September/October 1998

Features

Synergy
Ten Mistakes That Led to the CNN/Time Fiasco
How could a disaster of such proportions have afflicted CNN and its sibling, Time? The network's June 7 report on Operation Tailwind alleging that U.S. forces dropped poison gas in Laos in 1970 was totally unsupportable by the evidence. Here's a timeline of all the action leading up to the CNN/Time retraction and apology-- and a menu of miscues made by both of them.
by Neil Hickey

Magazines
Tina Brown and the Coming Decline of Celebrity Journalism
The New Yorker's former editor was a victim of her own self-created myth, as she shook Condé Nast's dust from her heels to join Mickey Mouse at a subsidiary of Disney. She'll be a lot happier, say her critics, making movie deals and creating hype for the wiseguys of Celluloid City. Her successor, David Remnick, is a shirtsleeves kind of guy and no celebrity hound.
by Stefan Kanfer

"We Don't Want to Forget Hilarity"
The New Yorker, says Remnick, should be a bastion of clarity, reliability -- and fun.

A Remnick Reader
Selections from the new editor's writings

Reporting
Banana Peel
It's all a great mystery: What did reporter Mike Gallagher really know and how did he know it? Gannett's Cincinnati Enquirer published a sensational probe of Chiquita Brands's business practices, then backpedalled frantically.
by Nicholas Stein

Just How Far Is Too Far?
What's the difference, exactly, between receiving "stolen" information and taking it? Which ends justify which means?
by Mike Hoyt

Conglomerates
Does Big Mean Bad?
Journalists worry a lot these days about the concentrated power of media companies. Others argue that the specter of a vast, monolithic, all-pervading news industry has been wildly overdrawn. It's time to refresh and recast the debate.
by Tom Goldstein

Politics
Payments to the Powerful
Big Media are shoveling money, in a whole range of ways, to political candidates and parties. Who is spending the most? What are they getting in return? What are the dangers? And what is Congress doing about it?
by Sheila Kaplan

Newspapers
Awards and Anguish for a Driven Reporter
The New York Times's Keith Bradsher was way out front in revealing the hazards of light trucks and sports utility vehicles. His reporting earned him a couple of prizes, but also a ton of ill will.
by Charles Butler

Upfront

• reporting
  The Myth of Tiananmen
  by Jay Mathews
• Synergy Watch
  ABC News Goes to the Movies
  by Jennifer Glaser
• Editors
  The New (Again) U.S. News:
  Can This Marriage Survive?
  by Ann Reilly Dowd
• Language Corner
  Elegant, Shmelegant
  by Evan Jenkins
• Web site spotlight
  Digital Congress
  by Sreenath Sreenivasan
• Sports & TV
  Does Money Tilt the Playing Field?
  When Covering Sports Becomes Marketing
  by Lawrence Strauss
• Journalists of the Future
  Making (Radio) Waves
  by Liza Featherstone

CJR World

• Russia
  Killing the Messenger:
  The last interview with a murdered publisher
  by Eve Conant
• Southeast Asia
  A New Kind of Cyberwar in Burma, Thailand, Indonesia
  by Peter Eng
• Iran
  Closing a Bold Paper:
  Journalists lose a political tug-of-war in Tehran
  by Maura Casey

Books

• Breaking News
  a novel by Robert MacNeil
  Reviewed by Bill Monroe
• Custodians of Conscience: Investigative Journalism and Public Virtue, by James S. Ettema and Theodore L. Glasser;
  Raising Hell: Straight Talk with Investigative Journalists
  edited by Ron Chepesiuk, Haney Howell and Edward Lee
  Reviewed by Raymond A. Schroth

Book Reports
Reviewed by James Boylan

• Assessing Public Journalism, edited by Edmund B. Lambeth, Philip E. Meyer, and Esther Thorson
• Cyber Rights, by Mike Godwin
• Harry S. Truman and the News Media, by Franklin D. Mitchell
• Forgive Us Our Press Passes: Selected Works by Daniel Schorr, edited by Matthew Passmore andChip Robertson

Excerpts

• The Boys of '98: Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, by Dale L. Walker
• Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil, by Ron Rosenbaum
• Here But Not Here: My Life with William Shawn and The New Yorker, by Lillian Ross

Departments

• Index:
  People and organizations mentioned in this issue
• Publisher's Note
• Letters
• Darts & Laurels
• In the Public Interest:
  The Death of Radio Reporting:
  Will TV Be Next?
  by Lawrence K. Grossman
• First Amendment Watch:
  Revenge of the 'Misled' Source
  by Ellen Alderman
• The Lower Case