Recent cover headlines include:
- America is thirsty: Let's sell them our water before they take it.
- Elisha Cuthbert: Puck-Bunny Blogger
- Svend Him Packing: Will the voters of Vancouver Centre please do the rest of Canada a favour? (an article on Svend Robinson)
- The Real Stephen Harper: He's known as icy and inflexible. Up close, he's anything but.
- What's Not to Love?: A grassroots defence of the much hated retailer. (an article on Wal-Mart)
The fear mongering, flippant mysogyny, boldly aired political slant and fervent defence of the status quo are usually the hallmarks of American news networks like Fox News. So, it was surprising to see the venerable Maclean's become equally undignified and bombastic. I puzzled over the change until I looked over the masthead and it all became clear: Kenneth Whyte, Editor-in-Chief.
Ken Whyte, former Editor-in-Chief of The National Post, has brought his "sex and violence sells" strategy to Maclean's, and the results can be unintentionally comical. My personal favourite: "Activists defend them, but the first fatal attack in 100 years shows wolves aren't so cuddly after all." Oh my!
Ken Whyte has never learned that desperately screaming for attention by appealing to the lowest common denominator is cheap. With his strategy in mind, I would like to suggest that Ken Whyte report a rise in the homeless cannibalizing white babies, yet another scientific study that suggests women are genetically incapable of becoming leaders, present an exclusive scoop on Jack Layton's secret crush on and acquiescence to Stephen Harper, and list the upsides to being a 12 year old working for Nike.