What Art Is OnlineSupplement to What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand (Open Court, 2000)
by Louis Torres & Michelle Marder Kamhi
Promiscuous use of the term "arts" is nowhere more rampant than in the New York Times section entitled "The Arts"--most conspicuously on its front page. It is the practice of the Times to treat nonfiction books, television (including network news), documentary films, and miscellaneous news unrelated to the arts on a par with its coverage of the arts, both traditional and bogus. Listed below are representative articles and reviews that properly belonged in the international, national, business, sports, science, or other sections but appeared instead on the front page of "The Arts" section--often directly under the banner. Examples prior to 2001 are from the Appendix published in What Art Is. (Note: To access articles on the website of the New York Times you must first register.)
February 2011 - (No new entries have been added since November 2009, though examples abound.) Following each item, we indicate, in caps, alternative sections in which it might have been appropriately published (e. g., "SPORTS," "BUSINESS," and "ENTERTAINMENT"--the last, a new category we recommend that the Times adopt). See also Appendix D: "'Arts, Briefly' at the New York Times."
"New Light, Literal and Figurative, on Nazi Crimes," Edward Rothstein, October 23, 2009
Yet another article related to the Holocaust on the front page of the Times's arts section, this time on the new Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Research Center and Archives at Queensborough Community College in New York City. NATIONAL]
"An NBA Giant and How He Grew," Dwight Garner, September 8, 2009.
Review of Shooting Stars, by LeBron James and Buzz Bisenger. James, who plays basketball for the Cleveland Cavaliers, is considered by many to be the game's premiere super star. [SPORTS]
"Speech! Speech! But Could You Please Cut the Price?" Motoko Rich, November 26, 2008.
On the sky high fees commanded by Al Gore and other hot speakers around the country despite the depressed economic climate. [NATIONAL]
"Museum of History Unveils Its Future," Robin Pogrebin, August 12, 2008.
The title of this article reveals it all. An article about a history museum (the Museum of the City of New York) in a section devoted to the arts? [METRO]
"With Flemish Nationalism on the Rise, Belgium Teeters on the Edge," Michael Kimmelman, August 4, 2008.
Yet another article not about art or the arts by Kimmelman, the Times's chief art critic. Damien Thiéry is the mayor of Linkebeek, Belgium, 84% of whose citizens speak French, but the region's Flemish governmant declines to ratify the election that made him so. "We have two separate cultures in Belgium," he laments. [INTERNATIONAL]
"Calculating Economics of an Eye for an Eye," Patricia Cohen, July 29, 2008.
An economist turns his attention to vengence and tries to measure it in the real world. [SCIENCE] [BUSINESS] [INTERNATIONAL]
"Iraqi Files in U. S.: Plunder or Rescue?" by Hugh Eakin, July 1, 2008.
Discovered in Baghdad shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a trove of records regarding the loyalty of ordinary Iraquis to Saddam Hussein's regime in its final years now resides at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University for safe keeping. Some Iraquis and Americans regard the archive as plunder. [INTERNATIONAL]
"Fox News Finds Its Rivals Closing In," by Jacques Steinberg, June 28, 2008.
Fox News is still the most watched by older viewers, but CNN and MSNBC gain new ground among those between 25 and 54, the demographic group most coveted by advertisers. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"Bearing Witness to the Fallen and the Grieving," Books of the Times, Janet Maslin, June 5, 2008.
A review of Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives, by Jim Sheeler, who won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for the feature writing on which the book is based. A critical account of how the families of servicemen killed in Iraq (no female soldiers are included in the book) "are notified, the lost loved ones enshrined and their memories preserved and honored." "While not a muckraking book," Maslin writes, "it is still quietly horrifying. [Among other things] it bears witness to the ways in which casualties from Iraq are shielded from sight." [NATIONAL] [WASHINGTON]
"Exploring Fantasy Life and Finding a $4 Billion Franchise," Seth Schiesel, April 16, 2008.
The Sims, a video game franchise, has generated some $4 billion in sales, averaging $500 million every year for the last eight years. "[I]t has heralded the evolution of video games into mainstream entertainment." [BUSINESS: MEDIA] [ENTERTAINMENT]
"New Role for Oprah: Playing Fairy Godmother on Reality TV," Television Review, Alessandra Stanley, March 1, 2008.
"Oprah's Big Give" makes its debut. The hook?--"a fierce, cutthroat competition between people who are dedicated to doing good."[ENTERTAINMENT]
"No Laughs, No Thrills, and Villains All Too Real," Michael Kimmelman (chief art critic), February 27, 2008.
A new history "textbook"--a comic book about the Holocaust called The Search [more] is introduced into the curriculum of a school in Berlin. According to Kimmelman, the "book" shows, among other things, "how far comics have come as a cultural medium taken seriously" in Germany, as a new generation of teenagers is introduced to the topic. [INTERNATIONAL]
"Where the Capitalism Is (Always on Display)," Edward Rothstein, February 2, 2008.
Rothstein, who is in effect the Times's museum critic, writes mostly about museums having nothing to do with "the arts." Here he reports on the opening of the Museum of Finance, affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and located, appropriately enough, on Wall Street. [BUSINESS]
"Where Lincoln Sought Refuge in His Dark Hours," Edward Rothstein, Museum Review, February 14, 2008.
President Lincoln's 34-room Gothic Revival "cottage" at the Soldiers' Home in Washington, D. C., opens to the public. [WASHINGTON]
"Economists Dissect the 'Yuck' Factor," Patricia Cohen, January 31, 2008.
The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, sponsors a panel on the economics of repugnance [speaker biographies]--a topic more serious than it sounds. [BUSINESS]
"Boycotted Radio Host Remains Unbowed," Jacques Steinberg, December 17, 2007.
About controversial remarks made by Michael Savage, a talk-show host whose program reaches some eight million listeners a week on nearly 400 stations. [NATIONAL]
"Ready or Not, France Opens Museum on Immigration," Michael Kimmelman, October 17, 2007.
