New Republic, March 28 and April 4
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich claims that “conservative Republicans have mastered the art of the political narrative and, in doing so, exiled Democrats from politics itself.” He believes in “four stories that Americans had always heard and that made sense of the world they knew”: the triumphant individual, the benevolent community, the mob at the gates, the rot at the top. Arguing that Kerry lost the election because he was unable to tap into these narratives, while Bush’s war on terror “powerfully revived the Mob at the Gates tale,” Reich insists that Democrats have to regain control over these stories. … Another piece reviews a new biography of Andre Malraux, the Byronesque French novelist, critic, and revolutionary. Although the biographer, Oliver Todd, “seems to bear a personal grudge” against Malraux, he does provide “the fullest account to date” of the author’s life. Malraux fought with the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, tried to smuggle statues out of Cambodia, was accused of defending Stalin—and wrote some great books.
Economist, March 19
Last year, the European Union agreed to start negotiating Turkey’s admission by this fall. A package on Turkey examines the country’s fascination with Westernization (and suggests that Turkish leader Ataturk looked like ” Ralph Fiennes with wrinkles”) with an article arguing that “The Turkey of today is not the one that may eventually become the first Muslim nation to join the largely Christian EU, any more than the EU of today is the club that Turkey may eventually join.” Another piece suggests that Turkey should fight corruption and woo foreign investors. The package lauds Turkey’s present government and finds that Turkish women enjoy a great deal of freedom under the law, though many acquiesce to religious restrictions because of family custom. … A story about the conviction of former WorldCom head Bernard Ebbers’ announces, “[A]merican bosses should assume that they could be sent to jail for large-scale frauds perpetrated at their firms, even if there is no paper trail or smoking-gun memo.”
New York Times Magazine, March 20 A story examines why Americans love Degrassi: The Next Generation, the latest installment in a 25-year-old Canadian TV show about high school. Filmed in a “sitcom-verite style,” the show stars real teenagers and has plotlines that American networks would never touch—penis pumps, date rape, “gay boyfriends who are too out.”… The well-illustrated cover story focuses on Ibrahim Parlak, a Turkish Kurd who was granted political asylum in the United States and went on to become an immensely well-liked café owner in Michigan. Last year, he was arrested by Homeland Security because of crimes he’d committed in Turkey, where he’d worked for a pro-Kurdish organization. He may soon be deported, but most people in his small town—from a law-enforcement officer to a plumber to local businessmen—are staunchly defending Parlak. … Deborah Solomon interviews Jim Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, the writer for the conservative Web site Talon News who secured a White House press pass using a false name.
The New Yorker, March 21
In a profile of “national security Democrats” that focuses sharply on Joseph Biden, Jeffrey Goldberg scrutinizes the Delaware senator’s hawkish rhetoric. After talking to many of Biden’s fellow hawkish Democrats and potential presidential candidates in 2008—such as Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson—Goldberg notes that Biden believes 75 percent of Americans would choose to “end all terror threats against the United States within the year” even if it meant “no help” for education, Social Security, and health care. … Another piece examines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s caddish behavior toward Elizabeth Peabody, his wife’s sister. Elizabeth ardently supported Hawthorne, helping him get jobs and good reviews; and she always publicly denied being mistreated. An unpublished biography confirms Hawthorne’s “reprehensible” treatment of Elizabeth, whom he rejected in favor of her sister, Sophia. “When Hawthorne learned of Sophia’s migraines and her artistic sensibility, he declared her, without having met her, ‘a flower to be worn in no man’s bosom, but let down from heaven to show the human soul’s possibilities.’ “
Weekly Standard, March 21”In a sense, Canada is the perfect place for American quitters, as it evidences self-loathing masquerading as self-congratulation,” writes Matt Labash in a piece about Americans whose politics are driving them to move to Canada. Labash confronts some quitters and mercilessly makes fun of them. But he’s finally stumped by a former surfer girl from a Republican family who tells him: “America is built on people leaving places. … Constitutionally, the pursuit of happiness is something we not only honor, but something we legally protect. This ain’t Russia. I don’t have to stay.” … And Bob Zelnick, a former ABC executive, reviews Tom Fenton’s doleful Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All. Fenton, a former CBS newsman, chides the networks for a “lack of public vigilance” in the months before both Sept. 11 and the Iraq war. Calling Les Moonves’ plan for a post-Dan Rather NBC “wacky,” Zelnick opines that “a return to Fenton’s vividly remembered glory days is unlikely.”
Time, Newsweek,and U.S. News & World Report,Mar. 21
The office:”Breathe easy, workers: The jobless recovery is indisputably over,” announces U.S. News’ cover story, which mentions the 262,000 jobs created last month. Arguing that the best job prospects are in the South and the West, the piece advises employees that “this very well may be a good time to remind your current employer of your value, consider a new job, or refresh that search for one.”Newsweek is also encouraged by news of short-term economic growth, but it’s decidedly less optimistic about the big picture. The cover story ponders the dollar’s declining value. Noting that “the world economy can’t get along without our massive trade deficits—and perhaps can’t get along with them, either,” the story claims that economists don’t have any solutions for averting a massive global economic crisis. And Time profiles funnyman Steve Carell, who will play the lead in the American remake of the British satire The Office. He is very good at portraying “the faked confidence we all use to get by.”
Iraq:Newsweek marks the second anniversary of the Iraq war by calculating the number of American children who have lost a parent in Iraq (1,043, as of last week). An article examines the bereft kids’ reactions and notes, “Characteristically, the military and Congress have responded to the urgent needs of the survivors by adding new layers of bureaucracy to a system that dates back to the Civil War.” Time marks the anniversary by focusing on three wounded soldiers—a triple amputee who has no regrets, a massively scarred woman who is ambivalent about the war, worried about whether guys will find her attractive, but ultimately upbeat, and an infantryman plagued by depression, unemployment, and the end of his marriage. Time also reports that the interrogation of an Abu al-Zarqawi aide has revealed that Zarqawi has set his sights on “soft targets” in America—”which could include ‘movie theaters, restaurants and schools.’ ”
Odds and ends: This year, the Virgin Mary’s Annunciation celebration falls on the same day as Good Friday (March 25). While most Catholics will celebrate the Annunciation in April, Time looks at a Protestant minister who will address both Mary and Jesus during his Good Friday sermon. After evaluating Protestants’ relationship to Mary, the piece notes, “the influx of millions of Hispanic immigrants from Catholic cultures into American Protestantism may eventually accelerate progress toward a pro-Marian tipping point—on whose other side may lie changes not just in sermon topic but in liturgy, personal piety and a re-evaluation of the actual messages of the Reformation.” And U.S. News profiles graphic novelist Adrian Tomine, the author of Optic Nerve. It focuses on Tomine’s relationship with Ghost World writer Daniel Clowes, and sketches “a glowering Tomine, eager to return to his habitual state of solitude, pacing restlessly in his workroom.”
