Look, I get it. TIME is pouring a lot of money into its Haiti coverage and wants to make money off it without seeming like the bad guy, so the book division repurposes some magazine content for a book and promises to throw some change towards the subjects. In theory this isn't any worse than helping out Haiti by buying a celebrity-designed handbag or going to a party hosted by someone whose 15 minutes are up. The "share" (how much? Five percent? Ten? One?) probably won't pay out immediately, meaning that the most urgent relief efforts won't be funded, but Haiti will still need help in 6 months, a year, or longer.
No, it IS worse, because this is a news organization and as such I hold them to a higher standard than Scarlett Johansson or any of Tiger's mistresses. I don't think that's unfair.
The reason I even got this e-mail is because I subscribe to TIME. I've been a subscriber for years. The division that puts out these books is separate from the content creators anyway, so sending Richard Stengel a poison-pen letter (poison-keyboard e-mail? Phrase fail!) won't be effective. But TIME, how about sending the hundreds of thousands of dollars it will cost you to print and distribute these books directly TO a reputable charity organization. You can even put out a press release if that will make you feel better and call a news conference with Anderson Cooper in his stupid black T-shirt and the Utah adoption brigade and repeated plays of "We Are The World 2010: We Are The World When It Suits Us To Be Part Of The World, Which Is When It Will Look The Best."
I'm going to go breathe into a paper bag now.
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