The National Center of the History of Immigration opens in Paris. (Kimmelman, the writer of this article--which is positioned above the fold, just under the banner--happens to be the chief art critic of the Times. We should note that the paper covers museums of all types on this page, from science and natural history to sex--on the last, see October 5, 2007, below.) [N.Y. - THE CITY] [ENTERTAINMENT]
"Language of Variety (and Oy, the Insults!)," Books of the Times, William Grimes, October 17, 2007.
A review of Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do, by Michael Wex. (We can think of a few Yiddish words to describe the editors of the Times who seem to think that "books" are an art form.) [SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW]
"A Century-Old Court Case that Still Resonates," Edward Rothstein, October 17, 2007.
Review of Alfred Dreyfus: The Fight for Justice, an exhibition at the Yeshiva University Museum examining the ongoing importance of the late-19th century Dreyfus Affair in France. [INTERNATIONAL] [N.Y. - THE CITY]
"What's Latex Got to Do With It?" Edward Rothstein, October 5, 2007.
The Museum of Sex, which calls itself "MoSex," was founded as "an institution that would document, study and display all aspects of human sexuality," according to Rothstein, who visited while an exhibition titled "Kink: Geography of the Erotic Imagination" was on view. (Evidently, the Times considered the museum's fifth anniversary worth covering on the front page of its arts section. Aristos, for its part, has no plans to review any of its exhibitions--sorry.) [ENTERTAINMENT]
"In Iraq, Couric Hones Her Hard-News Image," Alessandra Stanley, The TV Watch, September 5, 2007.
Spanning six columns atop the front page of The Arts section, yet another article about CBS news anchor Katie Couric. (The Times regularly covers "television" as one of the arts, on a par with music, theater, and other bona fide art forms.) Articles on Couric are also published in the paper's Business section, where they all belong. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"Words Unspoken Are Rendered on War's Faces," Holland Cotter, August 22, 2007.
A vivid color photograph, five columns wide and extending almost down to the fold, of Sgt. Joseph Mosner in full dress uniform, his face badly scarred as a result of a bomb explosion in Iraq is featured atop the page. Cotter is an art critic, and the article [see cautionary note that follows] is labeled an "Art Review, " though it is about "Nina Berman: Purple Hearts," an exhibition of photographs of severely injured veterans of the Iraq war. (Note: The "multimedia" slide show "Purple Hearts" accompanying the online article presents eleven of the heart-rending images from the exhibition.) [INTERNATIONAL]
"A CBS Reality Show Draws a Claim of Possible Child Abuse," Edward Wyatt, August 18, 2007.
About "Kid Nation," a new reality show featuring forty children ages 8 to 15 "who built a sort of idealistic society in a New Mexico ghost town, free of adults." [NATIONAL] [ENTERTAINMENT]
"ABC Says It Was Outbid by NBC for Paris Hilton Interview," Bill Carter, June 22, 2007.
On Paris's scheduled release from jail the following week. [ENTERTAINMENT]
"A Nation's Lost Holocaust History, Now on Display," Marjorie Backman, June 2, 2007.
Regarding the joint unveiling by the Jewish Community Vienna and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington of a recently discovered archive of records of the community during the Holocaust. (Once again the Times seems to regard this unspeakably tragic event not as history but as art.) [WASHINGTON] [INTERNATIONAL]
"Who Killed Kennedy? One Man's Answer," Edward Wyatt, May 14, 2007.
Reporting on the publication of a 1,612-page book on the Kennedy assassination by a noted prosecutor who spent twenty years researching the subject. [NATIONAL] [WASHINGTON]
"An Ex-C.I.A. Chief on Iraq and the Slam Dunk that Wasn't," Michiko Kakutani, April 28, 2007.
Review of At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the C.I.A., by George Tenet, with Bill Harlow. (The Times regularly covers nonfiction "books" on the front page of The Arts section.) [WASHINGTON]
"Categorized, Compared and Displayed: Social Ills as Museum Specimens," Edward Rothstein, January 22, 2007.
A review by the Times's "cultural critic-at-large" of Classified Documents: The Social Museum of Harvard University, 1903-1931--an exhibition of photographs at the university's Arthur M. Sackler Museum that were taken in "institutions . . . developed in response to human misery and illllness." [NATIONAL] [HEALTH]
"Obama's New Book Is Surprise Best Seller" (by Julie Bosman), November 9, 2006.
Yet another book on politics--The Audacity of Hope--is covered on the front page of "The Arts," directly under the banner. [WASHINGTON]
"What Torture Is and Isn't: A Hard-Liner's Argument" (by Michiko Kakutani), October 31, 2006.
A review of War by Other Means: An Insider's Account of the War on Terror by the Times's chief book reviewer and occasional political pundit, who comments: "Just as the administration cherry-picked intelligence to make the case that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, so [John Yoo] cherry-picks information in this volume." [WASHINGTON]
"As Couric Stays in Third, CBS Stresses the Positive" (by Jacques Steinberg and Bill Carter), October 18, 2006.
Yet more Couriciana (accompanied by a small color head shot) directly under "The Arts"--as if Katie Couric were a playwright, actress, or opera diva. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"The Greening of Downtown Atlanta" (by Shaila Dewan), September 6, 2006.
An ambitious urban renewal plan known as the Beltline Project seeks to transform a blighted railroad right-of-way. [NATIONAL]
"A Cornered Pit Bull: Bounty Hunter Becomes Prey" (by David Carr), September 18, 2006.
Duane Chapman (aka "Dog"), the star of A&E's "Dog the Bounty Hunter," is arrested for having left Mexico while free on bail (it's a long story). Chapman, readers learn, "has had 4 wives, 12 children, 18 robbery convictions, a conviction for being an accessory to murder, and, according to his math, more than 7,000 fuigitives brought to justice." [ENTERTAINMENT]
"Come On In: It's the Big Chill of '36: Photo Show Celebrates Depression-Era Pools that Cool New York [#133; see link to "Slide Show: Pools for the People"] (by Kathryn Shattuck), August 14, 2006.
