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

Driving DiscourseThe dispiriting state of women's rights in the Arab world.

By Josh LevinUpdated Friday, June 18, 2004, at 4:56 PM ET

Economist, June 19
A pair of articles blame rising inflation—around 3 percent and threatening to creep higher—on historically low interest rates. The magazine suggests that rates, presently sitting at 1 percent, should probably be more like 4 percent. … A report on the state of women in the Arab world suggests that a "national dialogue" in Saudi Arabia on whether women should be allowed to drive represents significant progress. The rest of the figures that supposedly indicate how the rights of women are increasing—15-year-old girls in the Middle East have been in school for an average of 4.5 years, an increase from the average of six months in 1960—are just as revealing. … Another story reports on a study that suggests the minds of bilinguals deteriorate less with age than those of people who speak only one language.

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New Republic, June 28
TRB doesn't directly answer the question posed on the cover, "Iraq: Were We Wrong?", but a sentence near the end expresses the consensus reached in this special issue: "For liberals, the lesson is to see conservatives as they are, not as you'd like them to be." ... The editorial admits that TNR's main rationale for supporting the war—to halt Saddam's pursuit of nuclear weapons—"now appears to have been wrong." Still, the magazine "feels regret—but no shame" because reasonable minds assumed Saddam had WMD and since, after the invasion, Iraqis "are, in some meaningful sense, free." ... A pair of legislators weigh in, too. Sen. Joseph Biden says the worst consequence of the war is that when another dictator needs to be disposed, Americans won't have faith that their government has a clue what it's doing. Sen. John McCain argues that the war was the right call: Saddam was a "grave and gathering" threat, and even if our national security wasn't at risk, "our national values were."

New York Times Magazine New York Times Magazine, June 20
The cover story bills a program to provide social services to children in a 60-block area in Harlem as "one of the most ambitious social-policy experiments of our time." While the two-pronged plan—first, get the worst students into the most promising classes and activities, then prove that they can learn as well as any other kids when given the proper resources—is estimable, there's more than a bit of wishfulness here. As the piece points out, the programs themselves—parenting classes, after-school care, charter schools—aren't necessarily innovative. ... An article revisits Fallujah, where a month after a siege by the Marines, the city is policed by a brigade led by a former Iraqi Army colonel. The re-Baathified forces give the author's translator the creeps. "It's like a joint chiefs meeting of the Republican Guard. These guys are bad guys. They hate Americans. Let's get out of here," he says.

Esquire, July 2004
Lance Armstrong makes the cover, but inside there's just a tepid photo essay of the cyclist's preparations for the Tour de France. … The "survival issue" hits less charted territory in following a group of deep-sea divers who get obsessed with a U-boat sunk off the coast of New Jersey. After one diver dies while exploring the wreckage, the team leader decides to delay in telling the Coast Guard for fear that another group of adventurers could intercept the group's coordinates and ID the submarine. Just eight days after the death, the group heads out again. … Another story profiles the two American astronauts stranded in the International Space Station after the space shuttle Columbia exploded in February 2003. Their only way back to earth: a Russian-built capsule equipped with little more than a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun.

U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, and Time, June 21
Reagan, week two: Both U.S. News and Newsweek extend the news cycle with another round of Ronald Reagan covers. The thick U.S. News package, full of all new material after last week's special commemorative issue, features an essay on Reagan's frequent trips to a Beverly Hills park in the 1990s. The piece notes that the "Latino nannies, many in the country illegally, were particularly fond of him." … Newsweek's coverage focuses on Nancy Reagan's personal struggles as a caregiver and her drive to promote stem-cell research. There's also a collection of memories from former presidents Ford, Bush, and Clinton and actor Kirk Douglas. … Time's lone piece of Reaganalia is a blow-by-blow of the family's flight back to California, which included a detour to fly over Reagan's birthplace of Tampico, Ill.

The torture rules: Newsweek notes that the CIA always obtained written permission from lawyers and policymakers before trying "new interrogation techniques." Among the techniques was "water-boarding," a method of dripping water over a suspect so he feels like he's drowning. The CIA also asked about trying out "mock burial," but it's unclear whether they got permission. … A Time piece reports that Donald Rumsfeld wants to declassify all the techniques used by American troops and interrogators at once, as releasing the entire list would do less political damage than having information leak out detail by detail. … U.S. News says Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez ordered guards at Abu Ghraib to hide a prisoner nicknamed "Triple X" from Red Cross inspectors last November. It's not clear if Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who didn't include the order in his report on Abu Ghraib abuses, knew about Sanchez's decree.

Articles of faith: Time's cover story on faith and the presidency features an unsurprising poll: The "very religious" support Bush 59 percent to 35 percent, while "not religious" respondents prefer Kerry 69 percent to 22 percent. … U.S. News says you shouldn't believe everything you hear about stretching. There's no evidence that stretching stops injuries or makes you less sore after working out, and "more pliable muscles might cause more injuries than they prevent." … Another U.S. News piece reports that $1.2 billion is being spent to fix up the electrical grid in Iraq, but customers are still suffering through several blackouts a day. A lot of the problem stems from a rise in demand brought about by the "import of new duty-free appliances."

Weekly Standard, June 21
The magazine gets a late start on Reagan hagiography, but makes up for it in volume. The essays include a list of nine ways the world is a better place because Reagan won the 1980 election and an interview with a Ukrainian dissident who first learned of Reagan while imprisoned in the gulag. ... Another piece praises John Danforth, the United States' special envoy to Sudan. Danforth, just nominated as the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, gets credit for helping craft a cease fire in Sudan's 21-year civil war. … According to another article, the Saudi embassy has an atypical assignment: evangelism. After a cleric/diplomat who promoted Wahhabism was deported late last year for unbecoming diplomatic activities, an embassy representative told the Washington Post they would suspend their missionary work. But three days later, an official was quoted in a Saudi paper saying that it's still "part of the kingdom's message."