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

Return of the Grizz

By Jeremy DerfnerUpdated Friday, Aug. 25, 2000, at 8:30 PM ET

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Atlantic Monthly, September 2000

The long cover story on Napster and electronic copyright issues argues that only big music labels benefit from current law. A musician has to sell a million records just to break even, and even then the label would already have netted $4 million. In its frantic efforts to outlaw Napster and other piracy sites, the music industry could stunt the growth of the Internet. … An unpublished Jorge Luis Borges lecture yearns for the return of the epic that both told a tale and sang a song. Now epics are split into novels (tales) and poems (songs), but not even the best examples of either genre measure up to great epics like the Odyssey and the Gospels. Borges also mourns the fact that modern readers suspect the epic hero because they view the happy ending as a commercial sellout. … A piece describes the battle over grizzly bears in Idaho and Montana. Traditionalists and environmentalists want to reintroduce the endangered species to the area, but residents fear the creatures, which can kill a bison with one blow and bite a femur in half.

Economist, Aug. 26

The cover story argues that Vladimir Putin's late contrition about the Kursk submarine disaster will save his government, but his dishonest handling of the crisis proves that the Soviet paranoid style still holds sway. The resoundingly negative reaction in the Russian press and among the public indicates that the Russian people have become more democratic than their government. … An article claims that Israel's former allies in Southern Lebanon have yet to suffer serious reprisals, two months after Israel pulled out of the region. Though Syria has prevented the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers from securing the area, little violence has been reported, and pro-Israel militia members are being sentenced to jail terms shorter than the law mandates. … A piece describes East Timor's extensive birth pains. Pro-Indonesian militias destroyed the country's infrastructure when they pulled out a year ago, and the U.N. transition team is struggling to provide the people with fishing boats, seed, and roads that will get crops to market. The capital city, Dili, is growing much too fast and could become a slum on par with Manila.

New York Times Magazine, Aug. 27

The cover story marvels at the business acumen of Citigroup Chairman Sandy Weill. Less brilliant but more driven and more brutal than his peers, Weill built his empire by swallowing struggling companies and betraying his partners and protégés. … A profile of jazz singer Little Jimmy Scott calls him "the most unjustly ignored American singer of the 20^th century." Scott, an alto who never went through puberty, struggled during his early career but has been rediscovered in old age by Madonna and Lou Reed. But his androgyny threatens to turn him into a freakish cult hero instead of the jazz giant he truly is. … A piece tells the tale of two fisheries. In Point Judith, R.I., bunches of lobstermen compete relentlessly for a dwindling and decreasingly profitable catch. Meanwhile, in Port Lincoln, Australia, where lobster quotas are in effect, lobstermen make more money working shorter hours, and the fisheries are healthy enough to survive for years.

Time and Newsweek, Aug. 28

August fluff on both covers. Newsweek's Survivor story, pegged to this week's finale, gushes over the show's popularity, notes which contestants got offers to pose for Playboy (Colleen said no, Kelly is still mulling it over), and prints yet another homophobic quote from crusty septuagenarian Rudy. … Time puts Sex and the City on its cover as a peg for a trend story about single women. Fewer women are getting married than ever, and bachelorettes are being hailed as today's It demographic. … Last week Time was optimistic about the Gore campaign and Newsweek was pessimistic. This week they flip-flop. Newsweek praises Gore's success in canceling the personality issue by highlighting his seriousness and grasp of the issues. … Time argues that Gore's populist appeals help him solidify a wavering Democratic base but will eventually hurt him with swing voters. … Newsweek's coverage of the Kursk submarine disaster focuses on the Soviet-style lying, stonewalling, and secretiveness of the Putin government. … Time focuses more on the degraded condition of the Russian navy—the fleet has shrunk 84 percent since the Cold War—and speculates what it must have been like inside the sub after it sank.

U.S. News & World Report, Aug. 28

The cover story reports on the dark side of the Internet. The wired world is wide open to sexual predators and con artists of every stripe, including stalkers, porn addicts, fake adoption agencies, and people who steal identities to secure bank loans. Both the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission have received substantially more Internet-related complaints this year than last. … An article revisits Odessa, Texas, the oil/football town portrayed in the book Friday Night Lights. Since Lights' publication 10 years ago, academic rigor at Permian High School has improved, but the football team has gotten worse. After last year's losing season, the school hired a new high-profile coach for an $81,000 salary—twice what a 20-year veteran teacher with a master's degree earns. … A piece doubts any connection between cell phones and cancer. Though isolated studies have connected them (one study found that tumors were more likely to appear on the phone-ear side of the brain), most researchers agree that the evidence is very thin.

Weekly Standard, Aug. 28 and Sept. 5

The editorial argues that Al Gore, trailing in the polls because he could not shake Clinton, was forced to lurch violently to the left at the convention and effectively renounce the Third Way. … An article criticizes the "race-obsessed Democratic party" for its handling of the spat between Joe Lieberman and Maxine Waters over affirmative action. By dispatching Eleanor Holmes Norton and Alexis Herman to lobby left-wing blacks and having Lieberman retreat about his support for Proposition 209, the party again eschewed its prudent centrism and pandered to interest-group divisiveness. … A piece describes the loneliness of pro-life Democrat senatorial candidate Ron Klink. He ought to win in Democratic Pennsylvania against right-wing Rick Santorum, but his opposition to abortion has undermined his ability to raise money from the liberal Philadelphians who usually fund state campaigns.