About "Splash! A 70th Anniversary Celebration of New York City's W.P.A. Pools," an exhibition of photographs from the Parks Department Photo Archives at the Arsenal in Central Park. [METRO]
"Reflections on War, Detention and Rights" (by Adam Liptak), July 13, 2006.
Review of Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power and Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror, two anti-Bush administration books. [WASHINGTON]
"Personality, Ideology and Bush's Terror Wars" (by Michiko Kakutani), June 20, 2006.
Review of The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11, a "riveting" book, whose author "appears" to have had access to the former C.I.A. director George Tenet and others at the C.I.A., the F.B.I., and the State, Defense, and Treasury Departments. According to Kakutani: "This book augments the portrait of Mr. Bush as an incurious and curiously uninformed executive that Mr. Suskind earlier set out in The Price of Loyalty and in a series of magazine articles on the president and key aides." [WASHINGTON]
"How Much Is That Washer-Dryer? Old and Young, 'Black, White and Brown,' Fans Line Up for Chance to 'Come on Down'" (by Jennifer Steinhauer), June 13, 2006.
Some of us are old enough to remember when "The Price Is Right" began its run on TV nearly 35 years ago. Today its fans range from mid-western college students to octogenarians who have watched the daytime game show from the start. [ENTERTAINMENT]
"America, the Great Engine of War" (by William Grimes), June 7, 2006.
Review of House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power. [WASHINGTON]
"A Sentimental Send-Off, and a Bit of Sendup" (by Alessandra Stanley), June 1, 2006.
Of the numerous oversize color photographs unrelated to the arts that the Times has printed directly under the banner "The Arts," few have been as ludicrous as the one accompanying this article--showing co-host Matt Lauer gazing moonily at Katie Couric as he bids her farewell on the set of NBC's Today show. (Note the link, "More Articles in Arts," to the right of the article.) As the paper has reported ad nauseam, Couric will soon begin a new career as anchor of the CBS Evening News. What online readers don't know is that the original photograph showed Lauer's right arm reaching over his crossed right leg, his hand gently resting on Couric's skirt-covered knee. "Crop that!" an editor may have ordered. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"A Scientist's Book on Katrina Draws Fire at L.S.U." (by John Schwartz), May 30, 2006.
Ivor van Heerden is deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center. Fearing a loss of federal funding, L.S.U. administrators do not want him to talk directly to the press about his book, The Storm: What Went Wrong During Hurricane Katrina. [NATIONAL] [SCIENCE]
"Warning of Calamities with a Scholarly Tone" (by A. O. Scott), May 24, 2006.
Review of An Inconvenient Truth, a new documentary film on the dangers of climate change, starring former Vice President Al Gore. [SCIENCE]
"All the President's Books" (by Michiko Kakutani), May 11, 2006.
Kakutani's article surveys the "floodlet" of books published in recent months about President Bush, his administration, and the war in Iraq. A large cartoon above the headline in the print edition depicts a floating White House breaking into the space atop the front page and abutting "The Arts" banner. [WASHINGTON] [INTERNATIONAL]
"A Murder Victim's Child Disputes Junger Book" (by Motoko Rich), April 8, 2006.
The daughter of a woman murdered in 1963 disputes the account offered by best-selling author Sebastian Junger in his new book, A Death in Belmont, which questions whether the right man was convicted of the crime. [NATIONAL]
"Back When Cuisine Was French for Scary" (by William Grimes), April 8, 2006.
Review of My Life in France, by Julia Child, the principal author of the classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking. (Child's memoir was written with Alex Prud'homme.) [DINING & WINE]
"Muslim Woman's Critique of Custom" (by Joseph Berger), 25 March 2006.
Review of the memoir My War at Home, by an Afghan woman who grew up in Queens, New York. Though her arranged marriage failed, she supports the custom. [NATIONAL] [NEW YORK AND REGION] [RELIGION]
"America's Game, American Scandal" (by Michiko Kakutani), 23 March 2006 and "Analyzing Baseball's Dream Dimension" (by Dan Barry), 22 March.
Reviews, respectively, of Games of Shadows: Barry Bonds, Balco and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports and Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe. [SPORTS]
"Writing a Babe's Life Using Many Old Hands" (by Richard Sandomir), 9 March 2006.
Review of The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth. [SPORTS]
"Before There Were Bagels, New York Had the Oyster" (by William Grimes), 1 March 2006.
Review of The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell [DINING & WINE]
"(Furor over PBS Plan for Debate" (by Randal C. Archibold), 25 February 2006.
Armenian-Americans protest PBS's plan to air--following the documentary (The Armenian Genocide--a debate including two people who deny that a massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks ever took place. (See also "Arts, Briefly," 1 March 2006.) [NATIONAL]
"There's No Place Like Home. Who Knew?" (by Virginia Heffernan), 20 February 2006.
In ABC's reality show, Wife Swap, two married women with children change places for ten days. You get the idea. [ENTERTAINMENT]
"Chatty Host Who Makes Archeology Glamorous" (by Felicia R. Lee), 6 February 2006.
About the History Channel's Digging for the Truth and its "chatty, photogenic host," Josh Bernstein. [SCIENCE] [ENTERTAINMENT]
"A Liberal Beacon Burns Out: After Eight Decades Full of Famous Bylines, The New Leader Folds" (by Charles McGrath), 23 January 2006.
Founded in 1924 as an arm of the American Socialist Party, The New Leader ended its long run with a circulation of about 12,000, down from its high level of roughly 30,000 in the 1960's. [BUSINESS: MEDIA] [NATIONAL]
"Refining the Tests that Confer Citizenship" (by Edward Rothstein), 23 January 2006.
A report on the redesign of the test for American citizenship, now planned to take effect around 2007 or 2008. Similar tests in other countries, including Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands are examined by way of comparison [NATIONAL]
"Holocaust Children's Objects: Ordinary but Powerful" (by Edward Rothstein), 24 January 2006.
Rothstein's review of "Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust" [scroll down], at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, continues the Times's practice of covering the Holocaust on the front page of its "Arts" section--in this instance next to an opera review. [NATIONAL]
"Next Book for Oprah Is 'Night' by Wiesel" (by Edward Wyatt), 17 January 2006.
