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

Empty Glass

By Josh LevinUpdated Friday, Oct. 31, 2003, at 3:06 PM ET

New Republic, Nov. 10
As America waits breathlessly for the Shattered Glass premiere this weekend, Stephen Glass peers out from a gigantic navel on this week's cover. No, wait, that's a bull's-eye. Biopic-subject Glass, who fabricated 27 of the 41 stories that he wrote for the mag, however, plays a bit role in Jonathan Chait's cover story on press malfeasance. After a contrived nod to the master fibber in the opening paragraph, Chait reverses field to explain the real problem with the media: a wrongheaded sense of evenhandedness that allows unexamined lies to seep into journalists' copy. … Ryan Lizza writes that if Howard Dean picks up an endorsement from the 1.6-million-member Service Employees International Union, made up largely of immigrant and minority workers, it would deflate the charge that Dean supporters are "high-tech, latte-town liberals." The potential downside: Dean's base gets even more lefty.

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Economist, Nov. 2
When one of Russia's wealthiest CEOs gets busted for fraud, it's more an indication of President Vladimir Putin's authoritarianism than his cracking down on the country's robber barons, the magazine argues. That's because the investigation into oil exec Mikhail Khodorkovsky began in earnest only after he pledged to get involved in Russian politics. (Read more about Khodorkovsky vs. Putin in Slate's "International Papers.") … In a rare foray into the world of American football, the mag states the case for the Pottsville Maroons, the long-dead NFL franchise that was stripped of the 1925 league championship for playing an unsanctioned game. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell recently made a pitch for the Maroons to NFL brass, and a decision on a possible retitling is expected soon.

New York Times Magazine, Nov. 2
Yet another story on how lousy things are in postwar Iraq. David Rieff writes that protecting the Iraqi Oil Ministry hasn't won U.S. troops any points. "So what else do you want us to think except that you want our oil?" says one Shiite leader. On the American side, there's growing frustration with the lack of endgame planning: One U.S. battalion commander says that his unit freestyled handing out food and abating looters. … Lauren Slater analyzes psychologist David H. Barlow. Instead of teaching breathing techniques, Barlow forces fear-addled patients to confront terror. Though fellow practitioners frown at screening Terms of Endearment for a woman who dreads cancer, the clinician's results—he claims an 85 percent success rate—have won him support from academics and patients. An endorsement from a claustrophobe who locked himself in the trunk of his car: By the last treatment, "I was bored."

The New Yorker The New Yorker, Nov. 3
A Ken Auletta piece unravels rivalries on the Wall Street Journal masthead and in the board room of corporate parent Dow Jones. Juicy newsroom dis: Then Managing Editor Norman Pearlstine regifted the wedding present—the papier-mâché WSJ-toting dog—from CEO Peter Kann and his wife, Journal Publisher Karen Elliott House. Auletta also reports that some members of the Bancroft family, who own a controlling stake of the paper, may be open to selling. Although a family trustee jettisoned an overture by the New York Times, some Bancrofts say that an as-yet-nonexistent proposal from the Washington Post might be appealing. … Unlike the features in the recent how-they-do-it "Making Movies" issue, Virginia Heffernan's profile of Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey doesn't dwell on her creative process, but instead on the funny lady's cutting sense of humor and personal vulnerability. In so-called "psychodrama" sessions, she overcomes post-9/11 trauma by confronting "imaginary terrorists, sometimes represented by chairs."

Weekly Standard, Nov. 3
Amir Taheri interviews Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel Peace Prize-winner. Ebadi, an advocate of women's rights, parries President Mohammed Khatami's suggestion that her selection doesn't deserve "all that fuss" by giving a nod to free speech. "People are free to have their own opinions on all subjects," she says. Later in the discussion, Taheri peppers the self-professed "human rights militant" with questions about her domestic responsibilities: Yes, she organizes the house. Yes, her husband helps out. And yes, she cooks, though she leaves it to her family to analyze the quality of the food. … The editorial describes how both Democrats and Republicans are disowning 2001's USA Patriot Act. A "surprising defender": Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who says that she has "never had a single [verified] abuse of the Patriot Act reported to me" and that opposition results from "perhaps some ignorance."

Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report, Nov. 3
Kids grow up so fast: A small child holding a pill reaches out from the cover of Time and into our hearts. With little kids being diagnosed with nasty adult-sounding syndromes, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, some researchers worry that the treatment for such ailments hasn't been adequately tested on the tykes' still-forming minds. … As part of a Newsweek story on the ambience at Columbine High School circa 2003, one student warns of the need for tact. "You want to be like, 'Oh, my God, I can't believe she does her hair that way, she's such a loser!' [But] you try and hold yourself back. You never know if you're going to be the one person to break them."

Rummy's sins: Time and Newsweek wonder if Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has lost his "touch," or possibly his "mojo," on account of controversies surrounding his leaked memo and the proselytizing of Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin, a devout Christian, in Iraq. Anonymous Republican senators take DoD's top dog to task for his "obtuse" and "nonsensical" rhetorical style. … Newsweek's cover package rehashes the cost of rebuilding Iraq with pieces set at home and in the Middle East. Though USAID's chief of Iraq operations brags that "[w]e kicked major butt" by getting 1,595 Iraqi schools ready by the end of September, the mag's reporters say the classrooms they visited didn't have enough books and desks, and most had "refuse everywhere."

Jews in the News: The U.S. News cover story examines the evolution of the Semitic stereotype from the money-hungry Shylock to the aggressive and vengeful "Rambo Jew." Mortimer B. Zuckerman argues that due to anti-Semitism, the world holds Israel to a higher standard when it comes to fighting domestic terrorism. Zuckerman also blasts the United Nations for criticizing Israeli policies while keeping mum about abuses in Rwanda, Cambodia, Zimbabwe, and China. The New Republic's Gregg Easterbrook—who found himself in hot water recently after referring to "Jewish executives" who "worship money above all else"—is not discussed.

New Republic New Republic, Nov. 3
Zadie Smith's nonfiction is as lucid, lively, and persuasive as ever. She considers why Franz Kafka has so few literary descendants, and why those he has—Borges, W.G. Sebald—so rarely write straight novels. "How does Kafka lead novelists away from the novel?" He was unable to stomach, understand, or tell the "necessary social lies" that are the fodder for so many novelists' work. … Ryan Lizza makes the case for Wesley Clark. Sure, his campaign has weathered a passel of squabbles and gaffes in its first month, but the retired general has a canny strategy. Portraying himself as someone who is "the opposite of an ideologue," ready to seek out pragmatic solutions, practically "the candidate of the scientific method," Clark presents an alternative to what some see as President Bush's act-now-figure-out-why-later tactics. … TNR's editors apologize for allowing TNR.com blogger Gregg Easterbrook to post an anti-Semitic comment last week, then defend him as "a good individual" who "said a bad thing."—J.T.