I was flipping through the channels this morning and stopped on The Chris Matthews Show on NBC. Today's enlightening roundtable featured talking heads Joe Klein (Time), David Gregory (NBC), Cynthia Tucker (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and Julia Reed (Vogue).
WHAT?
Julia Reed of Vogue magazine?
Are you kidding me? Did Vogue open a new foreign affairs desk?
Having no idea who Julia Reed was, I did some searches and found she seems to have impeccable credentials for commenting on the conduct of the war in Iraq and national security. She wrote an absolutely fab book on all things southern from hair-dos, fashion and violence and the lack of gun control (all in one book! -- that's some book). She also apparently has a killer recipe for Puree of Cauliflower with Curry:
http://wednesdaychef.typepad.com/the_wednesday_chef/2006/03/julia_reeds_pur.html
To date, her most notable piece of work appears to be a hard hitting interview in the August 2004 issue of Vogue on the Bush Twins but honestly, it was a toss-up between the Bush Twins piece and another on Reese Witherspoon's challenges in nailing the nuances of June Carter Cash in "Walk the Line":
http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/110705/index.html
I don't demand serious, hardcore news 24x7 on every channel until every problem in the world is solved but we already have 90 minutes of celebrity porno-publicity puff stories every weekday with Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and Inside Edition. We're losing a war that has cost 3000 American lives, probably over 50,000 Iraqi lives and $330 billion and counting. I don't think it's too much to ask of news shows to have people qualified to represent either side of legitimate proposals for winning the war or addressing the underlying problems that led to the war.
In return, I PROMISE that if I ever want the inside scoop on where Condi picked up those to-die-for black patent leather dominatrix boots, Vogue will be the first magazine to which I turn.
