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

Democracy: Not Just for DreamersThe Economist cheers the news from the Middle East.

By Bidisha Banerjee and Jesse StanchakUpdated Friday, March 4, 2005, at 6:13 PM ET

Economist, Mar. 5
An editorial hails recent developments in the Middle East as a sign that "democracy for Arabs can no longer … be dismissed as the stuff of foolish dreamers." It goes on to suggest that Americans should let Arabs take the lead, that Europeans should increase their involvement in Iraq, and that Arab leaders should respond to the demand for democracy. … A section devoted to the economies of India and China argues against the view that China has grown faster because of its undemocratic ways. It suggests that India can learn much from China without adopting its repressive political system, while China has a lot to learn about Indian-style democracy. Another piece looks at increasing signs of cooperation between the two countries and claims, "[China] knows America will be alarmed by its emergence as a great power and, far-sightedly, wants those neighbours to share in its prosperity."—B.B.

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New Republic, Mar. 14
The cover profiles Nancy Grace, the Court TV anchor who became immensely popular while covering the Scott Peterson trial (she may be slated to succeed Larry King). Grace became a prosecuting attorney after her fiance was murdered; she seems to have an "unswerving faith in the guilt of the accused." Indeed, the article concludes that Grace and other "shouting heads" are encouraging "a public that is increasingly pro-prosecution and anti-defense." … Reviewing a new P.G. Wodehouse biography, James Wood praises the way Wodehouse "comically smothered" objects by describing and re-describing them. Wood savors choice phrases ("Well, Spode, qua menace, is a spent egg"), then zooms in on the chipper radio broadcasts that Wodehouse made while interned in World War II-era Germany. Although the British condemned these broadcasts as "cowardly, disloyal, and selfish," Wood defends Wodehouse's Monty Pythonesque edge and marvels at the author's satisfaction with his own "absolute absence" of moral seriousness.—B.B.

New York, March 7
In New York's dizzyingly speculative contemporary art market, money isn't everything, says a piece. Fashionable artists have waiting lists for their work, and when serious collectors really want a piece, they'll resort to expensive backdoor deals for a chance to take it home. When giving $75,000 to start a gallery didn't net Jean-Pierre Lehmann a piece by his favorite artist, Lehmann took the gallery's owner to court. "The courtroom battle has become an object of fascination in the art world," writes Christopher Mason. "That may be because it reflects an increasingly common collector's predicament—at its heart, it's about someone's being denied the opportunity to obtain what he can patently afford." … Adam Sternberg profiles the rebirth of Lizzie Grubman, from PR diva who backed her SUV over a crowd of people in 2001 to host of the MTV reality show, Power Girls.—J.S.

New York Times Magazine, March 6
Former New York Times executive editor Joseph Lelyveld writes about his mother's attempted suicide, his rabbi father's volunteer work in Mississippi during the "freedom summer" of 1964, and his own early days at the Times. On assignment in Mississippi, shortly after his father had been assaulted for his civil rights work, Lelyveld found himself unable to hold hands and sing "We Shall Overcome" in a black church because he thought that "reporters weren't supposed to show their feelings. … It might have occurred to me that as a professional bystander, I had chosen a very different vocation from my dad's, a different way of engaging with the world." … A profile of "Long Hair" (Leung Kwok-hung), the "unreconstructed Trotskyite with a passion for soccer, Latin American revolutionaries and universal suffrage" who was recently elected to Hong Kong's legislative council suggests that Long Hair is a breath of fresh air among the island's stuffy bureaucrats and pro-Beijing Communists.—B.B.

