Esquire , June 1997
(posted
Friday, May 23)
Historian
Paul Johnson contends that Clinton is the "most disreputable president ever."
The profusion of scandals--from Whitewater to Paula Jones to FBI files to
campaign finance--proves that he lacks any moral fiber. A writer stakes out the
Cornish, N.H., home of J.D. Salinger ("the last private person in America") and
meditates on the writer-hermit's career. Salinger drives by, but doesn't speak.
A profile of MCA chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. suggests that he's too nice for
Hollywood. His purchase of MCA was financially disastrous: The DuPont Corp.
shares that he sold to buy the entertainment conglomerate have since gained
$9 billion in value.
New
Republic , June 9
(posted
Friday, May 23)
The cover
story, "Peddling Poppy," mocks George Bush revivalism. Bush is now the
second-most-popular modern president (after Kennedy), thanks in part to
relentless PR by him, his wife, and former aides. The article derides Bush's
much publicized parachute jump. Eight professional skydivers assisted him: "I'd
let a 6-year-old do that [jump]," says one. A profile of Gingrich buddy Grover
Norquist Jr. accuses him of selling out his conservative principles: He now
lobbies for slimy dictators.
New
York
Times
Magazine , May 25
(posted
Thursday, May 22)
The cover
story lauds Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for his effort to "restore honor" to
politics. The war hero/campaign-finance reformer is an idealist who has not
been corrupted by power. McCain should be absolved for his role in the Keating
scandal, the article argues: He did nothing improper to help Keating. An
essay bemoans the rise of ghostwritten celebrity books, which dominate
best-seller lists. Publishers no longer even pretend that the writing
matters--the only imperative is that the books sell. An article follows a
Haitian-American cop as he trains Haitian police officers. The bleak prognosis:
Haitians don't trust cops, and the new officers have done little so far to
remedy this.
Time and Newsweek , May 26
(posted
Tuesday, May 20)
Yet another health cover
from Newsweek : "The Scary Spread of Asthma." The incidence of asthma is
up 61 percent since the early '80s. The culprit is indoor air, which is filled
with dust mites, cigarette smoke, cockroach remains, and pet dander.
(Surprisingly, outdoor air pollution is not to blame: It's better for kids to
play outside than inside.) The good news: New drugs and treatments make it easy
to live with asthma. A happy feature chronicles a Wisconsin welfare mother's
search for work: She finds and keeps a $10-an-hour job at a chemical warehouse.
A story on Mt. Everest warns that even more climbers will probably die there
this year.
Summer frivolity in
Time . The cover: "What's Cool This Summer." The highlights:
wakeboarding, actor Vince Vaughn, the state of New Mexico (Roswell, Georgia
O'Keeffe), roller coasters. Garry Kasparov writes an article requesting a
10-game, winner-take-all rematch with Deep Blue. He agrees that the computer
played brilliantly, especially in Game 2, but says that he was thrown off by
the "hostile atmosphere" created by IBM. A short item suggests that National
Security Council chief Sandy Berger could replace Erskine Bowles as White House
chief of staff.
Both
magazines belittle Timothy McVeigh's lawyer, Stephen Jones, saying that his
cross-examination of prosecution witnesses has been confused and
ineffective.
U.S.
News & World Report , May 26
(posted
Tuesday, May 20)
The
cover story celebrates the U.S. economy. It makes several familiar
arguments: High-tech industry is driving the boom; organized labor's decline
and pressure from foreign suppliers are keeping wages and inflation in check;
unskilled workers still face tough times. A related
article says that the sustained growth has flummoxed economists: Alan
Greenspan et al. have discovered that their old models no longer apply, and
they don't know what numbers to trust. A piece concludes that immigration both benefits and harms
Americans: Low-skilled immigrants drive down wages, but high-skilled immigrants
increase productivity. Also, the boom in guilt
museums: Slavery, tenements, Japanese internment camps, and radiation
experiments are all subjects of new ones.
The
New Yorker , May 26
(posted
Tuesday, May 20)
V.S.
Naipaul visits Iran and finds it still haunted by the Iran-Iraq war. The men
who survived the war are disillusioned, and the Islamic revolution has lost
much of its fire. Naipaul warns that the country may succumb to "nihilism."
Gore Vidal writes a long appreciation of his old friend Clare Booth Luce,
portraying her as a tough broad. The opening comment by Don DeLillo pays
tribute to Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng. Also, an article slams Regnery, the
right-wing publishing house that's made a fortune with anti-Clinton books: The
once-distinguished conservative press now passes off salacious rumor and cruel
innuendo as fact.
Weekly Standard , May 26
(posted
Tuesday, May 20)
The
Standard 's cover article, "Be Afraid," contends that Deep Blue is the
first evidence of a silicon-based life form with free will. The computer
demonstrated a subtle complexity of thought that even its human programmers
could not comprehend. Why be afraid of the silicon brain? It lacks emotion and,
hence, compassion. (For more on the match, see Slate's special edition of
"The Week/The
Spin.") A piece on cloning argues that 1) parents wouldn't use cloned
children for nefarious purposes and 2) in vitro fertilization already violates
nature's laws as much as cloning would. It does propose limiting cloning to
married couples. Also, a conservative economist makes the case for inheritance
taxes.
National
Review , June 2
(posted
Tuesday, May 20)
The cover
profile paints House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt as a political
opportunist. He began his career as a socially and economically conservative
Democrat, but transformed himself into a pro-choice, protectionist, mommy-state
liberal. Dick Morris writes an article praising the budget deal. A piece by
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., complains that religious charities are corrupted by
federal-government funds.
Atlantic
Monthly , June 1997
(posted
Tuesday, May 20)
Traditional public-health measures such as widespread testing and notification
of the infected would slow the spread of AIDS, argues the cover essay. Gay and
AIDS activists have resisted such measures as stigmatizing. An article debunks
environmentalists' belief that we consume too much: Raw materials, energy, and
food are more plentiful than ever. But we should worry that our materialism is
making us lose our reverence for nature. A short piece says there is a "child
famine" in the Great Plains: North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, and
Wyoming are not producing enough children to sustain their small towns.
