Economist, April 24

(posted Saturday, April 24, 1999)

The cover editorial warns NATO to do some birthday soul-searching. The alliance must establish an international protectorate in Kosovo that guarantees refugees the right of return, and it must reassure a wary world that it will not make a habit of waging war on sovereign nations. Failure could mean "terminal decline." ... A long, fascinating survey of NATO says the narrow interests of some European members conflict with America's "broader vision" and wonders whether members' conflicting positions on Iraq, Iran, and Israel could strain the alliance in the future. ... An article describes a kid-run Florida anti-smoking campaign. One billboard features a bikini-clad tobacco executive, poolside with cigarette and black socks. The campaign is demonstrably successful, but the governor wants to slash its budget.

New Republic, May 10

(posted Friday, April 23, 1999)

The cover story, "Milosevic's Willing Executioners," says that Serbs actively support the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo and the murder of Muslims. Serbs honestly believe themselves to be victims. Milosevic did not need to push them into violence. The piece is full of chilling anecdotes about Serbs' "gratuitous sadism" and indifference to Kosovar suffering. ... An article slams CNN for acting as a conduit for Serb propaganda. Rather than try to subvert or oppose Belgrade's censorship, CNN has happily accepted it in exchange for "access."

New York Times Magazine, April 25

(posted Thursday, April 22, 1999)

The cover story deplores the Americanization of Israeli politics. The American political consultants hired by the leading candidates for prime minister--Arthur Finkelstein for Benjamin Netanyahu, James Carville and others for Ehud Barak--have brought sound bites, attack ads, and wedge issues to the campaign. Sadly, this has removed all the substance from Israeli politics and left it just as vapid as the American system. ... A profile of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic calls him the West's best hope for Yugoslavia. Once a Milosevic stooge, he has become an anti-Milosevic, free-market democrat. Problem: Milosevic may take the opportunity provided by the NATO bombing to depose Djukanovic and install a more subservient leader. ... A feature marvels at military food, which now includes a barbecue chicken sandwich that lasts three years without spoiling and airdrop rations that "flutter, rather than plummet, down to earth, lest they take anyone out in the process." Next step: "a transdermal nutrient delivery system"--that is, a food patch.

Time and Newsweek, April 26

(posted Tuesday, April 20, 1999)

Time's cover depicts soldiers in the spring's most anticipated war--in other words, actors from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Time gushes over the "fresh, handsome, grand" new movie and publishes a fold-out guide to its new characters and techno-military toys. Bill Moyers interviews George Lucas about the series' "true theology." (Moyers: "In authentic religion, doesn't it take Kierkegaard's leap of faith?" Lucas: "Yes ... that is what 'Use the Force' is.")

The real war in Kosovo is featured inside, as it is in Newsweek. Time berates NATO for its self-congratulatory and ill-timed birthday celebrations. Newsweek berates NATO for its obfuscation of civilian casualties. Time dusts off NATO Commander Gen. Wesley Clark's 1975 thesis, which doubted the "coercive effects ... of air attacks." Robert McNamara tellsNewsweek that "it is totally inappropriate for an ex-Secretary of Defense, in the middle of a war ... in which there are great difficulties ahead ... to be talking about mistakes." He then blames military leaders for overestimating the effectiveness of bombing.

Newsweek's cover story argues that North America was first peopled by "a Rainbow Coalition of ethnic types," not just the Bering Strait-crossing Asians commonly depicted in history textbooks. New evidence suggests that Asians migrated from the Pacific Rim in canoes and that Europeans followed the frozen shoreline to the East Coast. An expert predicts that the research could relegate today's Native Americans to "just another Ellis Island group" and threaten their hard-won legal rights.

Time reports on new research showing that at least 450 animal species--including giraffes, goats, and dolphins--become sexually aroused through homosexual rubbing, entwining, and kissing. Dissenting researchers question whether close genital contact is really sex. The piece does not include reaction from the White House or Kenneth Starr.

U.S. News & World Report, April 26

(posted Tuesday, April 20, 1999)

The cover story frets about widespread hearing loss. Noisy appliances will soon sport warning labels, and earplugs and earmuffs will become ubiquitous. ... The magazine reports that earlier this month U.S. officials met secretly with Kosovo Liberation Army rebels but decided not to arm them. A story says that half the Kosovar refugees are children under the age of 15. ... A piece says that Christian colleges and universities have fueled an enrollment boom with deep tuition discounts and open enrollment policies. ("It's against our Christian perspective to be elitist or exclusionary," explains one administrator.)

The New Yorker, April 26 and May 3

(posted Tuesday, April 20, 1999)

The magazine devotes a double issue to money. One piece chronicles the frenetic days of Mary Meeker, the investment banker who orchestrated stock offerings for Netscape, Priceline, and America Online. ... A writer who once worked in a sweatshop defends them. Conditions aren't as bad as union protests indicate, and immigrant laborers grouse only about losing work to cheaper factories abroad. ... An author gripes about how tough it was to grow up rich. She doesn't even know how much is in her trust fund.

Weekly Standard, April 26

(posted Tuesday, April 20, 1999)

A piece opines that Richard Holbrooke, not Madeleine Albright, is responsible for U.S. underestimation of Milosevic's obstinacy. Holbrooke is adding a dark afterword to new editions of his book on Balkans diplomacy. ... The cover story charts America's "struggle to rediscover a compelling patriotic language" and exults in the "new, crunchier" patriotism embodied by John McCain.

The Nation, May 3

(posted Tuesday, April 20, 1999)

The cover story charts Michael Milken's attempt to become "the Sam Walton of gray matter" by acquiring a "cradle to grave" series of education businesses, from preschools to vocational training firms. The piece chides Milken for failing to include critical assessments of the '80s junk bond markets in his textbooks. ... The magazine publishes an anti-voucher screed by Ron Unz, the conservative activist behind California's ban on bilingual education. Unz writes that public schools are vital to social cohesion and proposes an ideological truce on the issue: If the left will acknowledge that its efforts to reform public schools have failed, the right will stop pushing "to turn our public schools over to ideological zealots or the marketing division from Nike."