Economist Brad DeLong calls on Newsweek to fire Niall Ferguson

[Marzupialis]

For the misleading cover-story where Ferguson made things up about Obamacare (saying it raises the deficit) A Newsweek colleague and others have joined Nobel Prize winner in Economics Paul Krugman in slamming Ferguson, who has a history of not fact-checking claims.

Here is a New York Magazine article with details on this.

Delong wants Harvard to form a committee to determine whether Ferguson is fit to be a teacher there.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/08/niall-ferguson-smacked-down-over-obama-newsweek-cover.html

[regnaD kciN]

1. I'd rather they fire the editor who put it on the cover...

...because, even if they've never heard about the story, many more people will see that cover and conclude that Newsweek officially concluded, after an impartial journalistic enquiry, that Obama deserves to be defeated.

[Beartracks]

4. But, but... conflict sellz!! n/t

======================

[DCKit]

8. +1 Even rudimentary fact-checking would have kept that POS from being published.

I guess Newsweek is trying to fill the void left by the tabloids that have folded in recent years. Who doesn't miss the stories about JoJo the dog-faced boy or aliens visiting the WH? Perhaps they're just testing the waters.

Word of warning: Don't even think of using this issue of Newsweek as toilet paper or to line a birdcage - it's toxic. Then again, as the definitive swan song of Newsweek's journalistic integrity, it may also become a collectors item. Use your own judgment.

[SunSeeker]

2. That douchebag Ferguson is a teacher at Harvard?! nt

[Historyprof77132]

3. If lying about Obama ends a teaching career, then

Damn near every teacher in Texas could be fired.

[Cha]

6. Except around Austin?

I met a high school teacher and his family from Austin, Texas who were on vaca in Kaua'i and they were quite reality based. Such a treat 5o meet them on the Sleeping Giant Hiking Trail.

[Historyprof77132]

15. Point taken, too bad I teach right outside the circle of reality. However I

do tell my students to go hang out with some of the legalize pot protests just to have the experience .

[Ken Burch]

5. I'm guessing that Ferguson has fantasies of being Romney's foreign policy guru

perhaps even becoming a Scottish Henry Kissinger in a Romney Administration.

[RainDog]

7. good n/t

[KharmaTrain]

9. This Isn't Your Father's Newsweak...

The Washington Post sold the magazine a couple years ago and it's now on life support. A decade ago I used to get 4 newsmagazines each week but gave those up when I began to rely on the "innertoobs" for my source of information. I'm sure I'm not alone. Just like newspapers, magazines have hit real tough times as circulation numbers and ad revenues have fallen. So what's left? To make noise...try to create a controversy and hope that spikes sales. A couple weeks ago the magazine did a not so flattering cover on Willard and now one on President Obama. It says more about the poor condition of the news magazine business than it does about President Obama...

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. "not fact checking" is a euphemism.

"fact fabrication" is a better term, or best: "lying".

[thucythucy]

13. Whenever I watch my local TV news, I notice that

the people responsible for the "newscasters'" wardrobe and hair styles are cited in the running credits at the end of the program, but never the fact checkers, (assuming they exist).

Tells you what the priorities are, doesn't it?

[hifiguy]

11. Andrew Sullivan destroyed Ferguson yesterday

on The Dish. Brick by brick. It was an awesome takedown.

[just1voice]

12. Lying is completely legal in the M$M, promoted if it increases viewership

$$$ is all that matters to them. Universities are just as bad, they need big bank money to continue to exist in their corrupt paradigms as well.

[spanone]

14. yea, that damned liberal media, eh?

[ellisonz]

16. I'm most astounded by Newsweeks explanation that they do not fact check.

(A Newsweek spokesman confirmed to Politico, as Krugman suspected, that the magazine does not have a fact-checking department: "We, like other news organisations today, rely on our writers to submit factually accurate material.&quot