spending at a time when the national debt was much, much less of a burden.

"But Obama’s potential for Reagan status (maybe minus the airport-naming) is real. Yes, Bill Clinton won two terms and is a brilliant pol bar none, as he showed in Charlotte in the best speech of both conventions. But the crisis Obama faced on his first day—like the one Reagan faced—was far deeper than anything Clinton confronted, and the future upside therefore is much greater. And unlike Clinton’s constant triangulating improvisation, Obama has been playing a long, strategic game from the very start—a long game that will only truly pay off if he gets eight full years to see it through. That game is not only changing America. It may also bring his opposition, the GOP, back to the center, just as Reagan indelibly moved the Democrats away from the far left." - Andrew Sullivan, in the cover story of the latest issue of Newsweek.

The Latest Issue Of Newsweek

Newsweek has launched another in its recent string of provocative covers, resulting in denouncements from many journalists. The magazine has created a Twitter hashtag to invite discussion of the cover, but that seems to have backfired on them.

The Latest From Newsweek

Story.

The Coming Issue Of Newsweek

What's with this surge in phallic imagery? Source.

Romney Gets The Bush Treatment

From Sully's Cover Story In Newsweek

"This, by any measure, is an astonishing pace of change in one presidential term. In four years Obama went from being JFK on civil rights to being LBJ: from giving uplifting speeches to acting in ways to make the inspiring words a reality. And he did so by co-opting the forces of resistance—like the military leadership. He fooled most of us much of the time, our outbursts often intemperate—I went on CNN at one point to say that the president had betrayed the gay community on the military ban. We snarked about the 'fierce urgency of whenever.' Our anger built. And sometimes I wonder if he goaded us into 'making him do it.' If he did, it worked." - Andrew Sullivan,writing for Newsweek.

The Coming Issue Of Newsweek

Bill Donohue Vs Andrew Sullivan

Catholic League blowhard Bill Donohue is predictably angry about Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek cover story.

The Jesus that Sullivan has created—“calm, loving, accepting,” and, of course, “homeless”—is what happens when “Occupy Wall Street” becomes mistaken for Catholicism. Worse, Sullivan’s “Etch A Sketch” Jesus accounts for his remarkable conclusion that “the cross was not the point” of Jesus’ life. Sullivan’s article reads like a public confession. It is not the Catholic Church that is obsessing about people’s sex lives, as he alleges. No, it is people like him. He wants a Catholic Church without Catholicism. And I want cotton candy without cavities.

This Week's Newsweek Cover

Actual Newsweek Cover

(Source)

Fox Blurs Out Andrew Sullivan's Name

Fox News is so pissed about Newsweek's "Why Are Obama's Critics So Dumb?" cover, they blurred out Andrew Sullivan's name under the title. Sully had nothing to do with the title and in fact never makes a "dumb" claim in his article. But Tina Brown's gotta sell magazines.

Palin Vs Sully