MEDIA LEAD SHEET/DECEMBER 24, 2007 ISSUE (on newsstands Monday, December 17). To book correspondents, contact Brenda Velez at 212-445-4078—Brenda.Velez@Newsweek.com—or Grace Huh at 445-5831—Grace.Huh@Newsweek.com. Articles are posted on www.Newsweek.com.
COVER: “The Sleeper” (p. 28). Senior Writer Suzanne Smalley reports on the John Edwards presidential campaign and how he believes he can score an upset win in the upcoming Iowa caucuses. For months, Edwards has been doggedly working to round up support in the state’s rural precincts where the frontrunners have paid less attention. While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have drawn crowds in the thousands in places like Des Moines and Ames, Edwards has been winning over people in tiny towns like Sac City (pop. 2,189). That’s important, Edwards’s strategists say, because under Iowa’s arcane caucus rules, a precinct where 25 people show up to vote gets the same number of delegates as a place that packs in 2,500. O’Malley says Edwards has visited all 99 counties in the state; the campaign has so far trained captains covering 90 percent of all 1,781 precincts. Smalley, with White House Correspondent Holly Bailey, looks at Edwards campaign, his background, the effect of his wife’s illness on the campaign and how he doesn’t look back at the 2004 campaign.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78238
JONATHAN ALTER: “It’s Gut-Check Time” (p. 35). Senior Editor and Columnist Jonathan Alter writes that the democratic candidates for president agree on the terrain of battle. “Their policy goals and first-100-days agendas are strikingly similar. It’s about means—the tone and approach required to make change happen in Washington. And their choice of means tells us something important about who they are and how they got into politics in the first place … The candidates who connect best to their real selves and deepest motivations usually win. Contrary to popular belief, phonies fade fast in politics.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78161
SCIENCE: “The Roots Of Fear” (p. 36). Science Columnist Sharon Begley writes about the power of fear to sway voters that has become part of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. Half a century of research has shown that fear is the most politically-powerful emotion a candidate can tap, especially when the fears have a basis in reality. Candidates who exploit voters’ fears and anxieties grab attention in a way that other appeals, such as those to experience, competence, vision or even anger do not.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78178
IRAQ: “The ‘Body Contractors’” (p. 45). Baghdad Bureau Chief Babak Dehghanpisheh reports that while there is no question that violence across Iraq has declined, the problem—and the reason no one from U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus on down is declaring victory yet—is that those statistics do not tell the whole story. Body hunters, Baghdad residents and local gunman all say that militias are making more of an effort to disguise their grisly handiwork—burying bodies in shallow graves, dumping them in city sewers.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78156
THE MILITARY: “Questionable Conduct” (p. 46). Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Dan Ephron reports on the case of a military chaplain sent to prison on charges of sexually abusing men and looks at how much more pervasive the problem may be in the military. According to court filings and an archive recently published by the group Bishop Accountability, up to 60 military chaplains have been convicted or at least are strongly suspected of committing sexual abuse over the past four decades,
sometimes against the kids of military personnel. In a number of the cases reviewed by Newsweek
involving Catholic chaplains, complaints of sexual abuse were made to their churches well before they joined the military, but were never brought to the military’s attention.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78159
BUSINESS: “A Rock Star’s Rebirth” (p. 50). Midwest Bureau Chief Keith Naughton reports on Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who was once so revered that he became the subject of a superhero comic
book in Japan. But after missing his profit goals in 2006, and with Nissan’s stock falling 13 percent this year, analysts wrote that Nissan’s glory days were over. Now Ghosn is attempting a comeback. With new models coming out, Nissan’s U.S. sales are climbing again, with profits up 5.3 percent so far this year. And now he’s hitting the road to rehabilitate his—and his company’s—image.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78147
TECHNOLOGY: “Electroshock Therapy” (p. 51). Special Correspondent Ashley R. Harris reports on the new civilian model of Tasers for women. They’re not the bulky blasters carried by police. These resemble something you’d shave your legs with. But at five and a half inches in length, they’re small enough to slip into a purse and still deliver the same 50,000 volts of muscle-paralyzing electroshock therapy. Taser International thinks its compact new device will be a Christmas hit with women and are marketing it with Santa, a self-assured businesswoman on a Manhattan street and the tag line, “I will control my own destiny.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78161
HISTORY: “The Savvy, Salty, Political Saint”(p. 54). Society Editor Julia Baird reviews the recently published first volume of Eleanor Roosevelt’s papers, “The Human Rights Years, 1945-48.” Despite all she achieved, and the esteemed place she holds in American history and affection, there’s a central lingering question about her legacy: what would she have been capable of achieving on her own, without the constraints placed on her sex at the time, and without her marriage to FDR? Baird writes that this first volume provides important clues.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78177
TELEVISION: “The Real McCoy” (p. 56). Assistant Editor Joshua Alston talks to actor Sam Waterston, the star of “Law & Order” who’s about to take over the role of D.A. on the show. Waterson has become the spokesman for Unity08, a reform movement that aims to put a bipartisan ticket on the presidential ballot in all 50 states. And although he’s portrayed presidents six times, he makes it clear that he has no presidential aspirations. When he appeared before the National Press Club in April to stump for Unity, his opening line was: “Hello, I’m Sam Waterston, and I’m not running for president.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78180
THE BOOMER FILES: “The Games of Their Lives” (p. 61). Senior Editor Jerry Adler writes about how Boomers kept changing the meaning of success. There have been winners and losers along the way, but for better or worse, they haven’t always been the same people. In one example, “Whoever dies with the most toys, wins,” was one bumper sticker. Boomers filled their garages with snowmobiles and Jet Skis, their closets with calfskin boots, $1,500 suits and entire wardrobes just for the gym. Now, the avant-garde of boomers is frantically trying to whittle down its carbon footprint, trading in its bloodcurdling cavalry of Hummers for hybrids.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78150
TIP SHEET: “Hold the Salt, Please” (p. 62). Associate Editor Jennifer Barrett reports on the health risks of eating too much salt in a daily diet. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, or about a teaspoon of salt. But most Americans consume triple that amount—about three quarters of it from processed foods, which can be hazardous to your heart. Read nutrition labels and avoid high-sodium processed foods.
http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/tipsheet/default.aspx
