(posted Wednesday, Nov. 13)
The cover story profiles NBA superagent David Falk, the mastermind behind Michael Jordan Inc. According to the Times, Falk reinvented basketball marketing by proving that a black man playing a team sport could be a global superstar. Now Falk's stable of NBA hotshots--Jordan, Juwan Howard, Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson, etc.--have made him the Michael Ovitz of roundball (appearing at a store near you: Michael Jordan perfume). Also, the magazine analyzes popular radio shrink Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who makes a fortune by telling people that their problems are their own damn fault: "She may well represent the end of therapy as we know it." And, the genealogy of the TWA Flight 800 "friendly fire" theory: Blame the Internet.
(posted Monday, Nov. 11)
Clinton's on the cover, and lots of advice/predictions for his second term are inside. The lead article echoes the CW by arguing that the bipartisan mood won't last. Another story predicts that Clinton will pay special attention to "consumer" agencies like the IRS, OSHA, and the Park Service. U.S. News picks Clinton's five "economic challenges" (job creation and "rightsizing" government top the list). David Gergen adds his 2 cents, telling Clinton to "lance" the festering scandals. Also, behind-the-scenes photos of Clinton on the campaign trail: He plays hearts.
(posted Monday, Nov. 11)
The Standard autopsies the election. Charles Krauthammer blames the defeat squarely on Dole, who couldn't articulate conservative ideas and wouldn't assault Clinton's character. Another writer excuses Dole, saying that peace and prosperity made defeat inevitable. A third faults the Republican Party for ducking moral issues. The editorial advises the GOP Congress to leave Clinton alone for six months, then swoop in when the bankruptcy of his ideas becomes apparent. (The Clinton people, after all, "have no substantive agenda to guide them.") An article winces at the prospect of George Mitchell being appointed secretary of state. It depicts him as a softheaded Warren Christopher clone with little substantive experience in foreign policy.
(posted Monday, Nov. 11)
Some old-fashioned feminism. The cover story by Erica Jong bashes Hillary-bashing. According to Jong, the first lady is a victim of misogyny, forced to adopt a pose of public sweetness, prettiness, and submission. "Hillary Rodham Clinton looks more to me like Joan of Arc every day. She is burned as a witch week in and week out so that her husband can rise in the polls." Hmm. An article regrets the Clintonization of Britain's Labor Party. And The Nation dismisses the election with a shrug, calling it "a downsized election for downsized political times."
(posted Monday, Nov. 11)
Ken Auletta interviews Dole and Clinton campaign aides to find out why both candidates, and their staffs, felt that the press was out to get them. Both candidates' press spokesmen, he says, felt they were fighting a "three-front war": against the other candidate, against the press, and against their own candidate, whose hostility to journalists had to be overcome. Tina Rosenberg, whose specialty is how new democracies deal with officials of previous repressive regimes, goes to South Africa. Unlike in Latin America and Eastern Europe, she reports, the victims of South African apartheid are not demanding punishment for their former oppressors. Why? According to Bishop Desmond Tutu, "Retributive justice is largely Western." Africans, he says, prefer "restorative" justice.
(posted Friday, Nov.8)
In TNR's election wrap-up, an article titled "Golden Mean" contends that the election solidified the center-right's dominance over American politics. The argument, which appears more opaquely in Time and Newsweek (see below), promises to become the election's conventional wisdom. Michael Lewis writes his final "Campaign Journal," a sad and funny account of Election Day in Russell, Kan. Also, a new take on humanitarian aid: It can cause war. An article contends that aid to Hutu refugees so strengthened them that their Tutsi enemies in Rwanda invaded Zaire to crush them. Also, yet another feature on Germany--this time a 24-page survey that concludes it's still divided.
(posted Friday, Nov. 8)
The cover editorial urges Bill Clinton to tackle "unpalatable subjects"--inner-city decay, education reform, entitlement cuts--before he loses his victory glow. (Not that the Economist is optimistic: " 'Focus' and 'hard facts.' Neither has ever been his strong point.") The election analyses tread familiar ground: No Clinton mandate, congressional Republicans victorious but chastened, etc. An article explains why the $21 billion MCI-British Telecom deal is no big deal. A related editorial predicts a coming "global free-for-all" in telecommunications: Deregulation and new technology will slash prices and increase competition.
(posted Thursday, Nov. 7)
Both newsweeklies anchor their election special issues with a long, juicy, inside-the-presidential-campaign feature. Time, which put Dick Morris on its cover twice this fall, focuses on political consultants again: Its 20-page article follows Clinton's and Dole's pollsters and consultants from early 1995 to Election Day. Clinton is portrayed as a hostage to the masterful centrist strategy preached by Morris and pollster Mark Penn. (At one point, the consultants wouldn't let Clinton answer a question about his favorite fast-food--too frivolous, too Old Bill.) Time presents Dole as a lousy boss who couldn't manage a third-rate campaign staff.
Newsweek's 90-plus-page opus, "The Inside Story," serves scoops, revealing that Dole briefly considered Elizabeth for vice president; that Jack Kemp was nearly KO'd as the veep choice by rumors of a "recent personal indiscretion" (the indiscretion goes unspecified); and that Clinton planned to undermine Colin Powell's candidacy by painting him as a modern-day George McClellan, a general "disloyal" to his president.
Both magazines kick Dole when he's down, publicizing the fact that he had an extramarital affair. During the campaign, both Time and the Washington Post interviewed Meredith Roberts, an editor for a Washington trade association, who says she was Dole's mistress between 1968 and 1970. Time and Newsweek describe how the Dole campaign was paralyzed by the fear that the story would get out. (Wary of being asked about it, Dole didn't do long interviews for several weeks.) Newsweek's account is especially comprehensive, chronicling the campaign's plea to the Post not to run the story. Ultimately, the National Enquirer published the mistress story, and the Post mentioned it deep in an article about something else.
The special issues are also full of election-night post-mortems and second-term predictions. Both magazines conclude that Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr will haunt Clinton's second term; Time hints that an indictment of the first lady is possible. And they agree that the Republican Congress will be less ambitious and less confrontational (though not less conservative). Newsweek previews the 2000 GOP primary campaign: Bill Bennett, Colin Powell, Pete Wilson, Christine Todd Whitman, Fred Thompson, Dan Quayle, and George Bush Jr. top their list of contenders. Time polls celebrities for their advice to the president (singer Patti Smith suggests legalizing medicinal marijuana; Don Imus suggests reading the president his Miranda rights). Time runs a few articles about subjects unrelated to the election (Yeltsin, Pakistan, etc.); Newsweek doesn't.
(posted Thursday, Nov. 7)
A bad issue for moguls. Michael Ovitz takes a beating in a story about his tenure at Disney: The ex-superagent can't read a balance sheet, wastes his time on marginal projects, and is losing the confidence of boss Michael Eisner. Another article shreds Sony Music head Tommy Mottola Jr. (a k a Mr. Mariah Carey) for his thuggish business practices. And a long excerpt from a book about Rupert Murdoch dubs the tycoon the "Sun King" and recounts his abusive, predatory behavior. The author, former Murdoch editor Andrew Neil, acknowledges that Murdoch is a brilliant publisher and a devoted family man. George Clooney adorns the cover: He is, VF assures us, an adorable frat boy.
--Compiled by David Plotz and the editors of S LATE.