About Oprah Winfrey's announcement that Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel's "autobiographical account of life in the Nazi death camps" is her next book club selection. This is not the first time that the Times has included an article related to the Holocaust on the front page of the Arts section (search for "holocaust" to find other instances, below). [BUSINESS] [NATIONAL]
"Oases Springing Up Here for Ancient Game of Go" (by Blake Eskin), 14 January 2006.
The ancient Asian board game of Go is flourishing across America, in cities such as Edison and Fort Lee (in New Jersey) and New York City. [NATIONAL] [NEW YORK AND REGION] [SPORTS]
"A View from the Center of the Iraq Maelstrom" (by Michiko Kakutani), 12 January 2006.
About My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, a memoir by L. Paul Bremer III, who for fourteen months was America's presidential envoy in Iraq. [NATIONAL] [WASHINGTON]
"Earnestly Pushing the Gentle Art of Nastiness Behind a Radio Microphone" (by Virginia Heffernan), 12 January 2006.
Yet another article on Howard Stern's move to satellite radio, this one on the contrast between his show and that of David Lee Roth, whose new morning radio gig has replaced Stern's on several stations. [ENTERTAINMENT]
"Best-Selling Memoir Draws Scrutiny" (by Edward Wyatt), 10 January 2006.
On James Frey's best-selling memoir, A Million Little Pieces, about which "substantial questions" have been raised concerning "the truth of numerous incidents" he reports therein. A subsequent article on the subject by Wyatt ("When a Memoir and Facts Collide," January 11) was also published in the "Arts" section of the Times, but a third ("Writer Says He Made Up Some Details," January 12) ran in the National pages, where it belonged. [NATIONAL]
"Terrorism and Democracy: Two Documentaries Address the Peruvian Example" (by Alan Riding), 9 January 2006.
Two documentaries, State of Fear: The Truth About Terrorism and The Fall of Fujimori, are said to offer indirect lessons to America on the price that can be paid in crushing terrorism. [INTERNATIONAL]
"If You Must Have a War, Make Sure It's a Cold One" (by William Grimes), 28 December 2005.
A review of The Cold War: A New History, in which historian John Lewis Gaddis addresses such questions as "Why did the standoff [between the Western powers and the Soviet Union] end so abruptly?" [NATIONAL] [INTERNATIONAL]
"A Game Show for the Probability Theorist in Us All" (Virginia Heffernan), 24 December 2005.
About NBC's "mind-bending nightly game show, 'Deal or No Deal.'" [ENTERTAINMENT]
"Miss America as She Used to Be" (by Jacques Steinberg), 22 December 2005.
The Miss America pageant "returns to basics" in its new incarnation this year in Las Vegas. [NATIONAL] [ENTERTAINMENT] [STYLE]
"What to Expect When Expecting Heaven" [not to be missed] (by Virginia Heffernan), 20 December 2005.
Concerning the "semi-serious" effort of television personality Barbara Walters to survey the "eschatological beliefs" of some of the world's leading religions. (We wonder: did Walters actually use the word "eschatological" in "Heaven--Where Is It? How Do We Get There?" as the program was called?) [RELIGION AND CHURCHES (more)]
"Knowing a Man (Ben Franklin), but Not Melons" (by Edward Rothstein), 19 December 2005.
A review of two exhibitions: Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and Benjamin Franklin: In His Own Words, at the Library of Congress. [NATIONAL]
"Amid Rumors, [NBC's] Today Marks 10 Years as Weekly Ratings King" (by Bill Carter), 8 December 2005.
The side heading accompanying this article asks, "Katie Couric's future [rumor has it that CBS has offered her "$20 million a year for seven years" to succeed Dan Rather as its chief anchor] gets the buzz, but how about that streak?" Ratings = $'s, as everyone knows--which, after all, is what Network news programming is all about. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"ABC News Anchor Choices Reflect a Strategist's Deft Touch" (by television critic Bill Carter and national education correspondent Jacques Steinberg--not surprisingly, neither is an arts critic), 6 December 2005.
About the long-awaited decision of David Westin, the president of ABC News, on who would succeed the late Peter Jennings as the anchor of World News Tonight (we omit the details). [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
[Correction! We should not have suggested that this article "ought properly to have been published" in the BUSINESS/MEDIA section--it was published in the BUSINESS/MEDIA section (or "Business Day" [note "Business/Financial Desk" under the byline])! It's just that we have gotten so accustomed to seeing television news reported on the front page of "The Arts" section, that we naturally assumed this was yet another example. As a nostra culpa, we decided to leave the item right where it is, with this explanation and apology. (At the same time, we call your attention to the item immediately above--"Amid Rumors, [NBC's] Today Marks 10 Years as Weekly Ratings King"--which is also about network anchor news, and was published in "The Arts" section.)]
"Proposed Legislation May Affect Future of Public-Access Television" (by Felicia R. Lee), 8 November 2005.
On the concern of public-access advocates that municipalities may lose their ability to "negotiate franchise agreements for cable television. The headline for this somewhat arcane article on such issues as the "public interest in . . . [Federal] media policy" stretched for six columns directly under "The Arts" banner. [NATIONAL] [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"A World Series Record Fox Isn't Happy About" (by Bill Carter), 29 October 2005.
About the effect of the lowest-rated World Series on record on the Fox's chances of repeating its top ranking in television's most sought-after competition--popularity among viewers between the ages of 18 and 39. [BUSINESS: MEDIA & ADVERTISING] [SPORTS]
"Got Wit? Make It Visual in Ads Online" (by Sarah Boxer), 3 October 2005.
All you wanted to know about an interactive exhibition at the Science, Industry, and Business Library of the New York Public Library: "Opt in to Advertising's New Age"--co-presented by the Online Publisher's Association and consisting of print ads, radio ads, television ads, and online ads. [BUSINESS: MEDIA & ADVERTISING]
"Dealing with the Nightmare of Containing Multitudes" (by Bruce Webber), 1 October 2005.
