Economist, Feb. 13

(posted Saturday, Feb. 13)

The cover story examines the sorry detritus of the impeachment scandal, with two conclusions: "First, what has happened over the past year should never have happened at all; second, there is no guarantee that it will not happen again." The editorial attributes the president's escape to sheer dumb luck. ... The latest Northern Ireland peace agreement will crumble, predicts the magazine, unless Unionists give Sinn Fein more time to cleanse itself of terrorist associations, both real and symbolic. ... A report chides blue-chip media companies for their rush to acquire Internet start-ups. The Internet can be unfriendly to traditional content providers because 1) ad revenue is low; 2) portals are overpriced; and 3) most traditional content (such as video) still looks awkward online. (Slate thinks about this issue once in while. For Editor Michael Kinsley's take, click here.)

New Republic, March 1

(posted Friday, Feb. 12, 1999)

The cover package is 21 unpublished letters by Ralph Ellison. Among the recurring themes: his belief in the primacy of the individual over the group ("[My work] tries to reveal the extent to which each of us is responsible for his own fate") and his intense, conflicted Americanism ("I am too vindictively American, too full of hate for the hateful aspects of this country, and too possessed by the things I love here to be too long away"). A separate piece reviews a new collection of Ellison short stories, praising Ellison's conviction that blacks had "a degree of freedom" despite the confines of American racism, freedom that black "protest" writers (Toni Morrison, Richard Wright) have unfortunately downplayed.

New York Times Magazine, Feb. 14

(posted Thursday, Feb. 11, 1999)

The cover story profiles Steven Spielberg, Hollywood's premier moneymaker, multi-tasker, mentor, and mensch. From Animaniacs to Schindler's List, Spielberg markets patriotic moral lessons to the masses. His many charitable projects--a genealogical research foundation, a Holocaust archive--endorse the same Norman Rockwell vision of tolerance as his movies. ... The magazine recounts the heartbreaking stories of three children forced to fight in Sierra Leone's vicious civil war. Both the rebel and government armies have conscripted thousands of boys and girls, who make cheap and loyal (and especially vicious) soldiers. ... An article explicates the doctrines of tough-parenting guru John Rosemond, who orders parents to apply conservative, Old Testament-style standards to child-rearing. Punishment of children, the article recounts, "should be unpleasant, memorable, and inflicted at a time that is convenient for the parent." Meanwhile, Rosemond hasn't spoken to his own mother in 10 years.

Time and Newsweek, Feb. 15

(posted Tuesday, Feb. 9, 1999)

Newsweek reports on Jesse "The Body" Ventura's wildly successful honeymoon as governor of Minnesota. So far he's produced a 75 percent approval rating, a uniformly lauded budget, and a set of toy action figures. ... The cover story castigates the International Olympic Committee for shoddy drug testing, a bigger scandal, the story says, than the ongoing host-site bribery imbroglio. Rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs tarnishes the games, kills athletes, and encourages drug use among children.

The Time cover profiles "the committee to save the world": Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Deputy Secretary Lawrence Summers, and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Each economic superhero has a distinct personality and style--Greenspan is the shaman, Rubin the Midas figure, and Summers the academic--but together, they stave off worldwide economic panic. The triumvirate has "outgrown ideology" and practices pure "Realeconomik."

According to the magazines, the film Shakespeare in Love has fueled fashion, entertainment, and academic trends. Time recounts the debate about who wrote Shakespeare's plays, and Newsweek catalogs the recent profusion of Bard movies. Time devotes an entire piece to Gwyneth Paltrow's hair extensions, but literary critic Harold Bloom tellsNewsweek that she's ... ugly.

U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 15

(posted Tuesday, Feb. 9, 1999)

The cover story calls the nation's home renovation boom a "historic trend" arising from "ancient" and "fundamentally human" impulses. ... The magazine profiles the fire and brimstone politics of Republican presidential hopeful Gary Bauer. By losing the nomination nobly and narrowly, he could assume leadership of the party's conservative flank. ... An article calls the North Korean government a loosely veiled, highly effective criminal operation. Crooked officials engage in drug-smuggling and counterfeiting both to line their pockets and possibly even to prop up the struggling country's nuclear program. ... A self-identified member of the "black elite" justifies the group's snobbery and separatism. Descended from light-skinned slaves who enjoyed a privileged position in the plantation hierarchy, the "black elite" continues to hoard access to its boarding schools, social events, and churches: "Why," asks one pedigreed lady, "would I be socializing with some caseworker or mailman who goes to NAACP events?"

People, Feb. 15

(posted Tuesday, Feb. 9, 1999)

The real subject of the much-fretted-about Chelsea Clinton cover story is her devoted mother. The first daughter anecdotes are light (when Itzhak Perlman played for the White House grown-ups, she furtively listened). Most of the seven pages are devoted to lauding Hillary Clinton's energetic and sensible approach to child rearing. Despite the rigors of first ladyhood, she always made time to chaperone class trips, organize slumber parties, and check that Chelsea swept up any popcorn she'd spilled in the White House screening room.

The New Yorker, Feb. 15

(posted Tuesday, Feb. 9, 1999)

A former underground Polish newspaper is enjoying a second act as a communications empire in the making, complete with lush advertisements and cross-media synergy. The highly profitable newspaper--which used to print samizdat on smudgy, single-sided pages--symbolizes Poland's transition from Communist repression to consumerist democracy. ... A piece argues that Attention Deficit Disorder isn't merely a psychosomatic affectation but a long-existing biological deficiency suddenly exposed by society's accelerating pace. Ritalin might be a safe alternative to the more dangerous substances (nicotine, cocaine) that people previously used to increase their powers of concentration and focus. ... A writer examines suicide notes to investigate why people kill themselves. He never finds out, but the notes are succinct, lyrical, and uniformly devastating.

Weekly Standard, Feb. 15

(posted Tuesday, Feb. 9, 1999)

The magazine explains why the president's poll numbers are so high: 1) he courts them ("like a kid who gets straight A's by flattering the teacher"); and 2) polling questions are phrased with a calculation and nuance that are positively, well, Clintonesque. A separate piece insists that Republican poll ratings are low because--and only because--of weak stances on Social Security, education, and taxes. Impeachment won't tarnish Republican chances in 2000: If voters don't care about the scandal now, the argument goes, they certainly won't care in two years time. ... A writer tours a Los Angeles mall and declares American teens A-OK: the girls coo over clothing at Old Navy, the boys follow sneaker fashion avidly, and everyone listens to country music. This all means that "parents have returned to adolescent upbringing in ways that have rendered their children's normally destructive impulses mute."