Opinion: In today’s pages: WGA, LAX, and TNR vs. NR
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National Interest editor Jacob Heilbrunn reports on the war between the New Republic and the National Review:
Is it mere coincidence that both the New Republic and National Review Online are embroiled in controversy concerning outside contributors who wrote bogus reports from the Middle East? Not a chance. As someone who worked at the New Republic when the young fabulist Stephen Glass was making up stories there in the late 1990s, it was deja vu all over again....[T]he New Republic’s announcement this week that it could no longer stand by the reporting of Scott Thomas Beauchamp, an Army private in Iraq who had contributed several lurid articles about U.S. soldiers running amok, and the accusations against National Review’s W. Thomas Smith Jr., who stands accused, among other things, of inventing a ‘scoop’ about hundreds of Hezbollah gunmen moving into the Christian areas of Beirut, fit into a familiar pattern. As every confidence man knows, you can’t sell someone something they don’t want to buy.
Columnist Joel Stein finds out that the writer’s strike is one big networking opportunity. And former Times reporter Miriam Pawel says the farmworkers’ union hasn’t delivered for its members.
The editorial board applauds change in Crenshaw, reviews President Bush’s sub-prime plan, and offers fixes for LAX’s runway problems.
Readers react to Bush’s mortgage plan. Cardiff’s Steve Harrington says, ‘If we are going to switch to socialism, fine, but let’s make it fair for everyone.’