This issue seemed like it was put together by a bunch of 7th graders affected by ADD. The articles often seemed half-baked, vague, or downright meaningless. Mark Binelli's cover piece on Jay-Z meandered but did not provide much more insight than could be scrounged up online at a few sites, and Brian Haitt's article on Jonah Hill made the actor look more like an angsty teenager instead of the comic genius image they clearly had in mind. Even the six page coverage of "The Dance Takeover" felt like a bunch of snapshots that had been thrown together at the last minute.
The National Affairs desk salvages the issue (as it often does, it seems). Tim Dickinson's coverage of the "The Spill, the Scandal, and the President" effectively breaks down who is to blame for what part of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the ensuing oil spill. Granted, in the rapid-fire pace of the modern news media, some of Dickinson's information was outdated by the time it went to press, but that does not take away from the importance of what Dickinson is saying - including the audacity of BP in copy-pasting whole sections of their "Oil Spill Response Plan" for the Gulf from a previous plan for the Arctic. A short interview with political genius (and personal hero) James Carville exemplifies the indignation Dickinson intends for us to feel, as Carville calls for "criminal prosecution" of BP's executives, claiming that "watching another CEO in handcuffs" will make other companies act in a safer manner.
Highlights from the "Reviews" section include the new album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "Mojo" - and the Gaslight Anthem's "American Slang" getting the best write-ups. I was also surprised to see 1990's bubble-gum-pop sensations Hanson getting a decent showing for their latest effort.
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