How Police Departments Can Mend the Rift With the Public How Police Departments Can Mend the Rift With the Public
Police must be taught that the power entrusted to them is not theirs to use or abuse as they see fit.
Jan 7, 2015 / Frank Serpico
Farewell, Betsy & Judy Farewell, Betsy & Judy
With this issue, we bid a tearful farewell to two longtime Nation staffers: executive editor Betsy Reed and copy chief Judith Long. Betsy joined the magazine as an editor in 1998, and over the next sixteen years her editorial vision guided The Nation through some of its most tumultuous and challenging, grim and joyous moments. Under her deft guidance, many of The Nation’s best writers produced landmark journalism, from the much-loved columns by Naomi Klein, Katha Pollitt and Eric Alterman, to Jeremy Scahill’s groundbreaking investigations into Blackwater and covert ops, Chris Hayes’s insightful essays about Washington politics and beyond. Her editorial leadership on a slew of widely praised special issues (from the debate over torture to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the more recent “Bloomberg’s Gilded City”) has been remarkable, and her craft as one of the finest editors of her generation has made her a beloved figure among the many writers whose words, ideas and arguments she has sharpened and improved. Betsy leaves us to helm the Intercept, where she joins Scahill, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. We will miss her terribly, but we are also terribly eager to read the journalism that will emerge there under her leadership. We will also miss the wise and sharp-eyed copy-editing talents of Judith Long, who is retiring after nearly thirty-five years at The Nation. Judy arrived at the magazine before we had computers, cellphones or even fax machines—the era, as she puts it, of “the monster Compugraphic, with tubs of poisonous chemicals,” which spit out the type that was pasted up on boards (which were then sent to the printer by mail). Each week, Judy—kind and gracious, with a quiet yet wicked sense of humor—made war against cant, jargon, bad syntax, clumsy repetition and typos. Judy was also, for some twenty-five years, the editor of our Letters page, which she handled with consummate and joyous skill. We praise her for her many years of dedication to the magazine, and for making it much better than it could ever have been without her keen eye and ear.
Jan 7, 2015 / The Editors
Project Censored Honors Stephen F. Cohen Project Censored Honors Stephen F. Cohen
Project Censored, the media research, literacy and education organization established in 1976, is honoring Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen for his articles on the crisis involving Ukraine and Russia, as well as the mainstream media’s hypocrisy in its coverage of the conflict. Cohen’s article “Distorting Russia: How the American Media Misrepresent Putin, Sochi and Ukraine” appeared in The Nation’s March 3, 2014, issue and will be included in the collection Censored 2015: Inspiring We the People.
Jan 7, 2015 / The Editors
Steve Scalise’s Defense Steve Scalise’s Defense
He spoke before he knew that group preached hate. That’s human error—cause for mild rebuke. Although the leader’s name does ring a bell, It might have been some other David Duke.
Jan 7, 2015 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Breaking Taboos, BDS Gains Ground Among Academics Breaking Taboos, BDS Gains Ground Among Academics
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has a long way to go, but recent endorsements show it’s getting somewhere.
Jan 7, 2015 / David Palumbo-Liu
America’s Workplaces Are Hostile to Families America’s Workplaces Are Hostile to Families
To fix social problems, we need to stop looking to marriage, and start creating more equitable public policy.
Jan 7, 2015 / Michelle Chen
How Unstable Is the Saudi Petro-Kingdom? How Unstable Is the Saudi Petro-Kingdom?
From plummeting petroleum prices to political unrest, it has been decades since the fortunes of the kingdom were so much in doubt.
Jan 7, 2015 / Juan Cole
Edward Brooke and the Republican Party That Might Have Been Edward Brooke and the Republican Party That Might Have Been
The late senator, who was once considered a vice presidential prospect, tried to prevent the GOP’s lurch to the right.
Jan 7, 2015 / John Nichols
We’ll Need an Economic Program to Make #BlackLivesMatter. Here Are Three Ideas. We’ll Need an Economic Program to Make #BlackLivesMatter. Here Are Three Ideas.
In a country that has always used race to justify inequality, ending police brutality is just the start.
Jan 7, 2015 / Feature / Jesse A. Myerson and Mychal Denzel Smith
Faith and Suspicion: On Marilynne Robinson’s ‘Lila’ Faith and Suspicion: On Marilynne Robinson’s ‘Lila’
The novelist offers an elegant answer to the question, “What is it to be human?”
Jan 7, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Roxana Robinson