Economist, Sept. 1 The rather dry cover story considers the threat Google poses to users and the communications industry worldwide. Google, unlike its competitors Yahoo! and Microsoft, “will be the one to test the limits of what society can tolerate” as it turns into a “custodian of a far wider and more intimate range of information about individuals.” As it continues to grow, Google could turn in two different directions: user-friendly or advertiser-friendly. To protect consumers’ privacy, it could “voluntarily destroy” any information it accumulates, sacrificing ad revenue. Alternatively, it could become an advertisers’ goldmine, a situation that, the piece frets, could result in “some dreadful intrusions into privacy.”… A briefing that traces America’s on-again, off-again relationship with the death penalty declares, despite the “special” state of Texas’ seemingly unbounded love for executions—the Lonestar State’s executions account for half of the nation’s—Americans “are losing their appetite” for capital punishment.— M.S.
Time, Sept. 10 The comprehensive cover package on national service is overly patriotic, yet remains extremely informative. The main article outlines various national service plans—and who would pay for them. One idea: The government should give a $5,000 national service bond to every new child born in America—funds that would be accessible only if the individual “commits to at least one year of national or military service.”Subsequent profiles on community activists and social entrepreneurs lend tangible examples to the package’s more abstract suggestions. … A piece on Halo 3, the upcoming video game for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, tries to break down video game stereotypes but instead reinforces clichés of the lonely, obsessive gamer. The author checks in on the creators of the blockbuster franchise whose next installment is due out in late September and portrays the programmers as hypercaffeinated loners who found their niche in a burgeoning subculture. Unfortunately, the piece doesn’t provide enough evidence to prove its spot-on thesis: that gamers’ subculture may already have gone mainstream.— C.M.
Reason, August/September 2007
A feature bemoans that “cosmetic changes have taken the place of real reform” in the fight against the Supreme Court’s acceptance of imminent domain for private economic development in the controversial Kelo v. New London. State legislation is often for show, having too many exceptions to make serious impact. And that’s just the way many lawmakers want it: “Thus, politicians can appease voters angry about Kelo by passing laws to ‘reverse’ it, while simultaneously avoiding the ire of development interests by not giving those laws teeth.” … A report analyzes the libertarian leanings of Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson. He’s selling himself as a “market Democrat” and has a history of opposing taxes and strict drug laws, but real libertarians argue that he’s balanced his tax-cutting with general favoritism toward big government. The writer concurs, noting how easily Richardson’s market-friendly “veneer can crack when it comes time to raise revenue.”—D.S.
New York, Sept. 3 A feature tries—but fails—to profile Matt Drudge, whom the piece terms “America’s most influential journalist.” But the article is mostly cobbled together from well-known gossip—Drudge is intensely private, and his few friends are discreet. What the writer can’t find through gossip, he derives from listening to Drudge’s radio show. The feature’s central points are that Drudge might be gay and that his political philosophy is “mysterious,” given that he trashed Bill Clinton and John Kerry but seems obsessed with making Hillary Clinton the next president. … An article assesses Barack Obama’s chances of winning the Democratic nomination. On the downside, he’s made a few “foreign-policy gaffes,” like saying he’d meet with Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. Plus, he doesn’t have much political experience. But many voters associate Obama with “change,” and Democrats on average find him more likable than Clinton. All told, he has a fighting chance.— J.L.
New York Times Magazine, Sept. 2 The cover story follows renegade record producer Rick Rubin from founding Def Jam Records in his college dorm to his new position as the co-head of Columbia Records. Rubin has no training or technical skill—just a “simultaneously mystical and entirely decisive” way of detecting hits, which he hopes to use to revive the struggling Columbia. The famously anti-corporate Rubin says the position is a chance for him to finally teach the profit-worshipping label a lesson about artistic focus: “In the past, I’ve tried to protect artists from the label, and now my job would also be to protect the label from itself.”… The Times’ Michael R. Gordon reports on the “former-insurgent counterinsurgency” that American forces have formed during the “surge” in Iraq. A new relationship with a Sunni sheik allowed Americans to turn formerly hostile Sunnis into counterinsurgent fighters. Embedded with the new fighters, Gordon relates the story of their unsuccessful battle for control of Hawr Rajab. The firsthand account reads a bit like a military logbook, but it’s close to gripping.— D.S.
Weekly Standard, Sept. 3 An article proclaims the success of the U.S. military’s recent “surge” in Iraq. Al-Qaida hoped to offset any political benefits Bush would receive from the surge by delivering headline-grabbing attacks before Gen. Petraeus’ September report. But coalition forces have so effectively cornered insurgents in the “fifth corridor,” north of the Tigris River, that the location of recent attacks revealed how far back the insurgency has been pushed and “told the coalition’s planners that they had been effective.” The piece presents some interesting—and possibly encouraging—information, but jumps to the unconvincing conclusion that we’re “winning this war.”… The sarcastic cover story attempts to lay the smackdown on left-wing hysteria about the “fascist” Bush administration. Such claims are ludicrous, the piece claims—just look at the feverish liberal dissent in Washington, the press, and even the military. Though it travels a disjointed trajectory rebutting anti-Bush arguments, the piece reaches a solid conclusion: “[T]hose who insist they are fighting for reason” are losing their own.— D.S.
