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The Alaskan Surprise
The Economist and Time look north to Sarah Palin's home state.
Kara Hadge
posted Sept. 5, 2008
Blog at Your Own Risk
The Nation on how the military restricts soldiers' Internet activities.
Kara Hadge
posted Sept. 2, 2008
Magicians for Christ
Mother Jones on proselytizing with illusions.
Noreen Malone
posted Aug. 29, 2008
Joe the Turncoat
New York on how Joe Lieberman came to align himself with Republicans.
Noreen Malone
posted Aug. 26, 2008
Obamarama
The press rolls out the red carpet for the DNC.
Kara Hadge
posted Aug. 22, 2008
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other magazines: Summaries of what's in Time, Newsweek, etc.

Wine Whine

By Eve Gerber
Updated Friday, Sept. 17, 1999, at 9:30 PM ET

Economist, Sept. 24

The cover editorial applauds General Electric CEO Jack Welch and the management trend of "creative destruction" he popularized. Creative destruction creates tauter companies that can quickly respond to market changes. ... In an essay, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges U.N. members to reach a consensus that the United Nations should intervene anywhere human rights are being abused, regardless of territorial boundaries. ... Winemaking is being corrupted by numerical review ratings, according to an article. Vintners are providing unrepresentative samples to rig the system and underproducing good but low-rated wines.

New Republic, Oct. 4

An education cover package. One article argues for vouchers and disputes studies critical of them. Private schools do not skim off the best students from struggling public schools, and voucher students are not suspended at higher rates. ... A piece touts the benefits of charter schools. Studies indicate that the 1,684 charter schools are providing a better education to the 350,000 public school students they serve. Five studies suggest that charter schools also stimulate conventional public schools to innovate and improve. ... Online continuing and executive education programs are a rip-off, according to an article: Brand-name bricks-and-mortar universities receive lots of revenue from them, but the quality of instruction is poor.

New York Times Magazine, Sept. 19

In the fourth of six millennium issues, artists depict the millennium with predictably burlesque results. ... Cockroaches devouring a tomato symbolizes the destruction of the new world by European conquistadors. ... The environmental consequences of the industrial revolution are caricatured by a picture of a bear and a coyote tethered, like cliffhanger heroines, to a pile of logs in the path of an oncoming train. ... A collage of Bill Gates costumed as a Medici together with Michael Eisner outside a fairytale castle represents the way "culture rode the coattails of money" in the Renaissance and in the 1990s.

Time, Sept. 20

The cover story marvels at the Harry Potter phenomenon. The best-selling British book series about an orphan who transcends the tedium of suburban life through his adventures as a wizard-in-training has enchanted both children and adults. In upcoming books, Harry will take an interest in girls, and the villain will kill a favorite character. (Click here for Slate's "Book Club" exchange on the Potter books.) ... An article trails Bill Bradley around his home town. He shows off his basketball trophies and his black friend from Little League.

Newsweek, Sept. 20

A special issue examining "the dawn of e-life" rehashes conventional wisdom on the transformative potential of the Internet: Commerce will be revolutionized by Amazon-like companies and by online auctions that enable individuals to sell oddball items to distant buyers or bid for services from companies with excess inventory. E-mail is making the workplace more egalitarian by enabling minions to send suggestions to higher-ups. Campaigns are using the Internet as an organizational and fund-raising tool.

U.S. News & World Report, Sept. 20

In a late addition to the media fuss about the 25^th anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation, the cover story highlights his achievements, including creating the Environmental Protection Agency, increasing Social Security benefits, opening China, and seeking détente with the Soviet Union. (Slate discounts claims that Nixon has been rehabilitated in "Richard Nixon Is Still Dead.") ... An article reports that NATO eliminated only a fraction of the mobile targets it claimed were destroyed in Kosovo. Russia's withdrawal of support for Yugoslavia and the bombing of power grids and transportation networks are what really caused Slobodan Milosevic to cave.

The New Yorker, Sept. 20

The "Style" special issue lionizes Elsa Klensch, CNN's fashion correspondent, who was the first person to "bring cameras to the catwalks" and force designers to explain their clothes for a TV audience. Unlike fashion magazine editors, she doesn't accept freebies from designers in exchange for product placement. ... An essay celebrates the emergence of Nobrow culture. The mass-marketing of well-designed consumer products collapses the distinction between highbrow and lowbrow. Now we are all "Banana Republicans." ... An article warns that Slobodan Milosevic might be massing troops to brutally subdue Montenegro, the democratic Yugoslavian republic struggling to separate itself from Serbia.

Vanity Fair, October 1999

Bill Gates tops the magazine's annual ranking of the new media establishment, followed by Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone. ... In an interview, the 68-year-old Murdoch details his overdue midlife crisis: divorce, a move to a downtown Manhattan loft, a nubile new wife, and an avowed attempt to dress like his twentysomething sons. ... A book excerpt condemns Pius XII, "Hitler's Pope," for his complicity in the Final Solution. Before ascending to the papacy in 1939, Eugenio Pacelli neutered German Catholic opposition to Nazism, campaigned to remove black troops from the Rhineland, and contemptuously declined to help persecuted Jews. As pope, he placated Hitler, never protested the Holocaust, and didn't complain when Rome's Jews were sent to certain death.

Talk, October 1999

A profile of Liz Taylor focuses on her bizarre relationship with Michael Jackson, who showed up to meet the diva for the first time holding his chimp's hand. The Gloved One adoringly describes Taylor as "a warm, cuddly blanket that I love to ... cover myself with." ... A self-congratulatory seven-page spread celebrates the Talk launch party: "In the distance, beneath Madame Liberty, feline Kate Moss, fearsome Robert De Niro, bronze-bodied Pierce Brosnan." ... A profile peels away George Pataki's Gomer Pyle exterior to reveal the New York governor's Machiavellian core. He ruthlessly spread rumors about the sanity of a 70-year-old mentor when he sought to take her state Senate seat. Pataki is finally blessing the Senate candidacy of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, but only because he is maneuvering for the GOP vice-presidential nomination.

Weekly Standard, Sept. 20

In a review of two revisionist books, the cover story rethinks the U.S. role in Vietnam. Intervention was necessary because the United States could not abandon a nation resisting communism. Had the United States maintained its support of the South Vietnamese regime after 1974, South Vietnam would not have collapsed. ... An editorial worries that the election of George W. Bush is no sure thing. Clinton fatigue will be a less compelling reason to vote for Bush if Bill Bradley wins the Democratic nomination. A Pat Buchanan Reform Party run would undercut Bush's support.

The Nation, Sept. 27

The cover story condemns schoolhouse commercialism. Sponsored educational materials ask students to count Tootsie Rolls or plan how many Domino's pizzas are needed for a party. Districts lease advertising space in school hallways and collect a percentage of vending machine revenues. ... A poem explains why mainstream Republicans wish to prevent Pat Buchanan from bolting to the Reform Party: "Folks who hate what's foreign/ And like their neighbors white/ Are vital to the party/ In any race that's tight."