My former employer, The Week, has finally ditched its old brochure site for a real live Web presence. Here's why you should care. While American pundits (save a few in Miami) have been ignoring the implications of Luis Posada Carriles's presence in the US, The Week's roundup of what the Latin American press is saying makes clear that this is a big deal in the rest of the world.
�How embarrassing� for the U.S., said Pascual Serrano in Havana�s Tribuna de la Habana. At the very moment that the Americans are self-righteously condemning Cuba for failing to uphold human rights, a �notorious terrorist� suddenly turns up in Miami. Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban-born Venezuelan citizen, was convicted in Venezuela of blowing up a civilian Cuban plane in 1976, killing all 73 passengers. After he escaped from prison, Posada was caught in Panama in 2000 with 40 tons of explosives; he planned to detonate them at a summit there and kill Fidel Castro. The Panamanian president inexplicably pardoned Posada, and from August 2004, until last month, authorities didn�t know where he was. Now it transpires that Posada, 77, has been in Florida for several weeks. This �monster� has just applied for political asylum in the United States....It�s time for Bush to remember his admonition to the world in 2003: �If someone protects a terrorist, if someone feeds a terrorist, that person is just as guilty as the terrorists.
With luck, The Week's site will become must reading for bloggers. One reason it may not, is that it does the opposite of what bloggers are born to do: fairly present all sides of each issue.
Now, some people have called it "news for those without brains or internet access," but what it really is is news for those without time. Sure, if you already read four daily newspapers and a dozen political journals, you probably don't need this magazine. But if you're a little pressed, it's a great way to keep on top of the debate, whether the subject is Darfur, Dworkin, DeLay, or Disney.
The whole magazine isn't on the site -- ats is, but not food, business, for example -- but there's finally enough to give you a sense of what it's really about.
None of my articles are archived, of course (other than the briefings listed here), but I did help shape the site relaunch before I left, which is probably why I'm going on about it.
