Economist, Aug. 11
The cover story predicts a turn to the left in the country’s political future, unfortunately for the beleaguered American right. President Bush and his überstrategist Karl Rove could end up “driving the Western world’s most impressive political machine off a cliff.” However, the dissolving power of conservatism can’t be blamed wholly on Bush. He hasn’t done anything more than given the right “virtually everything it craved.” And, even if America moves left, its politics will still be conservative in a global setting: “Mrs Clinton might be portrayed as a communist on talk radio in Kansas,” but she’s still to the right of many “conservative” European leaders. … A deeply detailed briefing finds American conservatism is “in the dumps.” It concludes with a crushing final blow to the Republican Party: They “have failed the most important test of any political movement—wielding power successfully.”—M.S.
Time, Aug. 20
The cover story, an excerpt from Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy’s forthcoming book The Preacher and the Presidents, Billy Graham in the White House, examines the iconic evangelist’s 50-year relationship with American presidents. Graham’s guileless friendliness made presidents feel “at ease, not on edge. They could tell that Graham wasn’t there to lobby or confront but to listen and comfort.” First families felt that the high-profile minister could empathize with their overly scrutinized lifestyle, and the relationship gave the churchless Graham “the rare chance to be a family pastor.” But Graham’s intimacy with some presidents brought out his worst, such as his participation in Jew-bashing sessions with Richard Nixon. Moments like these “raised the legitimate question of what exactly a President would have to do for Graham to stop consoling and begin confronting him on moral grounds.” … In a companion excerpt, Graham discusses death and technology. His wife died earlier this year after being kept alive “longer than nature might have intended.” Though he’s grateful for medicinal technology, he is “convinced that in some cases we aren’t so much prolonging life but prolonging death.”—D.S.
New York, Aug. 1
The cover story looks at the challenges skill-based reality-TV contestants face in their respective fields after they go off-air. The scope of the piece is too myopic to make any significant claims about the genre, focusing almost exclusively on the flamboyant winners and losers of Bravo’s Project Runway and Top Chef. Fans of the series will gorge on the real-world travails of Santino Rice and Jay McCarroll, and the sordid behind-the-scenes secrets: Contestants weren’t allowed cell phones, iPods, magazines, sex, or even to leave the “set” without a chaperone. But the point of the piece isn’t much of a revelation and proves to have as many exceptions as proofs. … Another story predicts the resurrection of Don Imus—possibly even at the hands of CBS. The piece paints Imus as a wily survivor and a self-appointed cultural heir to the legacy of Lenny Bruce. Les Moonves, the CBS president who axed Imus, comes off as a vaguely disingenuous exec who took advantage of a media frenzy to make a calculated business decision.— A.B.
New York Times Magazine, Aug. 12 An article looks at shareholders who are using their influence to advocate for changes in the way corporations address everything from climate change to genetically modified organisms. Many of these people are retired and involved in religious action groups—they’re more concerned with influencing corporate behavior than simply receiving a solid return on their investments. The question now is whether executives will start paying attention to the ever-growing cadre of socially minded stockholders, or just figure out ways to sweep them under the carpet. … An article on the new Clearview typeface examines the future of highway signage and the subtle ways font design affects life. While drivers are accustomed to reading the “ultimately clumsy typeface” Highway Gothic, more than 20 states are changing their road signs over to the more readable Clearview design. The piece is fascinating mostly because it focuses on something many readers take for granted—these font designers work hard to make their designs as seamless and unnoticeable as possible. Says one designer, “[Clearview] will completely change the look of the American highway, but not so much that anyone will notice.”— K.E.
The New Yorker, Aug. 13 An article investigates the widespread fraud in the Italian olive-oil industry. The high prices fetched by some premium olive oils encourage scammers who practice low-tech bait-and-switches, where cheap foreign products are marketed as premium Italian extra-virgin oil, and high-tech adulteration sophisticated enough to elude chemical analysis. The tales of payoffs, shady political connections, and tapped phone calls resemble the more infamous sectors of Italian organized crime, but don’t expect too many horse heads or exploding cars here. The closest we get to cinematic drama is the writer’s uncomfortable and highly entertaining meeting with the charismatic and almost certainly criminal olive-oil baron Leonardo Marseglia. … Richard Preston, master of the medical thriller, reports on the rare and devastating genetic disorder Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. Preston’s knack for suspense and dialogue works wonders with this horrifyingly true story about people who act out uncontrollable urges to hurt themselves and others. A sufferer “eats foods he can’t stand; he vomits on himself; he says yes when he means no.” Fair warning: The shocking descriptions of self-mutilation are on par with Preston’s most graphic prose on hemorrhagic fever.— A.B.
Newsweek, Aug. 13
The cover story lays out the history of the global warming “denial machine.” In the late 1980s, free-market think tanks and the oil industry argued that “the world is not warming; measurements indicating otherwise are flawed.” Next, the naysayers shifted gears: They said global warming was natural—not the result of man-made pollution. Now they contend that climate change, man-made or otherwise, is harmless. There’s no breaking-news here, but if you’re wondering how big oil made incontrovertible scientific evidence seem dodgy and uncertain, then this story’s a good place to start. … An article on Sen. Ted Stevens helps readers understand why Alaskans love that crazy old Republican, who is under investigation for bribery. Sure, he may have some pretty shady ties to the oil company VECO. But in his glory days, the notoriously pork-slinging senator “helped modernize the state, bringing electricity, health care, and even subsidized air travel to the state’s rural inhabitants, who revere him.” So, he ripped off the federal government and gave to the frontier—he’s a regular Robin Hood.— J.L.
Believer, August 2007 An article addresses the problem of picking out the perfect name for ourselves and fictional characters. The disorganized piece is solipsistic (with mentions of the author’s novel-in-progress and his therapist) and sometimes clumsy (babies are “drooling eight-pound blobs of potential”), but some of the thoughts on monikers in fiction are pretty solid. Ultimately, though, the drive-by literary analysis proves too broad to be interesting, and the concluding sentences, which somehow seem to contradict the whole point of the article while further indulging the author’s self-consciousness, will leave you feeling annoyed. … Another article elegizes the feminist novel of the ‘60s and ‘70s, unpacking the archetypes in works by authors such Erica Jong, Marilyn French, and Nora Ephron. Unlike today’s pastel-packaged chick lit, the older books inspired women when “[i]t was chronically square for smart women to give a shit about designer labels/wedding planning/personal grooming.” The politicized outrage and revolutionary anticipation of those books are absent from contemporary fare: “Life is expensive, the world is conservative, and we all just want to get buy.”— K.E.
Weekly Standard, Aug. 13
Harvard government professor Harvey Mansfield responds to Slate’s Christopher Hitchens, writing that Hitchens’ and other recent atheist tracts offer “comfort and scholarly reassurance” to atheists left “lonely” by their beliefs. But atheists’ pursuit of an alternative external source of justice has led to even greater and darker tyranny than religion. While religion recognizes both the power of injustice and the power of our desire to right it, atheists are blinded by their own one-sided reaction to injustice.… A feature highlights Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s down-home, humorous way of speaking to voters—reminding them that he’s a social conservative, criticizing the presidency of George W. Bush, and asking that they give his hometown of Hope, Ark., another chance to produce a president. Huckabee is cheerfully confident about his prospects, though he only shows up in early polls of likely Republican voters as “none of the above.”—D.S.
