MEDIA LEAD SHEET/MARCH 10, 2008 ISSUE (on newsstands Monday, March 3). To book correspondents, contact LaVenia LaVelle at 212-445-4859—LaVenia.LaVelle@Newsweek.com—or Brenda Velez at 212-445-4078—Brenda.Velez@Newsweek.com. Articles are posted on www.Newsweek.com.

COVER: “Mr. Right, R.I.P.” (p. 27). Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas looks at how William F. Buckley Jr., who died last week at 82, largely inspired and held together the conservative movement that is collapsing today. “He changed the personality of conservatism,” says New York Times columnist David Brooks. “It had been sort of negative, and he made it smart and sophisticated and pushed out all these oddballs and created a movement,” Brooks continues. Social conservatives tend to be a gloomy lot because they have a dark view of human nature…But Buckley was as sunny and hopeful. He believed that if government would just leave man alone, the human spirit would triumph, Thomas writes. Also in a guest essay, Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor and publisher of The Nation, looks at Buckley from the world of the left.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117854

            “Where We Go From Here” (p. 35). Contributor Michael Gerson writes, “Excessive mourning is inappropriate when a good man dies full of years and honors. But the loss to conservatism and to America is real. The departure of William F. Buckley Jr. leaves an unfilled spot where wit and joy once stood.” The speechwriter and policy adviser to President Bush continues that, “Buckley knew that politics, above all, is the realm of ideas, not merely tactics and power. For conservatives, those ideas do not change with time and circumstance.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117852

THE MONEY CULTURE: “The Unspeakable R Word” (p. 24). Senior Editor and Columnist Daniel Gross writes that in recent weeks, abundant evidence has pointed to a recession—a broad-based contraction of economic activity—from rising unemployment claims to the continued pain in housing. But “Wall Street economists, whose employers have been experiencing their own private recession since last summer, haven’t shrunk from using the R word,” Gross writes. “But in certain quarters of Washington, euphemism and understatement, verging on outright denial, are par for the course.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117834

MEDIA: “The Myth of Objectivity” (p. 36). Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas writes that while there is a tendency among politicians to blame all their woes on the press, the press’s impact on elections is murky. “The mainstream media are prejudiced, but not ideologically. The press’s real bias is for conflict…It is the human drama that most compels our attention. The voters will take it all in (or not). And then make up their own minds.” With National Correspondent Suzanne Smalley.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117850

BETWEEN THE LINES: “How Much Change Is Change?” (p. 39). Senior Editor and Columnist Jonathan Alter writes “The 2008 presidential campaign has featured rising expectations of real change, especially if Obama makes it all the way. It’s not too early to begin to think about what, exactly, this change would mean. How would we define it? How would Obama execute it? Two years from now, will we know if we’ve achieved it?”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117853

POLITICS: “Man in the Middle” (p. 40). Investigative Correspondent Mark Hosenball offers a guide to the facts and faces in the case of Antoin (Tony) Rezko, a prominent real-estate developer and power broker, as Federal prosecutors in Chicago are set to begin laying out evidence in a corruption case and his connection to Barack Obama. With Chicago Correspondent Karen Springen.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117851

INTERNATIONAL: “China’s New Empty Nest” (p. 41). Beijing Bureau Chief Melinda Liu reports that an aging Chinese population is transforming the family as more kids are leaving their hometowns—even the country—in search of jobs. Although for centuries in China, boys were considered the best form of social security, now many young couples are rethinking the meaning of family and now say they prize daughters over sons for their loyalty.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117840

BUSINESS: “Arab–America’s Store” (p. 42). Midwest Bureau Chief Keith Naughton reports that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, hopes to attract Arab-American shoppers when it opens a store this week, like no other among its 3,500 U.S. outlets, in Dearborn, Michigan—home to the largest concentration of Arabs outside the Middle East. Wal-Mart’s Arab-American emporium provides a preview of the retail giant’s latest strategy to boost business as it reaches the saturation point in its American expansion.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117835

WASHINGTON: “C’mon and Be A Bureaucrat” (p. 43). Reporter Tony Dokoupil reports on the government’s intensifying effort to recruit a new generation of civil servants —and busting the “myths” of government work— amid the biggest hiring crisis in U.S. government history. With more federal employees expected to retire in 2008 than in any previous year, many agencies are flashing unprecedented signing bonuses and scholarships to attract new talent. But despite these enticements the U.S. struggles to woo a generation of young people who see a more productive and lucrative future in the private sector.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117856

TRAGEDY: “How Grim Is My Valley” (p. 44). Chief Foreign Correspondent Rod Nordland reports on the epidemic of young suicides sweeping the South Wales coal-mining town, Bridgend. The only link among the suicide victims seems to be popular social-networking Web sites like Bebo, where most and possibly all of the Bridgend victims were members. Many of the victims posted messages on the public memorial pages of those who preceded them in suicide.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117749

SOCIETY: “Extinction Trade” (p. 47). Science Columnist Sharon Begley reports that endangered animals are the new blood diamonds as militias and warlords use poaching to fund death. The State Department and some members of Congress suspect a link between illegal wildlife trafficking and terrorism, but admit that, “the evidence is anecdotal,” says Claudia McMurray, assistant secretary of State.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117875

PROFILE: “East Side Story” (p. 51). Senior Editor Malcolm Jones reviews Richard Price’s latest novel, “Lush Life.” While it may look like a murder story it’s really a tough guy’s love letter to the old neighborhood—the Lower East Side. “Lush Life” is a beautiful novel that gets in your face and under your skin. Tough-minded and tender, often in the same paragraph, it is very much a city boy’s tale, a book-length and ultimately very heartfelt love letter to a dangerous, beguiling place,” Jones writes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117830

BOOKS: “Lo Mein Street, U.S.A.” (p. 56). Assistant Editor Jennie Yabroff reports that although Americans love Chinese food, in her book “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food,” Jennifer 8. Lee says the irony is that much of what we think of as Chinese food isn’t Chinese at all. Chop suey is an American creation. Fortune cookies were invented in Japan. The cuisine’s appeal lies in its dual nature: Chinese food is at once regional and universal, foreign and familiar.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117833

TIP SHEET: “Loose Lips Sink Shifts” (p. 59). General Editor Anna Kuchment offers tips on how to navigate your company’s rumor mill —separate the good from the bad, learn to deflect, set a time limit, don’t over-share and never gossip by email—and use them to your advantage.

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/tipsheet/default.aspx

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