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other magazines: Summaries of what's in Time, Newsweek, etc.

Doctoring the Evidence

By Julia Turner
Updated Friday, June 20, 2003, at 4:44 PM ET
New Republic

New Republic, June 30
The magazine is still on its "Bush is a liar" kick. This week's sockdolager of a cover story details the administration's deceptive rhetoric in the buildup to Gulf War II. Spencer Ackerman and John B. Judis describe the intelligence community consensus before the war—"that Iraq's ties with Al-Qaida were inconsequential; that its nuclear weapons program was minimal at best; and that its chemical and biological weapons programs … may or may not have been ongoing"—and accuse the Bush administration of manipulating that intelligence, publicizing only the most incendiary data as it made its case for war. One example: A classified CIA report given to the Senate Intelligence Committee noted the "inconclusive" evidence; but when then-Chairman Bob Graham asked for a declassified version to give to Congress, the agency "omitted the qualifications and countervailing evidence" and "played up the claims that strengthened the administration's case for war." When Graham (who, it seems, should be emphasizing this in his presidential campaign) asked CIA Director George Tenet to declassify more of the report, Tenet agreed. "But later that evening, Graham received a call from the CIA, informing him that the White House had ordered Tenet not to release anything more." … Also: Did Dick Cheney know the Niger documents were fakes before Bush cited them as proof of Saddam's nuclear quest in the State of the Union? The piece makes it sound quite possible.

New York Times Magazine

New York Times Magazine, June 22
The cover story on NBA rookie of the year Amare Stoudemire—who was drafted straight from high school—describes his transition to the pros and makes much of the fact that his mother has been in and out of prison. … A piece on Kellogg, Brown & Root—the Halliburton subsidiary charged with rebuilding Iraq—serves as a succinct overview of the U.S. military's reliance on outside contractors. Notable revelation: Some suspect former Halliburton exec Dick Cheney helped secure KBR's contract; in fact, it was already "so enmeshed with the Pentagon"— KBR builds bases, cooks for soldiers, and writes oil-field contingency plans—"that it was able essentially to assign the contract to itself." (The most recent Mother Jones also tackled military privatization.) … Slate's own Rob Walker analyzes not KBR but PBR, sketching out the non-marketing strategy (don't advertise, do support local musicians) employed by the makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon, who hope to avoid a backlash against their newly hip brand.

Esquire

Esquire, July 2003
If California voters recall Gray Davis, will they really elect Arnold Schwarzenegger? Esquire contends that this might not be such a bad idea. A profile pokes plenty of fun at the Terminator—presenting him as a conversational avalanche and mocking his meticulous attention to the Hummers he helps design. (One recommendation: "Let's put the grille back in the front with the hooks to pick up the car, like the helicopter can pick up the car and fly off with it.") But the piece also depicts Arnold as a surprisingly adept public policy analyst and a shrewd assessor of his own political strengths. ("It's a great advantage in many ways when people expect less.")

Department of Scapegoats: Are magazines to blame for the fall of Raines?
First Christopher Caldwell argued in the May 26 Weekly Standard that the New York Times, suffering a case of "magazine envy," attempted to ape the expressive journalism found in glossies and encouraged its writers to elaborate on the truth. This week Folio's Simon Dumenco, a longtime commentator on the magazine world, parrots Caldwell's claim, accusing Howell Raines of "Tina Brown envy" and maintaining that "newspapers everywhere are desperately trying to be magazines-but-for-the-glossy-stock." Dumenco thinks magazines, famous for coddling star writers and doctoring quotes and photographs, have long played fast and loose with the truth. (He also thinks Raines will "end up editing a very buzzy magazine some day.")

Newsweek and Time

Newsweek and Time, June 23
This week, both Time and Newsweek front reports on foreign influences poised to shake up the nation. Newsweek offers fresh details on al-Qaida cells operating in the United States. Key revelations: After Sept. 11, AQ turned to less-detectable operatives, attempting to recruit women, U.S. citizens, and African-American Muslims; AQ leaders continued to issue direct orders to cells in the United States; and the FBI has been "pushing the legal envelope," detaining suspects in hotel rooms indefinitely before charging them.

Time, on the other hand, plugs the 900-page fifth installment of the Harry Potter series, which hits bookstores Saturday. Nancy Gibbs (Time's go-to writer for stirring boilerplate) frames her analysis of the Potter phenomenon with a moving tale—J.K. Rowling's friendship with a young cancer patient—that suggests more about the generosity of the author than the books themselves. Gibbs then attempts to explain "what Rowling has done differently" than countless other children's book authors: "Unlike some buff and brawny superheroes," she writes, "Harry has the look of a nerd but the heart of a hero." But Roald Dahl's Charlie, Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet, the siblings who prowl Narnia, and the Hobbits who tote the ring might contest the preposterous assertion that Harry's foibling vulnerability is unique and accounts for his appeal.

It's also Newsweek's turn to assess the neocons: Does the continuing violence in Iraq—especially alongside the mess in Israel—call their assumptions into question? The piece doesn't say, but does add a few new tidbits: Paul Wolfowitz and others say philosopher Leo Strauss—often hailed as the original neocon sage—has little to do with anything; and Israeli politician Natan Sharansky argues that neocon "hardliners" and moderates like Colin Powell "are mainly refighting the battles of détente vs. confrontation over the Soviet Union."

Weekly Standard

Weekly Standard, June 23
David Gelernter offers his vision for the right-wing alternative to the New York Times that Editor William I. Kristol proposed a few weeks ago. He thinks the paper should be online and makes a convincing (if slightly windy) case that Web papers today don't take advantage of the medium. But it seems odd and a bit narrow that the paper he envisages—which features shorter articles that are readily browsable—seems so tied to software he designed. … Stephen F. Hayes supports a congressional inquiry into the Bush administration's use of intelligence about WMD—and Bush's shaky claim that "we have found weapons of mass destruction"—but reminds readers that before the war, its opponents and proponents agreed nearly unanimously that Saddam likely still had some of the weapons he possessed in 1998. (TNR's Ryan Lizza notes that most Democratic presidential candidates have avoided haranguing Bush about the missing WMD for this very reason.) The key, says Hayes, is to figure out where those weapons are now.

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Julia Turner is Slate's deputy editor. You can e-mail her at .
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