New Republic, April 26

(posted Saturday, April 10, 1999)

The magazine's redesign brings with it a new Web site and a slick, decidedly un-wonkish new look. ... The "TRB" column argues that the intelligence community should use its Cold War-era spying apparatus to monitor human rights abuses. Spooks have generally shied away from such missions because of the moral and political dilemmas created when an intelligence agency witnesses atrocities. ... A piece describes wartime propaganda on Serbian TV. The programming includes nationalistic music videos, scornful exposés of Western governments (Hillary Clinton is gay, as is most of Tony Blair's Cabinet), and repeated showings of the film Wag the Dog.

Economist, April 10

(posted Friday, April 9, 1999)

The magazine endorses the deployment of ground troops in Kosovo. But a separate editorial says that partial defeat (concessions to the Serbs, failure to repatriate Kosovars) will be NATO's "price of going to war without the will to do the job properly." The West neglected to anticipate the refugee crisis, and the subsequent dispersal of homeless Kosovars across the already shaky Balkan region could cause "a potential collapse of terrifying proportions." ... A piece bemoans Britain's inert tourism business. Government and industry are squabbling over whether to promote the country as the modern, hip "Cool Britannia" or as the tradition-soaked land of high tea and Queen Victoria.

New York Times Magazine, April 11

(posted Thursday, April 8, 1999)

A writer visits two veterans of the Tiananmen Square uprising who have moved to the United States and become evangelical Christians. Both believe that "the root of democracy is the spirit of Christ" and that democracy will only come to China through mass religious awakening. ... The magazine profiles public radio hero Ira Glass, host of This American Life, a weekly exploration of odd corners of American culture. Glass is considering launching a TV version of the show, but not on public television, which he deems too influenced by its corporate sponsors.

Time and Newsweek, April 12

(posted Tuesday, April 6, 1999)

The newsweeklies slam the Clinton administration's Kosovo policy. Time's caustic cover story ("War, we are shocked to discover, is not a video game") derides the White House's apparently unshaken faith in air power. Newsweek lambastes the president for "diplomatic errors and missed opportunities": Security advisers originally told the administration to offer President Slobodan Milosevic a face-saving compromise; when action became inevitable, they recommended strengthening NATO's military threat; finally, as airstrikes began, they urged planning for the refugee crisis sure to come. At every turn, Clinton failed to heed. A sidebar reports that in the early '90s the CIA nixed a plot by Milosevic's inner circle to overthrow the dictator. A Newsweek piece crudely indicts the entire Serb nation (they "didn't need to load Kosovars into boxcars to look bad"). Since losing the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Serbs have been "seasoned haters raised on self-pity." Both magazines print huge, heart-rending photographs of Kosovar refugees.

Time explains why the anti-sweatshop movement is growing on college campuses: The AFL-CIO has jump-started the protests by lavishing student activists with internships and trips to countries with poor working conditions.

Newsweek writes that Ernest Hemingway's soon-to-be published final manuscript, True at First Light, a fictionalized account of an African safari, contains some of his funniest and most complex work.

U.S. News & World Report, April 12

(posted Tuesday, April 6, 1999)

The cover story opines that the United States should have offered Milosevic a better deal at Rambouillet. A sidebar suggests that the president's lingering anger over impeachment has colored his approach to Kosovo crisis. Another sidebar, titled "Talking Casualties," scopes out what it would take for NATO to win a ground war (200,000 troops and a month or two of setup time). NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark is a "born-again advocate" of an invasion. ... A story forecasts country music's Next Big Thing: African-American crooners. Country originated in gospel and blues, but since the civil rights era blacks have associated country music with white prejudice. Now record executives are hoping that black country acts will boost lagging sales.

The New Yorker, April 12

(posted Tuesday, April 6, 1999)

TheNew Yorker excerpts Ralph Ellison's posthumous novel Juneteenth, the story of a boy of mixed race who denies his black heritage and becomes a racist senator. It will be published in June. ... The magazine profiles a controversial British "what if" historian whose work examines European history as it might have been. He has deemed that World War I was Britain's fault and that allowing the Germans a partial victory then would have prevented the Bolshevik Revolution, World War II, and the Holocaust. ... A writer recounts the colorful rise and fall of the Rev. J. Charles Jessup, the "the most preachable preacher that ever preached preachable preaching." The star faith healer built America's first evangelical empire in the 1940s by broadcasting his tent revival act on the radio. After collecting about $10 million in "faith donations," Jessup was locked up for mail fraud.

The Nation, April 19

(posted Tuesday, April 6, 1999)

Much condemnation of NATO's air campaign. An editorial says the bombing encourages Serb nationalism, enables Milosevic to crack down on dissent, destabilizes Russia, undermines the United Nations, and violates the principle that foreign powers should not intervene in civil wars. ... A scathing article says the administration is acting to make the world safe for American economic imperialism as much as to avert a humanitarian disaster. Given U.S. brutality in South Vietnam and its failure to stop other horrors (Rwanda, Sierra Leone, etc.), America "has no moral ground to stand on" in condemning and attacking the Serbs.