About Robert B. Oxnam and his new memoir, A Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder. [HEALTH: MENTAL HEALTH & BEHAVIOR]
"Forget Star Chef; Think Professional Eater" (by David Carr), 17 September 2005.
A profile of Anthony Bourdain, "a chef turned writer turned television host" who has "a large, delicate and elastic mouth, which is a handy thing given that it is his primary instrument." [DINING & WINE: FOOD]
"Watching Titans Battle on Screen and Keys" (by Seth Schiesel), 12 September 2005.
Regarding the United States finals of the World Cyber Games video game tournament in Midtown Manhattan and the attempts of the "elite competitors" to "conquer one of the pinnacles of their sport." [SPORTS]
"CBS Moving to Find a New Look for News" (by Jacques Steinberg), 18 August 2005.
About a project of the news division of CBS to "record and edit prototypes of how that broadcast could soon look." [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"A Sharing of Chaos: 2 Soldiers, Same Iraq" (by Janet Maslin), 18 August 2005.
A review of two recent Iraq-war memoirs by American soldiers: The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell : An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq and Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U. S. Army. [NATIONAL]
"An Aura of Mystery Still Hovers Around the Man Who Is Deep Throat" (by Michiko Kakutani), 6 July 2005.
Review of The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat. [WASHINGTON / NATIONAL]
"The Taint Baseball Couldn't Wish Away" (by Michiko Kakutani), 5 July 2005.
Review of Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball. [SPORTS]
"An Enigma on a Bike, in a Race for Control" (by Bruce Weber), 2 July 2005.
Review of Lance Armstrong's War: One Man's Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France, a biography of the great competitive cyclist. An image of the book breaks into the space usually reserved for "The Arts" banner and the date. [SPORTS]
"In Chess, Masters Again Fight Machines" (by Dylan Loeb McLain), 21 June 2005.
A survey of scheduled matches pitting contemporary grandmasters against computers. [SPORTS]
"Official Had Aide Send Data to White House" (by Stephen Labaton), 18 June 2005.
About the controversy surrounding Corporation for Public Broadcasting Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson over the creation of an ombudsman's office there. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"Taking on a Giant (Whistleblowers Welcome)" (by David M. Halbfinger), 1 June 2005.
A preview of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, the next "documentary-cum-indictment" by Robert Greenwald (producer and director of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism) spread across six-columns atop the front "Arts" page, replete with a color photograph of the filmmaker. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"Malcolm X the Thinker, Brought into Focus" (by Felicia R. Lee), 14 May 2005.
This article about Malcolm X: A Search for Truth, an exhibition of the personal and professional papers and other artifacts of the onetime Nation of Islam leader, features (directly under "The Arts" banner) a 6 x 9-inch black & white photograph of him at prayer. [NATIONAL]
"'Today' Seeks Yesterday's Glory" (by Alessandra Stanley), 25 April 2005.
On the "strained chemistry" between Katie Couric and her Today show colleagues on NBC. A smiling Couric is pictured in full color at the top of the page. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"The Media and the Vatican: Opposing Goals" (by David Carr), 23 April 2005.
An analysis of news coverage on Pope Benedict XVI, contrasting the Vatican's doctrinal assumption of papal infallibility with the media's job of "discerning and describing every public figure's feet of clay." [INTERNATIONAL: EUROPE] [RELIGION AND CHURCHES]
"A Death in the Ring, but Writers Wax On" (by Alessandra Stanley), 20 April 2005.
A review of "Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story." According to Stanley, this television documentary about the boxer who killed an opponent in the ring in 1962 suggests "just how much boxing is a sport of the poor set up to entertain writers." The same issue of the Times carried a full-page ad for the documentary featuring a black & white illustration of a seated boxer, head slumped down on hands. [SPORTS]
"The Scientist Is Gone, but Not His Book Tour" (by Edward Wyatt), 7 April 2005.
The great physicist died in 1988, but his publisher, Basic Books, is promoting Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman with an "authorless book tour" --a series of panel discussions with some Nobel Prize winners and other scientists who were close to Feynman. [SCIENCE]
"Documentary Criticized for Re-enacted Scenes" (by Irene Lacher), 29 March 2005.
About the 2005 Oscar-winning documentary short Mighty Times: The Children's March [more], and the decision by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to initiate a review of its eligibility rules for documentaries. The film tells the story of a group of Birmingham, Alabama, children who participated, at great peril, in a march protesting segregation in 1963. [NATIONAL]
"Gone Is the Freakishness, but Elephants Carry On" (by Margo Jefferson), 29 March 2005.
A review of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus at Madison Square Garden. [ENTERTAINMENT]
"As an Anchor Leaves, a Reporter Re-emerges" (by Jacques Steinberg), 8 March 2005.
The caption accompanying the color photograph beneath the headline (itself directly under "The Arts" banner reads: "Dan Rather on the set of 'CBS Evening News.' . . ." News, art? Dan Rather, an artist? Only at the Times. (Ted Koppel, of ABC, was similarly honored in the same space in "The Arts" section the following month--"Koppel Leaving ABC News in December," April 1, 2005.) [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"A Mormon Daughter's Book Stirs a Storm" (by Edward Wyatt), 24 February 2005.
On the controversial Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith, in which the daughter of an emeritus professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University accuses her father of sexually abusing her as a child. [RELIGION AND CHURCHES] [HEALTH: MENTAL HEALTH & BEHAVIOR]
"Warhammer: Painted Armies Clash in Tabletop Battles" (by Julie Salamon), 15 February 2005.
About a "Warhammer" tournament held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. For those not in the know, Warhammer is a "complex and arcane" game especially popular with men and boys, and "usually played with three-dimensional figures by opponents who face each other across a real-life table" (there are also two video-game versions). The armies consist of "metal and plastic models, measured in millimeters," and the soldiers are often "nasty-looking creatures [who operate] arsenals of weapons." You get the picture, sort of. [SPORTS]
"Following a Paper Trail to the Roots of Torture" (by Michiko Kakutani), 8 February 2005.