Newsweek, Sept. 3 The disturbing cover story examines the hapless hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Ever since the al-Qaida chief escaped from Tora Bora in December 2001, U.S. forces have been relying on guesswork rather than “actionable” intelligence. Wondering why “the world’s greatest superpower” can’t “find a middle-aged, possibly ill, religious fanatic”? The short answer, predictably enough, is the Iraq war, which drains resources. Plus, American forces in Afghanistan have done a piss-poor job of getting along with locals. And I do mean piss-poor: “[M]ost soldiers in Afghanistan don’t know simple phrases like ‘stop,’ ‘go,’ or ‘put your hands up.’ “… A solid slice-of-life Web exclusive reports that bartenders are creating war-on-terror-themed cocktails. Boston’s KO Prime steakhouse serves up the “Guantanamo Bay Breeze”: citrus vodka, pureed pineapple, and cranberry juice mix. At the World Bar in Manhattan, you can order an “Osama bin Laden” shot (Pernod and Tabasco). But there’s nothing new about violence-inspired cocktails. The kamikaze shot has its roots in World War II, and, of course, there’s the Irish car bomb, that St. Patrick’s Day staple.— J.L.
The New Yorker, Sept. 3 and 11 In the annual Food Issue, a piece unveils the Jay Gatsby of fine wine: fraudster Hardy Rodenstock. Rodenstock, who cultivated rumors he belonged to the wealthy German family of the same name, became famous for discovering numerous troves of rare wines—like the Russian “tsar’s lost cache” of 19th-century wine—while throwing lavish wine-tasting parties across the globe in which spitting was prohibited (thus ensuring his wine critic guests were well-liquored before he served them the “rarest” of his finds). In the 1980s, Christie’s auctioned several Rodenstock-originated 1784 and 1787 vintage French wines purportedly owned by Thomas Jefferson. American collector and tycoon Bill Koch bought four of the Th.J - inscribed bottles in 1988, only to find in 2005 when he sought authentication from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation that they doubted the former statesman ever possessed the bottles. The hardnosed Koch girded for a legal battle, and in 2006 filed suit against Hardy Rodenstock (whose real name is Meinhard Goerke and real father is a German railroad official).— M.S.
Men’s Journal, September 2007 A feature on disabled NFL veterans spends as much time attacking players’ union chief Gene Upshaw as it does profiling crippled former athletes. Former football players, whom the article describes as “essentially cows at market,” suffer from high rates of migraines, dementia, and permanent brain damage that prevent them from finding employment. But they’re running into resistance from the players’ union when they file for disability payments. Upshaw declined comment, which only helps confirm the piece’s cogent thesis that the league and union have something to be ashamed of. … An article on Chris McCandless —the hiker whose travels and subsequent death in the Alaska wilderness were chronicled in Jon Krakauer’s best-selling book Into the Wild—proves to be more than just a promotional piece for the upcoming film. The piece examines how Krakauer’s book mythologized McCandless’ plight and how the new film directed by Sean Penn is a one-sided portrayal of McCandless as “almost Christ-like.” The photos McCandless took of himself and his surroundings prove to be even more powerful than the article itself.—C.M.
Time, Sept. 3 The cover story examines 66 years of Mother Teresa’s correspondence with her confessors and superiors, much of which is only now being made public. As it turns out, the renowned missionary felt “no presence of God whatsoever” for the last decades of her life. It’s fascinating to see how atheists and religious figures respond to the news. God Is Not Great author and Slate contributor Christopher Hitchens (who once called the iconic nun “a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud“) suggests Teresa finally “woke up” to the simple truth that God doesn’t exist. Yet the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk thinks Teresa’s “dark period” is further proof of her religious fortitude—her ability to do God’s work without Christ’s direct attendance. … An article examines Philadelphia’s innovative anti-graffiti measure. Instead of waging “war on the spray-painting vandals,” the city encourages mural-making. Apparently the initiative helps pacify tough neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the author doesn’t trot out any hard evidence to prove his point—he just shares a sappy anecdote about a community coming together to paint “The Peace Wall.”— J.L.
Washington Monthly, September 2007 A special issue presents Washington Monthly’s annual college rankings, which the magazine developed to address the perceived flaws in the influential U.S. News and World Report ranking system. A note from the editors somewhat self-righteously declares that the Washington Monthly rankings are a “guide not just to what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country.”Washington Monthly claims its methodology places a heavier emphasis on the social mobility and fostering of civilian or military service than does that of U.S. News. That explains why its results differ wildly from the Ivy-league dominated U.S. News rankings: The highest Ivy school on the list is Cornell, which comes in at seventh place. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, U.S. News’top three, measure in at 27th, 38th, and 78th. The editors also cattily single out Rice University with a “dishonorable mention,” noting the rapid ascent of the “best little university in Texas” to 17 in the U.S. News rankings, but its 103rd place in their rankings because of low social mobility and service scores.— M.S.
