Friday, May 27, 2011

Grand Rapids, Michigan vs. Newsweek:
'Dying' city takes on moribund magazine

Drew Grant of Salon.com reports that after taking issue with Newsweek's inclusion of Grand Rapids in a list of Top 10 "Dying Cities" in America, 5,000 of that city's residents made a kickass lipdub in lieu of a mere letter to the editor.



Newsweek responded via Facebook:
...we want you to know it [the list] was done by a website called mainstreet.com -- not by Newsweek... it uses a methodology that our current editorial team doesn't endorse and wouldn't have employed...
When a commenter wondered why Newsweek posted the list if it didn't endorse MainStreet's methods, the newsweekly's FB team punted: Different editorial team = different methods.

Grant concluded:
...On the Newsweek site, there is no way to tell that the "10 Dying Cities" article was originally written by another publication, except for a small sidebar that lists "Main Street" as the author of the piece...
     And why wouldn't readers assume that Newsweek's editorial approved an article that appeared on its site? There's no Op-Ed note saying "These views do not reflect those of Newsweek."
After watching the lipdub of Grand Rapids, which showed 5,000 residents singing, dancing, kissing, pillow-fighting, etc., AKSARBENT has concluded by the glaring absence of any gay couples whatsoever that "experiencing" Grand Rapids has caused many of them to move elsewhere.

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