would you be so kind as to provide the name and contact information for the person who thought it a good idea to give you this platform?

"(PS--Paulson is no longer Treasury secretary. But you still made "Gigli.")"

Mr. Stoller, I believe you forgot to stick out your toungue and say "Nyahh, nyahh."

Infantile best describes Soller's response.  Instead of addressing the issues raised by Affleck, he turns his response into a snarky attempt a juvenile humor.  I remember the quality of Newsweek from earlier times.  Soller's intellect is more fitting of Mad Magazine.

Could your response to Mr. Affleck's comments be any more juvenile?  This isn't junior high school.  If you are going to comment on what he said, the very least you could do is address his main point, instead of making up stuff.  

On a slightly different note, at least Mr. Affleck reads Newsweek.  Do you treat all of Newsweeks' readers with such great distain?  Your juvenile and petty response perfectly highlights the reason people are fleeing the print media in droves.                            

Exceedingly weak effort at journalism..

I have to agree with celiatheseal.  Your snarky comments didn't really address Affleck's point.  Now I wouldn't say that I completely agree with him, but he isn't exactly coming out of left field with this.  I haven't seen much in the way of real, critical, responsible journalism in quite a while, and having some hipster douchebag rail against the comments of some celebrity doesn't really break the funk.  

As to Affleck's actual point, I disagree, and here's why.  Most of the public was against this bailout from the beginning, so saying that the mainstream media are the ones who pushed this thing through doesn't make much sense when it was our representatives in Congress who put together this bill, often contrary to the wishes of their constituents.

Secondly, even if the mainstream media hyped the need for this bailout, it was the fault of our representatives for not putting adequate safeguards and transparency in the legislation.  They gave up the money with some guidelines for using it, but without installing any mechanisms for enforcing adherence to those guidelines.  That was just assinine.  I can't believe that they haven't figured out, after 8 years of this crap, that writing the rules isn't enough, you also have to put some teeth in them so that those who stray get bitten.

This was not a difficult rebuttal to make to Affleck's argument.  Stop being a douchebag and start doing some critical thinking.  God knows we need somebody to do it.

One thing I have learned this past year, the press has no conscience. They never admit errors or take blame for anything.

I have not interest in the thoughts of Ben Affleck but I think you doth protest too much in response to them.

Another great story showing the best of American journalism in the 21st century.  I am glad that this writer decided to comment on an opinion of an actor instead one of the many insane things said by our public officials.  Well done.  I will be surprised if this writer does not win a Pulitzer Prize for this effort.  Somebody should check to see if there is any opening at TMZ or Perez Hilton, because I know they are all looking for some great, insightful journalist.

Sincerely,

Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Woodward and Bernstein, etc

If you want to be serious, instead of wasting everyone's time, how about you list 1) Kneeling down in front of W to do his bidding on the run-up to the Iraq War. 2) Never making any effort to actually fact-find during the run-up to the war. 3) Expediently switching your stance once the public began to voice their disdain for the war. 4) Becoming a rag that brought in hipster blog morons, instead of actual hard working journalists that do in-depth research. I could go on, but the when the list gets to 100, I start to get carpel tunnel.

The modern media are nothing more than whores chasing the next gossip story. Only McClatchy did their research before the war started and were shouted down when they raised concerns about the faulty intelligence and saber rattling.

Stick to the gossip, Kurt. That's all you hacks are good for.

Kurt, you could not find a better story to write about?  This story is lame. Who cares what Ben Affleck thinks.