Each week, TIME Magazine designs covers for four world markets: the U.S., Europe, Asia and the South Pacific. While the content in these magazines are nearly identical, the covers are not, with those intended for American audiences often being quite ... different.

This week offers a stark example, as world markets are presented with "Obama's Iran Gamble" while Americans are tempted with "America's Pest Problem."

Witness:



Yes, what you see is TIME devoting its cover in international markets to a critical moment in world diplomacy – one of the most important diplomatic moments in a decade – while offering Americans a rather banal topic about which the gun lobby is certainly cheering.

As I've noted before, TIME has a history of tempting the world with critical events, ideas or figures, while dangling before Americans the chance to indulge in trite self-absorption or topics of questionable importance.

Here are just a few examples from the past:



As I noted several years ago, viewing contrasting covers such as those found this week, a question must be asked: do these moments of marketing (through a choice in covers) reveal more about Americans, or about the state of American journalism?

Mainstream journalists should fear the answer.

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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, just out from Oneworld Publications.

Follow @David_EHG