A review of The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. [NATIONAL]
"Hesitantly, Holocaust Survivors Revisit Past" (by Lizette Alvarez), 18 January 2005.
An account of survivors of the Lodz ghetto who gathered in London to examine photographs documenting the Nazi repression, in the hope of discovering familiar faces and locations. [INTERNATIONAL: EUROPE]
"The Tainted Science of Nazi Atrocities" (by Edward Rothstein), 8 Janauary 2005.
Illustrated review of Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race, an exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D. C. A particularly offensive feature of this review is its prominent centering on the page and the inclusion of two photographs (not in the online version)--one of a chart "detailing the Nazi belief that parents of different races create inferior offspring," the other a chilling photograph of a doctor holding a skin-color chart up to the faces of a pair of adolescent twin boys. To the Times, apparently just another feature in its continuing coverage of "The Arts." [NATIONAL] [INTERNATIONAL: EUROPE]
"Hold That Thought: Haste Isn't All Waste" (by Janet Maslin), 6 January 2005.
Review of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. [ENTERTAINMENT] [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"Finding Homosexual Threads in Lincoln's Legend" (by Dinitia Smith), 16 December 2004.
Review of The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln. [NATIONAL] [HEALTH: MENTAL HEALTH & BEHAVIOR]
"An Outpouring of Pain, Channeled Via Politics" (by Alessandra Stanley), 21 October 2004.
Review of Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, the controversial documentary video about Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate. [NATIONAL] [WASHINGTON]
"A Bush Biography for the Age of Innuendo" (by Michiko Kakutani), 14 September 2004.
"Books of the Times"--review of "Kitty Kelley's catty new book about the Bush family." [ENTERTAINMENT] [NATIONAL]
"All Things Considered, NPR's Growing Clout Alarms Member Stations" (by Lynette Clemetson), 30 August 2004.
About the concern of public radio stations that National Public Radio, the recipient of a bequest of over $236 million, will attempt to attract generous local donors and move top-rated shows to satellite radio. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"Food Trivia Perilously Close to Usefulness" (by William Grimes), 8 September 2004.
"Books of the Times"--review of Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany. [DINING & WINE]
"Slavery's Harsh History Is Portrayed in Promised Land" (by Edward Rothstein), 18 August 2004.
Review of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, a new history museum "devoted to slavery and resistance." [NATIONAL]
"'Three Kings' Director [David O. Russell] Plans Documentary of Iraq War," (by Sharon Waxman), 16 August 2004.
Interviews with Iraqi refugees who acted as extras in Russell's 1999 movie "Three Kings," which was set during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. [INTERNATIONAL: MIDDLE EAST]
"Shadows Cast by a Loving Father and the Holocaust: History Illuminates Snapshots of Anne Frank and Her Family" (by Roberta Smith), 12 July 2004.
On "Anne Frank: A Private Photo Album" [more] an exhibition of 69 photographs taken between 1927 and 1942, in Frankfurt and Amsterdam, by Otto Frank, Anne's father. [NEW YORK AND REGION]
"Nonfiction Films Turn a Corner" (by Sharon Waxman), 4 July 2004.
About top grossing documentaries, including "Fahrenheit 9/11" (#1, 2004); "Winged Migration" (#3, 2003); and "Hoop Dreams" (#5, 1994). [NATIONAL; SCIENCE; SPORTS]]
"My Name Is the Big Book. My Future Is Open." (by Felicia R. Lee), 14 June 2004.
On the master annotated draft of Alcoholics Anonymous (1938), by William Wilson, for sale at Sotheby's. [BUSINESS] [HEALTH: MENTAL HEALTH & BEHAVIOR]
"And You Thought It Was Just a Ballgame" (by Pete Hamill), 9 June 2004.
"Books of the Times" review of Michael Mandelbaum's The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football and Basketball and What They See When They Do. [SPORTS]
"Salvaging Jewish Heritage in China, Block by Block" (by Sheridan Prasso), 31 May 2004.
The old Jewish ghetto in Shanghai undergoes urban renewal. [INTERNATIONAL: ASIA PACIFIC]
"Moore Film Is Held Up by Questions about Rights" (by Sharon Waxman), 25 May 2004.
To put this example in visual context: The lead article on this date, about the recent controversial cleaning of Michelangelo's David, occupied the right-hand column, accompanied by a color photograph of the sculpture, measuring three columns in width in the center of the page, extending below the fold.
Sharing the space directly under "The Arts" banner was the above-captioned article--about the "tense relations between Disney and Miramax . . . complicating a deal to find a distributor for Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary movie Fahrenheit 9/11." Positioned in the left-hand column, alongside the photograph of the David, the article included a small color photograph of Moore and Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. Evidently, the editors of the Times know very well that such a piece belongs on the business (or political pages) of the paper. How else to explain the fact that a few days later, a follow-up article--"Miramax Principals Acquire Film that Disney Shunned," by the same writer, Sharon Waxman (not an arts critic)--was published where it belonged: not in "The Arts" section, but in "Business Day," on the same page with articles entitled "A Different Era for the Alternative Energy Business" and "OPEC Meeting Will Consider Big Rise in Production Quotas." [BUSINESS] [NATIONAL]
In an op-ed piece for the New York Sun (May 18, 2004) on an entirely different subject, A. M. Rosenthal, the former Executive Editor and columnist of the Times, offered this cautionary observation: "Readers should realize that the positioning of [a] story . . . tell[s] you what the editors . . . think about its importance. The editors and other executives who make these decisions should live with their judgments, and will." In their coverage of "the arts," the editors and other executives of the Times would do well to heed Rosenthal's admonition.
"'60 Minutes' Hailing Its Creator" (by Alessandra Stanley), 18 May 2004.
About the farewell tribute to Don Hewitt (pictured in an archival photo with Morley Safer, Dan Rather, and Mike Wallace), the creator and executive producer of the CBS television news magazine that premiered in 1968. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"Deliberate Steps that Led Kerry in from the Outside" (by Michiko Kakutani), 4 May 2004.
