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

Treasury Deprecation

By Julia TurnerUpdated Friday, Aug. 1, 2003, at 5:32 PM ET

New RepublicNew Republic, Aug. 11
Noam Scheiber's cover story offers an insider analysis of the Treasury Department's diminishing power. Under Clinton, the career economists at Treasury critiqued White House policies, making sure they were economically sound; under Bush, such objections are unwelcome, and Secretary John Snow heads up what amounts to a gang of administration flacks. The outcome: fewer economists honestly vetting fiscal policy. … Democrat John Edwards: No longer a featherweight! Or so a slightly weak-kneed Ryan Lizza proclaims in a piece on the candidate's emerging domestic agenda, which Lizza calls "perhaps the most detailed and coherent" around. The newly wonky Edwards is positioning himself as a "defender of democratic capitalism" and damns Bush as a "defender of wealth." … Also, on TNR's Web site, John B. Judis and Spencer Ackerman cite an anonymous official who read blacked-out pages in Congress' Sept. 11 report; he says they detail "connections between the hijacking plot and the very top levels of the Saudi royal family."

EconomistEconomist, Aug. 1
The magazine picks a fight with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Thanks to a new Italian law, prime ministers are granted immunity from criminal trials during their tenure in office. Since a case in which Berlusconi is accused of bribing judges has thus been suspended, the Economist opts to try the PM itself, in the court of public opinion. Editor Bill Emmott drafts an open letter, entreating him to answer questions about the unresolved case. The magazine also runs a letter to its readers explaining the open letter; a transcript of Berlusconi's comments; and a careful accounting of the facts. The magazine admirably demands accountability from a man who seems to want to escape it. One caveat: At least online, the wealth of information is overwhelming and seems to damn by heft alone; a précis of Berlusconi's alleged transgressions would help readers out.

New York Times MagazineNew York Times Magazine, Aug. 3
The extensively reported cover story chronicles the complex subculture of black men living on the Down Low. Ostensibly straight to their girlfriends and colleagues, these men regularly have sex with other men but don't identify as gay. Instead, they're on the DL and identify more with being black and masculine than with being attracted to men. But some gay activists think "on the DL" is a euphemism for "in the closet," and public health officials worry that such clandestine affairs may facilitate the spread of HIV among black Americans. … Garden State millionaire Herbert Axelrod collected antique violins (including over 20 instruments made by Antonio Stradivari) and then sold the lot for $18 million—a song!—to the hardscrabble Newark-based New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. The Cinderella story turns sour when detractors suggest that the price was no deal and that Strads don't sound so great anyhow. The implication: Jersey musicians are chumps.

Weekly StandardWeekly Standard, Aug. 4
Prediction: Some future historian of gay civil rights will one day pull this week's vile cover from a dusty archive and cite it as an example of post-Lawrence v. Texas hysteria. The illustration recalls 19th-century cartoons that played on anti-immigrant fears and implies that "beyond gay marriage" lies marriage to primates. … Maggie Gallagher argues that gay marriage should be feared because "children need mothers and fathers." But she cites only one study contending that children fare best when raised by married biological parents and doesn't consider that offering gay parents the logistical benefits of marriage might improve the lots of their kids. … Stanley Kurtz frets slightly more reasonably about the slippery slope's coefficient of friction, worrying that legalizing gay marriage might pave the way for advocates of polyamory.

The New YorkerThe New Yorker, Aug. 4
Why is it taking so long to find Osama Bin Laden? Jane Mayer notes that for Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, capturing Bin Laden (who is thought to be hiding out on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border) might backfire: The United States would have considerably less reason to curry his favor, and the country's simmering fundamentalist opposition might be brought to a boil. A few sources suggest that Musharraf isn't searching as hard as he might. Other obstacles: Congress has been stingy with aid to Pakistan, scaling back a proposed $40 million package to $14 million, and the war in Iraq diverted critical resources from the hunt. … What happened to the men sent to round up the Bounty's mutineers post-mutiny? A story with the deliberate pace of 18th-century ocean travel painstakingly recounts the fate of the Pandora, a ship that collected mutineers from Tahiti then wrecked near the Great Barrier Reef.

Sports IllustratedSports Illustrated, July 28
In a cover story on Kobe Bryant, Jack McCallum notes that the Lakers star who has long been a cipher will face closer examination now that he's been charged with sexual assault: "Only when all the facts are revealed will anyone know who Kobe Bryant really is." Until then, though, anonymous sources are content to creep out of the woodwork and say mean things; Bryant is "an extremely cold and calculating man," "rude and condescending."

Newsweek and TimeNewsweek and Time, Aug. 4
On the brothers grim: Odai and Qusai Hussein went into hiding with ample stashes of cologne, Viagra, and cash, Newsweek reports in a cover story. Whether or not the duo directly managed the ongoing guerrilla resistance in Iraq, their deaths are expected to "demoralize" holdouts, the magazine contends; but Time cites one such guerrilla who said attacks on Americans at this point have little to do with the Husseins: "We do it because they degrade us, they occupy our area."

On their mother, stepmother, and sisters: Time says that the United States is making little effort to find them. Noting that "Iraqi women are usually kept out of men's affairs," an unnamed Pentagon official observed that Saddam's wives and daughters would likely not know his location.

On Condoleezza's falling star: A piece in Sunday's Washington Post suggested that President Bush's national security adviser was irresponsible: She either failed to read key intelligence briefings or chose to ignore them. Newsweek casts further doubts on Rice's qualifications, but for different reasons; "when it comes to riding herd on the big egos in the Bush's war cabinet, Rice too often has been ineffectual." Critics say she should have kept administration neocons in check.

On om: Time fronts a meditation on meditation. Joel Stein, writing for skeptics, explains new scientific research about its benefits. He punctuates the piece with hokey rim shots—"Compared with surgery, sitting on a cushion is really cheap"—but cites studies suggesting that meditation may boost your immune system and "rewire" your brain to minimize stress. Points for acknowledging the manufactured nature of some newsweekly cover stories: "As with any great American trend that finds its way onto the cover of Time, many of these meditators are famous," Stein writes, most notably actress Heather Graham, who poses unrecognizably on the cover.

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