By Steve Rhodes
Catching up with the magazines laying around Beachwood HQ.
Katrina Myth
You know how crime has gone up in Houston because of all the Katrina evacuees who have ended up there? It’s not so.
An analysis of the data by Houston television station KHOU, retold in the March/April journal of Investigative Reporters & Editors, found that a recent spike in the crime rate – murders, in particular – cannot be blamed on Katrina victims despite what police officials have been telling the public.
“Our analysis would eventually cast doubt on claims that Houston’s growing problem with violent crime could be blamed solely on the evacuees,” reporter Mark Greenblat writes. “In fact, we saw strong evidence to the contrary.”
(Tonight, by the way, KHOU examines whether Houston police are fudging crime stats.)
Also in the March/April issue: “Fatal Freedom: Data Shows Rollback Of Motorcycle Helmet Laws Increases Fatalities.”
Light the Match
I haven’t had time to dig into the new Punk Planet, which arrived yesterday, but it looks fabulous as always. Their big story on student activism includes the cover line “Is Your Campus Set To Explode?”, and I can only hope the answer is yes. The magazine says that a rebirth of Students for a Democratic Society is “leading the charge.”
Other stories that look promising include “Doll Power: Just how feminist can corporate-sponsored girl videogamers get?” and “Gutting Schools: Is No Child Left Behind doing any good for schools or students?”
Artist interviews include Electrelane and CocoRosie.
Also: Punk Planet is now selling pre-2007 back issues for just a dollar each, plus shipping.
America’s Tragedy
That’s the cover story of the April 21st-27th issue of The Economist, which I’ve been getting on a free, trial basis until I write “CANCEL” on the bill and smile at the lengths I will go to in order to keep this shoestring operation alive.
America’s Tragedy refers to, of course, the Virginia Tech shootings. The cover art is an American flag in the shape of a handgun on a white background.
The Economist is the world’s sharpest newsweekly, and coming from England it offers a particularly fascinating – and usually spot-on – view of America.
It’s also too expensive to subscribe to – which means poor people like me miss out on conservative overseas insight that nonetheless often finds American domestic policy barbarian. Like when the magazine writes that “The Democrats have been the most disappointing, because until recently they have been the party of gun control.”
Also in this issue, in “Still Separate After All These Years,” the magazine says “Five decades after the Supreme Court struck down school segregation, black and white children continue to learn in different worlds. And it could get worse . . . In the coming weeks the court will announce its decision on a pair of cases it heard in December, involving the Jefferson County [Kentucky] school district and another in Seattle. Both districts act aggressively to maintain racial balance in their schools, but may not be able to continue.”
The magazine notes that “Segregation no longer has the force of law, but it is still a fact of life in most cities. Many districts are actually going backwards.”
Napping New Yorker
Meanwhile, the slumping New Yorker puts out two clunkers in the world. I cannot recommend a single article in the April 30 issue.
In the May 7 issue, Larissa MacFarquhar is overly impressed with Barack Obama’s knowledge of ethanol policy (Hello?! He’s a senator from Illinois campaigning in Iowa . . . ) and to ignorant of Obama’s record as opposed to his image to produce anything but another mesmerized piece about the man’s revolutionary way of thinking, which in the end amounts to a Clintonian desire to avoid conflict and embrace compromise so as to not rock the boat too much. At least they called the piece “The Conciliator.”
I hope to find time to deconstruct this piece in Obamathon, as well as a recent New York Times Sunday Magazine piece about Obama (and Daley) media manager David Axelrod, called “Obama’s Narrator.”
And while I’m normally a fan of Jeffrey Toobin’s work, is piece on the impact of CSI on the expectations of juries sounds all too familiar.
Geez, you’d think it was summer or something.
Posted on May 3, 2007