Review of John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography, "by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best." [NATIONAL] [WASHINGTON]
"A Heady Mix of Pride and Prejudice Led to War" (by Michiko Kakutani), 19 April 2004.
Review of Plan of Attack, by Bob Woodward--which Kakutani characterizes as "us[ing] myriad details to chart the Bush administration's march to war against Iraq." [NATIONAL] [WASHINGTON]
"Victims Say Film on Molesters Distorts Facts" (by Sharon Waxman), 24 February 2004.
On "Capturing the Friedmans," the controversial Oscar-nominated documentary that "raises questions about the guilt of a father and son convicted of child molestation." [NATIONAL]
"A Playboy Calls on His Memories" (by Randy Kennedy), 11 December 2003.
The headline, directly under "The Arts" banner, sits atop a large color photograph of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner posing in his hotel bed, wearing his signature silk pajamas and smoking jacket, holding a telephone in one hand and his "little black book" in the other. Below that are images of two black address books, two cartoons, and a photograph of Anita Ekberg. The news event? An auction at Christie's of "more than 300 manuscripts, letters, photographs, cartoons, pieces of art and other memorabilia . . . from the archives of Playboy magazine." No work of art is pictured or even mentioned in the article, and none of the five highlights of "fine art" we saw pictured on the Christie's website--including Pop "artist" Tom Wesselmann's Study for Great American Nude #87 (1966), an idea of which can be gained from his Great American Nude #51--qualifies as such by any objective standard. As the Times's editors ought to know well, news of such a sale belongs elsewhere in the paper. Is this responsible journalism, or a shameless publicity fluff-piece on behalf of an influential auction house? [BUSINESS]
"Knockout of a Book for the Greatest: A Tribute to Ali Weighs 75 Pounds" (by Richard Sandomir), 10 December 2003.
This article is accompanied by a very large color photograph--positioned directly under the banner "The Arts"--the caption for which reads: "Muhammad Ali (standing) and Cleveland Williams (not) on Nov. 14, 1966, from 80 feet above the ring in the Houston Astrodome." [SPORTS]
"Hitler's Further Thoughts, in a New English Translation" (by Dinitia Smith), 17 June 2003.
On Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf. [INTERNATIONAL: EUROPE]
"Substance Over Sex in Kennedy Biography" (by David J. Garrow), 28 May 2003.
Yet another biography of a political figure--An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. [NATIONAL]
"Escapism in Sexy, Streamlined Fun: Art Deco's Exuberance Is on Display at the Victoria and Albert" (by Alan Riding), 10 April 2003.
About an exhibition of some three hundred objects, among them clothing and "domestic products like radios, vacuum cleaners, meat slicers, and phonographs." Above the headline of the review, and directly under the section heading The Arts, is a photo of a sleek automobile--a "1935 Auburn 851 Boattail Speedster"--while the article is framed at the left by a photo of a "mid-1930's evening gown by the British designer Charles James." [INTERNATIONAL: EUROPE]
"Food, Jokes and Few Issues on the Bush 2000 Campaign" ("Television Review" by Caryn James), 5 November 2002.
On the HBO program "Journeys with George," a documentary of life on the 1999 campaign trail with George W. Bush. [NATIONAL]
"Battling Failing Health, in Her Own Words" (by Dinitia Smith), 5 August 2002.
This inspiring account of Laura Rothenberg's two-year recorded diary of her battle with cystic fibrosis properly belonged in the Times's health pages, where countless more interested readers would have seen it. (Sadly, Ms. Rothenberg died on March 20, 2003, at the age of twenty-two.) [HEALTH] [SCIENCE]
"A Man for the Men Who Stay Up Late" (by Jesse McKinley), 27 May 2002.
About Jimmy Kimmel, co-host of "The Man Show" on Comedy Central, as the host of a new late-night talk show on ABC. [BUSINESS: MEDIA] [ENTERTAINMENT]
"Family Works to Free a Kidnapped Colombian Author and Senator" (by Dinitia Smith), 11 March 2002.
On Ingrid Betancourt--the Colombian presidential candidate and author of the best-selling memoir Until Death Do Us Part: My Struggle to Reclaim Columbia--who was kidnapped by leftist guerrillas on 23 February. [INTERNATIONAL: AMERICAS]
"From Ordinary Faces, Extraordinary Ads" (by Bernard Weinraub), 21 February 2002.
About Howard Zieff, who photographed a famous series of advertisements--"You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's"--which featured an American Indian, a Chinese man, and a black child smiling and holding a sandwich on Levy's rye bread with a small bite taken out. [BUSINESS: MEDIA & ADVERTISING]
"Nervous Hunger for Torture Games and Gross-Out Stunts" (by Caryn James), 4 February 2002.
On the new TV game show Fear Factor, in which contestants perform such stunts as diving into a vat filled with rancid water and dead squid. [ENTERTAINMENT] [HEALTH: MENTAL HEALTH & BEHAVIOR]
"Battering Begins. The Police Come. It All Starts Again" (by Elvis Mitchell), 30 January 2002.
Review of a documentary film on domestic violence. [NATIONAL] [HEALTH: MENTAL HEALTH & BEHAVIOR]
"The Hard Road Back for Paula Poundstone: Comic Tries to Save Her Career after Arrest" (by Bernard Weinraub), 22 January 2002.
An account of events in the life of the popular comedian following her being charged with child abuse. [ENTERTAINMENT] [[HEALTH: MENTAL HEALTH & BEHAVIOR]
"Bin Laden on Trial: Television Anticipates" (by Julie Salamon), 29 November 2001.
A survey of recent and planned television coverage of current events (including the September 11 attacks on America and the war in Afghanistan) on Court TV, A&E, Biography, the Discovery Channel, and other programs. [INTERNATIONAL: MIDDLE EAST]
"Books of the Times" (reviews of new nonfiction books, 6-15 November 2001)
The Times continues its practice of placing reviews of books having nothing whatever to do with art or artists on the front page of "The Arts" section. During this ten-day period, books on the global celebrity of Osama bin Laden (6 November) [INTERNATIONAL: MIDDLE EAST] , on former president Lyndon Johnson's secret White House tapes (13 November) [NATIONAL], and on the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (15 November) [NATIONAL] were reviewed directly under the banner "The Arts."
