NewsTrust - All Rated Stories

Of The 1%, By The 1%, For The 1%

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Joseph E. Stiglitz - Apr. 02 (Opinion) - Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average - 29 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Washington, We Have a Problem

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Todd Purdum - Sep. 02 (Investigative Report) - How broken is Washington? Beyond repair? A day in the life of the president reveals that Barack Obama’s job would be almost unrecognizable to most of his predecessors—thanks to the enormous bureaucracy, congressional paralysis, systemic corruption (with lobbyists spending $3.5 billion last year), and disintegrating media. Inside the West Wing, the author talks to Obama’s top advisers about the challenge of playing the Washington game, ugly as it has become, even while their boss insists they find a way to transcend it.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Sarah Palin the Sound and the Fury

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Michael Joseph Gross - Sep. 02 (Investigative Report) - Even as Sarah Palin’s public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Following the former Alaska governor’s road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits—a place of fear, anger, and illusion, which has swallowed up the engaging, small-town hockey mom and her family—and the sadness she has left in her wake.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Professor of War

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Mark Bowden - Apr. 02 (Special Report) - At 57, General David Petraeus has revolutionized the way America fights its wars, starting with the surge in Iraq and continuing into his current command, with responsibility for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Yemen. Charting Petraeus’s relentless challenge to the institution he reveres—the U.S. Army—and to himself, the author hears about the unceasing drive, groundbreaking methods, and darkest moments of a four-star rebel.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Genesis 2.0 Project

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Vanity Fair - By Kurt Andersen - Dec. 22 (Special Report) - Compared with the market-driven, killer-app insta-culture of the Digital Age, the new Large Hadron Collider exists in a near-magical realm, a $9 billion cathedral of science that is apparently, in any practical sense, useless. Exploring its whizbang machinery, deep underground, the author probes the collider’s brush with disaster last year—and the secrets it may soon unlock. Plus: More photos of the Large Hadron Collider.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Adam Ciralsky on Blackwater

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Vanity Fair - By Adam Ciralsky - Dec. 06 (Special Report) - Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial of five ex-employees, set for next month. Lashing back at his critics, the wealthy former navy seal takes the author inside his operation in the U.S. and Afghanistan, revealing the role he’s been playing in America’s war on terror.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Good Billions After Bad

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele - Sep. 11 (Special Report) - As the Bush administration waned, the Treasury shoveled more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in tarp funds into the financial system—without restrictions, accountability, or even common sense. The authors reveal how much of it ended up in the wrong hands, doing the opposite of what was needed.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A Media Guy Asks: Why Do They Hate Us?

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Matt Pressman - Jun. 24 (Opinion) - There’s no question media people think highly of themselves. We tend to be well-educated and worldly, and we consider ourselves worthy to help shape what the entire country reads, watches, and listens to. But what’s equally clear is that the general public does not hold us in such esteem. On the Internet, articles about the demise of traditional news media are commonly greeted with glee and schadenfreude. And it’s not just the online cranks. The Pew Research Center recently found that most Americans feel that the press is biased and inaccurate, and large percentages even said it was “immoral” and “hurts democracy.” So to borrow a phrase that became a media refrain in 2001: why do they hate us?

NewsTrust Rating: 2.4 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Wall Street and the Third World

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Joseph Stiglitz - Jun. 13 (Opinion) - When the current crisis is over, the reputation of American-style capitalism will have taken a beating—not least because of the gap between what Washington practices and what it preaches. Disillusioned developing nations may well turn their backs on the free market

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Madoff's World

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Mark Seal - Apr. 03 (Investigative Report) - Among Bernard Madoff’s many dupes were his closest friends, including two tycoons he loved as surrogate fathers: the late Norman F. Levy—whose girlfriend, supermodel Carmen Dell’Orefice, would lose her life savings—and the prominent philanthropist Carl J. Shapiro. Amid the sobs, screams, and curses in Aspen, Palm Beach, and New York, with victims sharing their stories, the author gets behind Madoff’s affable façade, to reveal his most intimate betrayals.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The New York Times on the Precipice

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Mark Bowden - Apr. 01 (Special Report) - With a doomsday clock ticking for newspapers as we know them, no one has more at stake than fourth-generation New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., who is scrambling to keep his family’s prized asset alive. Some see him as a lightweight cheerleader, others as the last, best defender of quality journalism. Talking to company insiders, the author examines the nexus of dynasty and character that has brought the 57-year-old Sulzberger to the precipice.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Swastika and the Cedar

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Christopher Hitchens - Mar. 30 (Special Report) - In newly liberated Lebanon, the signposts on “the Arab street” point in opposite directions. The author’s experiences—he was buoyed by a huge rally for democracy in downtown Beirut, then beaten up by Fascist bullies—show how much this diverse society offers hope but is still threatened by the Syrian dictatorship next door.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Wall Street on the Tundra

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Vanity Fair - By Michael Lewis - Mar. 05 (Special Report) - Iceland’s de facto bankruptcy—its currency (the krona) is kaput, its debt is 850 percent of G.D.P., its people are hoarding food and cash and blowing up their new Range Rovers for the insurance—resulted from a stunning collective madness. What led a tiny fishing nation, population 300,000, to decide, around 2003, to re-invent itself as a global financial power? In Reykjavík, where men are men, and the women seem to have completely given up on them, the author follows the peculiarly Icelandic logic behind the meltdown.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 9 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Fannie Mae's Last Stand

