Economist, Feb. 26
(posted Saturday, Feb. 20, 1999)
The cover story and editorial say deflation threatens the global economy. Deflation caused by overcapacity and flaccid demand could send the world into a depression. Japan and Europe must ease their tight monetary policies to boost consumer demand. ... Two stories urge Turkey to compromise with its Kurdish minority rather than continue to oppress it. Turkish Kurds don't demand separation, only limited autonomy, and Turkey ought to grant that to keep the peace. (One of the pieces begins with the mysterious sentence, "The Turks are cockahoop.") ... A piece notes the demise of Shaman Pharmaceuticals, a drug company that paid rainforest folk healers to supply healing plants that could be turned into advanced drugs. The lesson: Advanced screening technology, which allows companies to speedily test lots of plants for medicinal properties, is better than folk wisdom.
New Republic, March 8
(posted Friday, Feb. 19, 1999)
The editorial heartily endorses Hillary Clinton's contemplated Senate run, because it will finally stop her from injecting her politics into her husband's job. "We're far from certain that her brand of righteous liberalism is what the people of New York want or need," say the editors, "but we are sure that it would be healthy for the country to find out." ... An article tallies the early achievements of Minnesota Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura. He and his centrist brain trust have concocted progressive and equitable ways to spend the state's budget surplus and tobacco settlement bounty. ... Legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar calls on Congress to let the independent counsel statute (a "constitutional Frankenstein") die and to replace faulty Supreme Court decisions on executive privilege with a comprehensive bill on presidential legal liability. (For more of Amar's critique of the independent counsel statute, see this week's " Dialogue.")
New York Times Magazine, Feb. 21
(posted Thursday, Feb. 18, 1999)
The cover story proclaims the end of England's decline and fall. From the dismantled House of Lords to London's integrated suburbs, England is finally paying more attention to its cosmopolitan future than to its oft-eulogized past. ... A piece profiles Linux, an operating system which might pose the biggest threat to Windows. Written by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish programmer who couldn't afford to buy a commercial operating system, Linux is free, is maintained by a vast network of loyal volunteer programmers, and never crashes. ... The magazine introduces a redesigned front section, which grandly aims to chronicle "The Way We Live Now." Included is a new ethics column (written by Slate's own News Quiz-meister Randy Cohen), a feature on draft-dodging in Israel, and a guide to spotting bacteria in bologna sandwiches.
Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 22
(posted Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1999)
The newsweeklies chronicle Flytrap's denouement. Time's cover story toasts the sunny side of the impeachment scandal. It sparked a vigorous debate about morality, introduced role models who defied stereotypes (powerful attorneys in wheelchairs, patrician female lawmakers), and demonstrated that the political process is "sturdy and forgiving." The Senate's closed deliberations on impeachment were a bonding experience, and their frankness and intimacy will encourage more teamwork in the future. Newsweek's cover story is darker, emphasizing the trial's lingering stink in the White House and Congress. The only figure to emerge untainted is Hillary Clinton, whose approval rating is 33 percentage points higher than it was before the scandal. U.S. News & World Report's cover story moans that notoriety has become acceptable--even desirable--for political figures. Flytrap's only silver lining: a new concern about the erosion of privacy. A related story conveys the isolation felt by many religious conservatives in the wake of the president's acquittal: Like the 1925 Scopes monkey trial, Flytrap may encourage them to withdraw from mainstream America. "We have never been a moral majority," concedes one.
Time reports on a peculiar development in medical research: fake operations. Researchers are performing "placebo-controlled surgical trials" in which they cut patients open and sew them back up without doing anything. Afterward, the doctors compare the results of the placebo surgeries with those of real operations. ...U.S. News profiles Chinese mystic and faith healer Master Li, who peddles a combination of ancient Chinese healing and American-style revivalist preaching to 60 million followers. Communist leaders can't decide whether to suppress Li or co-opt him for their own agenda.
The New Yorker, Feb. 22 and March 1
(posted Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1999)
The magazine publishes a New York-themed double issue. Arranged marriage is alive and well in the Indian communities of Queens, says a profile of an imaginative young woman reluctantly steeling herself to accept her appointed betrothed. She uses her real name in the hope that a suitable bachelor might pick her out of the magazine instead. ... An article chronicles the entwined histories of the rival New York Daily News and New York Post, which are as colorful, scandalous, and gritty as the tabloids' front pages. A highlight: After Post Editor Pete Hamill was fired in 1993, the staff revolted and published a protest issue mocking the new owner. ... The magazine profiles Metropolitan Opera General Manager Joseph Volpe, who began his career as a set-building carpenter and now rules the institution with workmanlike practicality and a diva-sized temper. (In a revealing New Yorker slip-up, the Volpe piece misspells the name of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. In a passage about the mayor's dictatorial, brutal style, the text calls him "Rudolf." Rudolf, Adolf, whatever.)
Weekly Standard, Feb. 22
(posted Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1999)
The magazine enlists 22 pundits to opine about the president's acquittal. One calls Flytrap the American Dreyfus Affair, revealing the rot and corruption at the heart of our national government. Another compares it to the German triumph at Dunkirk, a superficial and premature victory that will be overshadowed when Bill Bradley wins the Democratic nomination for president. Another argues that the independent counsel distorted the impeachment process: The House should have been allowed to conduct a more direct and aggressive investigation of the president, unfettered by Ken Starr. The magazine reprints a poem by W.B. Yeats ("the greatest poet of the twentieth century"), urging the House managers to "be secret and exult" in their martyrdom.