The second issue of Rolling Stone that I have looked at was much more politically fueled than the first. There was an eight page exclusive interview with President Obama, as well as a five and a half page article discussing the tea party. The rest of the magazine was filled with much of the same information as the first. There were articles talking about various singers/actors, as well as movie and music reviews.
The last issue of Rolling Stone that I read did have liberal tones to it, but this second issue leaves no doubt in my mind that it has a very left wing agenda. The questions directed to Obama in his interview set him up to speak his mind about the Republican party, and some of the questions were negative towards the party in general. He was asked questions like "What do you think of Fox News? Do you think it's good for America and for democracy?" and 'When did you realize that the Republicans weren't going to work with you?"
Although I am a Republican, I did not mind reading through the article. Of course Obama is going to disagree with some of my views, but I am still interested and willing in what he has to say. I have to admit, when I was reading through it I couldn't help but think to myself, 'man, this guys really not bad, maybe he's even doing a good job!' But at the end of the day I still have to disagree. About Fox News, he said that since America promoted freedom of speech he could not say much about the subject other than that.. and it's a good thing he didn't. All a Republican would have to say is "Wait just a minute! What about MSNBC?! MSNBC is an extremely liberal news channel, just the opposite of Fox News!"
The President also commented on other questions saying that although we as a nation haven't seen much "change" he has been making progress and passing the laws he promised in his campaign. He said he keeps a list of the promises he made during his campaign and he has accomplished 70% of them already, and still has two (or six) more years left to accomplish the other thirty percent. He said that America won't really see the effects of the laws that he has passed already for another year or two, and that we should just be patient.
He discussed clearly his views about the tax cuts his administration is trying to pass. He wants to increase taxes for those making over $250,000, and reduce them for the middle class families which in turn would cause them to spend a little more, which in turn would stimulate the economy and create a need for jobs. This all sounds good, but I think that $250,000 is a rather low number in the scheme of things. What I mean is that $250,000 isn't totally unrealistic for somebody to make after years of hard work and maybe a little luck. I think he should make the number $500,000, and only tax every dollar after that number a certain percentage. This would really hurt if you were a person making $100,000,000 each year, but come on, who needs all that money. Not only that, but it's unrealistic for any one person to make that much, simply meaning that one would have to get really really lucky and make some really good business decisions. That's just what I think.
Overall, my initial views of Rolling Stone stay the same. I think this most recent issue narrows the target market down to liberal men and women ages 25-45 interested in current pop culture, but like I said in my previous post I think that if someone is interested in the cover story they would buy the magazine regardless. For example, anybody interested in Obama might have bought this issue to read the exclusive interview, which took me about 45 minutes to read and would probably be worth the $4.99 cover price to somebody interested in what the President has to say.
One last thing. I noticed that there is one page dedicated to correspondence, a section where people write in their thoughts about previous articles. I really think this is kind of absurd. It would make more since to me if the magazine dedicated a few pages to a section like this, but it doesn't make since to me why anybody would write in in hopes of being published if only ten or so letters make it to the magazine. I guess it gives the reader a chance to submit feedback, but I really can't understand how one page of this stuff really serves any purpose.
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