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Vanity Fair - By Bethany McLean - Jan. 31 (Investigative Report) - Many believe the government-backed mortgage giants known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were major culprits in the economic meltdown. But, for decades, Fannie Mae had been under siege from powerful enemies, who resented its privileged status, its hard-driving C.E.O.’s, and its huge profits. Surveying Fannie’s deeply dysfunctional relationships with Congress, the White House, and Wall Street, the author tells of the long, vicious war—involving most of Washington’s top players—that helped propel one of the world’s most successful companies off a cliff.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

An Oral History of the Bush White House

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Vanity Fair - By Cullen Murphy, Todd S. Purdum - Dec. 31 (News Analysis) - January 20, 2001 After a disputed election and bitter recount battle in Florida whose outcome is effectively decided by the Supreme Court, George W. Bush is sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States. In foreign affairs he promises an approach that will depart from the perceived adventurism of his predecessor, Bill Clinton, in places such as Kosovo and Somalia. (“I think the United States must be humble,” Bush said in a debate with his opponent, Al Gore.) In domestic affairs Bush pledges to cut taxes and improve education. He promises to govern as a “compassionate conservative” and to be “a uniter, not a divider.” He comes into office with a $237 billion budget surplus.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average - 7 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Capitalist Fools

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Vanity Fair - By Joseph Stiglitz - Dec. 11 (Special Report) - behind the debates over future policy is a debate over history--a debate over the causes of our current situation. the battle for the past will determine the battle for the present. so it's crucial to get the history straight.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average - 10 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Wall Street: Profiles in Panic

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Vanity Fair - By Michael Shnayerson - Dec. 10 (Special Report) - It may be premature to say our gilded age has ended. Third Point dropped 10 percent in October, bringing it down 27 percent for the year, but Daniel Loeb is still moving into his extravagant new apartment. Steven Cohen’s SAC was down 11 percent in October and 18 percent for the year to date, but that still leaves him plenty of money to add a second ice-skating rink to his Greenwich, Connecticut, estate. And Larry Gagosian is still selling plenty of art.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

America the Banana Republic

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Christopher Hitchens - Oct. 13 (Opinion) - ... the chief principle of banana-ism is that of kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize their own gains, always ensuring that any shortfall is made up by those unfortunates whose daily life involves earning money rather than making it.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Tuesdays with Rupert

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Michael Wolff - Sep. 03 (Special Report) - Here was the old man, in white shirt, singlet visible underneath, doing one of the same basic jobs he'd been doing since he was 22, having inherited the Adelaide News in Australia from his father. And he was good at it. He was parsing each answer. Re-asking the question. Clarifying every point. His notepad going. He knew the trade. Of how many media-company C.E.O.'s could that be said? This wasn't a destroyer of journalism--this was a practitioner.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

What Will Liberal Bloggers Do If Obama Wins?

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By James Verini - Jul. 26 (Opinion) - In an interview with The New Yorker, Pat Buchanan recently described the life cycle of American conservatism this way: "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." ...Just as Nixon, Reagan, Gingrich, and Bush depended on developments in new media--direct-mail campaigning, talk radio, cable news--so the new wired Left, with its disheveled assortment of journalist-activists and activist-journalists, has mastered the Internet.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.7 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Believe Me, It's Torture

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Christopher Hitchens - Jul. 02 (Special Report) - What more can be added to the debate over U.S. interrogation methods, and whether waterboarding is torture? Try firsthand experience. The author undergoes the controversial drowning technique, at the hands of men who once trained American soldiers to resist--not inflict--it.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 9 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How the Web Was Won

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Keenan Mayo, Peter Newcomb - Jun. 05 (Special Report) - Fifty years ago, in response to the surprise Soviet launch of Sputnik, the U.S. military set up the Advanced Research Projects Agency. It would become the cradle of connectivity, spawning the era of Google and YouTube, of Amazon and Facebook, of the Drudge Report and the Obama campaign. Each breakthrough--network protocols, hypertext, the World Wide Web, the browser--inspired another as narrow-tied engineers, long-haired hackers, and other visionaries built the foundations for a world-changing technology. Keenan Mayo and Peter Newcomb let the people who made it happen tell the story.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

We Can Beat Coal Co-Dependence

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By David Roberts: - May. 31 (Opinion) - we don't have to--indeed, cannot--stand by and allow utilities to "build the next generation of coal plants using existing technology." To borrow a phrase from my four year old, they are not the boss of us. We are the boss of them. They will build what we, as a nation and as a species, let them build. We do not have to sacrifice our future for the benefit of electrical utilities.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Green Light

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Phillippe Sands - Apr. 07 (Special Report) - torture['s]...military beginnings...lie not in Abu Ghraib...or in the "rendition" of prisoners to other countries for questioning, but in the treatment of the very first prisoners at Guantánamo. Starting in late 2002 a detainee bearing the number 063 was tortured over a period of more than seven weeks. In his story lies the answer to a crucial question: How was the decision made to let the U.S. military start using coercive interrogations...?

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Monsanto's Harvest of Fear: Politics & Power

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By James B. Steele - Apr. 07 (Special Report) - Monsanto already dominates America's food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation's tactics-ruthless legal battles against small farmers-is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer