newsweek and "poor larry"

On October 18, 2017, an item appeared on the Sourceforge blog reminiscing about Newsweek's transition from print to exclusively online mag:

Today in Tech – 2012
On this day just five years ago American magazine company Newsweek officially announced its transition from print publication to an online-only format. During this time print-news readership had dwindled while online audiences skyrocketed, leaving many in the publishing industry no choice but to switch to online formats. Newsweek’s shift was preluded by years of internal and external contractions in an effort to improve the magazine’s finances, all to no avail. Newsweek’s revenue dropped 38% from 2007 to 2009, prompting the magazine owner, The Washington Post Company to sell the magazine to audio pioneer Sidney Harman. Finally, after almost 8 decades of publication and the steady decline of print readership, Newsweek announced that the last printing of their magazine would be on December 31, 2012. They transitioned to an all-digital format called Newsweek Global.

Coincidentally, the same day, October 18, 2017, this item appeared on the Naked Capitalism blog about an essay published two days before in the all-digital Newsweek:

How Hillary Clinton Still Can, and Should, Become President After the Trump-Russia Investigation ... [Lawrence] Lessig’s thesis [published in Medium and recycled in Newsweek --tm]: Trump is removed because he was helped by “Mother Russia” (!), Pence “should” resign since he got the same help, Ryan steps in. “If Ryan becomes president, he should do the right thing and choose Clinton for vice president. Then he should resign.” This is where we are. Poor Larry. Such a shame.

Newsweek added the cutesy Mother Russia reference and refers uncritically to the "Russia cloud" enveloping the Presidency (but neglects to mention the Russia cloud enveloping Bill and Hillary Clinton). It describes Lessig as a "Democratic die-hard" and lends some of its rapidly diminishing credibility to his bizarre idea that Paul Ryan would appoint Hillary Clinton veep and then step aside. Lessig admits that scenario is "unimaginable" but says we need to start imagining it. Visualize whirled peas and all that. Ryan and Clinton are cut from the same neoliberal cloth, believing in the power of "markets," so it's actually not that big a stretch but that isn't what Lessig is talking about.