The Colbert Issue: A Newsweek Omnibus

Remember back two weeks ago when we still didn’t know where in the world or when Stephen Colbert was going and Newsweek announced he’d be the first ever guest editor of the magazine?
Remember back when Stephen still had a lovely, rich, full head of gorgeous hair and we were shocked (shocked, I say!) to see the cover?
We got a few sneak peaks on-line of Stephen’s editorial diligence and prenatal correspondence and the mainstream media debated if this was a portent of the demise of journalism as we know it. (Frankly, some even looked forward to the demise and and ensuing resurrection.
Then Stephen went to Iraq and shaved his head. The magazine hit the newsstands, but there was Stephen looking hot, doing an awesome week of shows from Camp Victory and some of us got all distracted…
As Stephen’s issue of Newsweek reaches it’s sell-by-date, it’s time to take a look at what’s inside and what folks had to say about it.

What’s On-line
For those of us who live outside of the United States, it has been a bit frustrating this week to not have the US edition of Newsweek available. So here’s a set of all the links I could find to elements of this special issue. Some we’ve linked to in previous posts, but I put them all here for convenience.

• Why I Took This Crummy Job – by Stephen Colbert, Guest Editor: “…I just figured the insurgents were wiped out because they were heavily invested in Lehman Brothers.”
• A Reader’s Guide to the Colbert Issue – by Jon Meacham, Editor: “The test of whether the Colbert decision was a sound one, I think, is whether readers learn something new from the following pages. I am confident that they will.”
• Victory in Iraq – by Fareed Zakaria: “How we got here is a matter for history. But the democratic ideal is still within reach.”
• A Note From Stephen Colbert – Letters to the Editor: “NEWSWEEK has bestowed upon me the honor of choosing this week’s letters—huge mistake! Because now I’m just going to print all the letters I sent that the magazine didn’t run. In your face, Other Letters!”
• Love Is a Battlefield – by Daniel Stone, Eve Conant, and John Berry: “For some soldiers, there’s no place like combat.”
• Worried They Will Miss the War – by Bill Murphy, Jr.: “Inside the Mind of West Point’s Class of 2009.”
• Children of Conflict – by Jessica Ramirez: “Since 9/11, more than a million kids have had a parent deployed. Their childhoods often go with them.”
• Iraq Steps Out of Iran’s Shadow – by Larry Kaplow: “Nuri al-Maliki wants to keep Tehran at bay.”
• The Battle Over the Battle of Fallujah – by Dan Ephron: “A videogame so real it hurts.”
• The Colbert Issue: Whose Bright Idea Was This? – ‘Back Story’ by Jon Meacham, with annotation by Stephen Colbert: [h/t to Esquire magazine for the scan, though I am using it completely out of context.]

The Appraisal
Slate.com talks about the one-two punch of Newsweek and Operation Iraqi Stephen, the readers of Newsweek write letters to the Guest Editor, and some funny folks make some funny observations (below the break) .

• Mission Accomplished – JSlate.com: “The hook was a week of episodes of The Colbert Report … taped in Baghdad before an audience of U.S. soldiers, and the print exploits were fairly mild. Colbert was gently amusing up front in a faux letters page, decently humorous in a back-page humor piece, and perfectly sincere in words quoted at the opener of an all-Iraq feature well: “My character and I both think it’s a shame that we’re not talking about the troops anymore.”"
• Stephen Colbert, Guest Editor (Seriously) – ‘Letters to the Editor’ of Newsweek’s June 22 issue: “Too bad Stephen Colbert wasn’t around for Vietnam. He might have made some sense of why we were there.”
• TV not making sense? It’s not because you forgot to convert from analog to digital – ChicagoTribune.com: “The success of Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert as guest editor of Newsweek means one thing: Colbert is no longer a contender to become Time’s Man of the Year.”
• This Week in Magazines: The “Capitalist Tool” Says Angelina Tops Oprah – Huffington Post: “Well, it appears that comedian Stephen Colbert, guest editor for the June 15 issue of the new and supposedly more analytical Newsweek, at least glanced at June 15 Time’s cover, “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live.” His “Why I Took This Crummy Job” letter to Newsweek readers drolly informs that his (and the magazine’s generally serious and able) focus on Iraq “meant cutting the cover story they had planned: “Hey, Have You Heard About This Thing Called ‘Twitter?’ “”
• How Newsweek’s Guest Editor Let Us Down (That Means YOU, Mr. Colbert) – The Comic Riffs (of washingtonpost.com): “We will continue to believe that you appreciate a good cartoon, Stephen. After all, your Tek Jansen animations on “The Colbert Report” are inspired. “Saturday Night Live’s” Robert Smigel told Comic Riffs that you were a creative boon to his animated “TV Funhouse.” And when we chatted you up — on the night you skewered all comers at the White House Correspondents Dinner (we, sir, were the lone voice in the room of 2,000-plus laughing at each and every punchline) — you even provided advice on how to caricature you.”

And a final word from icons of satirical journalism
In response to ‘Daily Finanace’ complaining that Colbert’s Newsweek cover was too close to the 1989 cover of the satirical ‘Spy’ featuring then President Bush (the first):

UPDATE: Speaking for himself and his Spy co-founder, Graydon Carter, Kurt Andersen says of Newsweek’s tribute, “It pleased me. And I think we’re both relieved that today, as opposed to 1989, America’s most entertaining and WASPiest make-believe conservative Republican is the host of a TV show instead of president of the United States.”