Time hit a new low in its cover story on Glenn Beck. The opening paragraph describes the 9/12 rally fathered by Glenn Beck as follows:

If you get your information from liberal sources, the crowd numbered about 70,000, many of them greedy racists. If you get your information from conservative sources, the crowd was hundreds of thousands strong, perhaps as many as a million, and the tenor was peaceful and patriotic.

This is “he said, she said, who knows” reporting at its most dishonest. Because if you get your information from virtually anywhere in the mainstream media, the 9/12 crowd was less than a hundred thousand. How’s this for a fair and balanced cross-section of the mainstream media?

In actuality, ABC News estimated that between 60,000 and 70,000 people were at the rally. … Fox News put the number at “tens of thousands,” a figure echoed by the Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.

It’s anyone’s guess why Time chose to present it as if there’s no way to figure out which is more accurate, the “liberal” estimate of 70,000 or the conservative estimate of hundreds of thousands, maybe a million.

It’s anyone’s guess, but it sure ain’t journalism.

The funniest part? Managing editor Richard Stengel‘s introductory note to the Glenn Beck issue:

One of our jobs as journalists is to be the referee, the honest broker who sorts through the accusations and says, This is fact, and this is fantasy.

Maybe this is Time‘s way of announcing that they are repositioning themselves as the print version of Fox News? Maybe this is their survival strategy in this sadly declining business?