The New Yorker The New Yorker, March 7
In a profile pegged to Dan Rather's upcoming retirement from CBS Evening News, Ken Auletta witnesses the embattled anchor "pretending to be [somewhat] more involved in shaping the daily broadcast—barking orders, assigning stories, writing copy—than he actually was." He also debunks a legendary myth: As a young reporter, Rather didn't really have himself tied to a pole during a hurricane so that he could continue reporting, although he "rehearsed tying himself to a tree." Auletta examines Rather's trademark style and quotes Andy Rooney, who claims that Rather is "ashamed of anchoring." Insisting that "Rather has never been able to hide his emotions, including an almost reverential patriotism," Auletta examines the National Guard documents scandal and ends the article with Rather in tears, claiming, "almost the entire length and breadth of my time at CBS, I'd think, What if this is the last time?"… Novelist Orhan Pamuk reminisces about his childhood in Istanbul in the aftermath of the Ottoman empire.—B.B.

Weekly Standard, March 7
Eliot Spitzer "is an empty vessel, into which flow the aspirations of liberals, the anxieties of businessmen, and the heroic narratives of idolators," claims an assessment of the New York state attorney general. While Spitzer has been compared to Superman, Batman, and King Arthur for cracking down on Wall Street corruption, the article points out that Spitzer rarely takes his high-profile cases to trial. The piece suggests that "the attorney general isn't saving—or even practicing—capitalism. … Spitzer looks more like a traditional political boss: rewarding his friends, and punishing his enemies." … H.P. Lovecraft could create a sense of pervasive uneasiness repeating the word "too" over and over, claims Michael Dirda in a review of a new Library of America edition of Lovecraft's short stories. Comparing the author to Poe and Faulker, Dirda concludes, "this once little-known horror writer has reached out from beyond the grave to claim his rightful place as a grand master of visionary fiction."—B.B.

Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report, March 7
Iraqi politics. Women may have been better off under Saddam's regime than they are under the current political climate, argues Newsweek. In recent months, Sunni extremists have been assassinating outspoken, independent women. "Already activists have seen changes for the worse that they hadn't imagined possible. Attendance by female students at schools and universities is in decline," and threats from both Sunni and Shia radicals have forced many women to adopt headscarves. The magazine also takes a look at Ibrahim Jafari, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, who may be Iraq's next prime minister. Spending 10 years Iran might have turned him into a religious conservative, and a personal grudge against the Baath party might cause him to keep on de-Baathifying the government (a practice that current Prime Minister Allawi has halted), which would anger Sunnis. … Time features an interview with Jalal Talabani, the Kurd poised to become Iraq's president, a largely ceremonial position.

Perception and reality in wartime. Even some Justice Department officials will admit that there isn't a solid case against Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, the 23-year-old U.S. citizen accused of plotting to assassinate President Bush, Newsweek claims. It goes on to make light of the evidence against the Abu Ali, pointing out that a subscription to the pro-Bush magazine Handguns is one of the strikes against him. Time is also skeptical about the evidence and asks whether prosecution of terror suspects is getting "too aggressive." It goes on to examine the extremely complicated case of Lt. Ilario Pantano, the Marine accused of shooting two unarmed Iraqi civilians (who were suspected insurgents) in the back. Pantano's colleagues think "the case reflects the gap between the way military leaders prefer to portray the war in Iraq to the public and the way it is actually being fought." The problem, says one Marine, is that "the military is at war, but the nation is not."

Odds and ends. Martha Stewart is treating prison like she's "auditioning for her own reality show," says Newsweek's cover story. She's "foraging the grounds for dandelion greens and crab apples to whip into salads and tarts. She's teaching the other inmates yoga and how to start a business … and working her 12-cents-an-hour job." The article suggests that Stewart is painstakingly developing a sense of humor to prepare for triumphant comeback on The Apprentice. U.S. News' cover looks at a nutritional approach called volumetrics, which counsels against calorie-counting. Instead, it measures "energy-density," or how full we feel when we eat certain types of food. Big scoop: Eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables is good for you. … "[T]he brain is a sex-organ," claims a scientist interviewed for Time's cover story about gender differences. Men and women process information differently and at different ages—which might be a good reason for sex-segregated early education, argues one researcher.—B.B.