"A Pictorial Guide to Hell" (by John Kifner), 24 January 2001.
An article in which a photographer recalls the circumstances of pictures shot by him during the Balkan wars of 1992. One stark image--reproduced in a 6 x 8 ½" illustration, positioned directly under the banner "The Arts" just above the article's headline--shows a Serb militiaman kicking a dying Muslim woman (one of three figures sprawled on the sidewalk) while two other soldiers stand by. [INTERNATIONAL: EUROPE]
"Hard Times for TV Documentaries: Lack of Money Limits Smaller Serious Films" (by Edward Wong), 4 January 2001.
Among the films cited, in relation to past controversial public funding, is a 1991 documentary--about "gay black men, with stylized love scenes"--that received a $5,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and was shown on PBS. [NATIONAL]
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"An Ugly Legacy Lives On, Its Glare Unsoftened by Age" (by Roberta Smith), 16 January 2000.
About an exhibition of professionally shot photographic postcards depicting lynchings (mostly of black men and women, and mostly in the South) which took place between 1883 and 1960. Dramatically illustrated by an enlarged sepia-toned photograph, from 1920, of a 16-year-old boy hanging from a tree branch above a crowd of whites, including children, facing the camera. [NATIONAL]
"Essay Winner from Moscow Gauges Time in Definitions" (by Alan Riding), 13 December 1999.
About an international essay contest on a millennial theme about the past and future. [INTERNATIONAL: EUROPE]
"My Dear Sir: Letters by a Reluctant Commander" (by Adam Nagourney), 1 December 1999.
About an exhibition of letters, documents, maps, and artifacts commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's death. [NATIONAL]
"Two Cities, Two Leaps of Faith: Columbus [Ohio] Pins Its Dreams on a Jazzy New Science Center" (by Bruce Weber); and "In Kansas City, Few Trains, but New Life in the Station" (by Shirley Christian), 15 November 1999.
An account of two efforts to revitalize urban areas--in the first, a theme park and interactive laboratory intended to instill a love of science and learning in . . . children of all ages; in the second, a train station transformed as a public space, including restaurants, shops, offices, and a science-recreation facility. [NATIONAL]
"Game Shows, Greedy and Otherwise" (by Caryn James), 18 November 1999.
Review of two new prime-time television shows, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Greed." [ENTERTAINMENT] [NATIONAL]
"Seeing Anew in a World of Light and Darkness" (by Dinitia Smith), 1 November 1999.
Article about Twilight: Losing Sight, Gaining Insight, the autobiography of Henry Grunwald, former editor-in-chief of Time, Inc., and his experience of going blind. [BUSINESS] [HEALTH]
"Collecting Facts for Fun and Profit: A Publisher Keeps a Keen Eye on the Antiques World" (by Ralph Blumenthal), 14 September 1999.
A profile of a family-run newspaper, The Maine Antique Digest. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"Vying for Guys' Remote-Control Finger" (by Anita Gates), 25 January 1999.
Discussion of some of the most popular television shows among 18-to-34-year-old males. [BUSINESS: MEDIA]
"Revisiting a Watershed Era: Photo Show Reflects Turmoil of the Civil Rights Battle" (by Felicia R. Lee), 18 January 1999.
About a historical exhibition, "America and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968," at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. [NATIONAL]
"When He Shot, He Soared: Jordan the Man and Athlete" (by Michiko Kakutani), 19 January 1999.
Review of a book about the former Chicago Bulls basketball star Michael Jordan. [SPORTS]
"13 Years and Counting for a Reagan Biography: A High-Profile Project Meets Another Delay" (by Doreen Carvajal), 28 September 1998.
About writing of the biography Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan. [NATIONAL]
"A Holocaust Memoir in Doubt: Swiss Records Contradict a Book on Childhood Horror" (by Doreen Carvajal), 3 November 1998.
Controversy over a memoir of a Jewish childhood in the concentration camps of Poland. [INTERNATIONAL: EUROPE]
"Once a Fear Beyond Fear Itself" (by Stephen Holden), 4 March 1998.
A review of the documentary film A Paralyzing Fear: The Story of Polio in America. [HEALTH]
"He Knows If You've Been Good, for Goodness' Sake" (by Alex Witchel), 11 December 1997.
Interview with a "mentalist" who performs such feats as telling audience members "where they spent their last vacation, and which part they liked best." [ENTERTAINMENT]
"A Survivor's Legacy, to the Highest Bidder: Documenting a Secret Life Amid the Nazis" (by Ralph Blumenthal), 3 December 1997.
About the auction by Sotheby's (London) of "hundreds of pages of German letters, photographs and Nazi records" belonging to a survivor of the holocaust. [INTERNATIONAL: EUROPE]
"Cursive, Foiled Again: Mourning the Demise of Penmanship" (by Edward Rothstein), 7 April 1997.
Historical account of the Palmer method of teaching penmanship to children. [EDUCATION]
"In the Trenches: How Civil Rights Were Won" (by Kevin Sack), 26 March 1997.
Review of 26-part, 13-hour oral history of the civil rights movement aired on public radio stations. [NATIONAL]
"Laughing at Big Government, and Crying, Too" (by Richard Bernstein), 1 August 1991.
About political humorist P. J. O'Rourke and his new book Parliament of Whores. [WASHINGTON]
"3 Queens of Talk Who Rule the Day" (by Walter Goodman)," 29 July 1991.
Review of the television talk shows of Oprah Winfrey, Joan Rivers, and Sally Jessy Raphael. [ENTERTAINMENT] [[BUSINESS: MEDIA] [ENTERTAINMENT]
"The Value of Pigs and Other Insights at Mead Film Festival" (by John Noble Wilford), 24 September 1990.
Review of documentaries shown at the 14th annual festival in honor of anthropologist Margaret Mead at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. [SCIENCE]
