SCOOPS.(The Talk of the Town)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 06-SEP-04

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

The news cycle is a tricky matter these days, what with cable TV and the Internet, but in the buildup to the Convention a new complication materialized: clairvoyance. Not content with the traditional sequence of choreographed tips and leaks, some of the participants in the political game sought to surmount the limitations of time and space. Suddenly, everybody seemed to know about things before they had happened.

For example, in the new issue of Harper's, which came out two weeks ago, Lewis Lapham, the editor, described the Convention as though it were already over: "The speeches in Madison Square Garden affirmed the great truths now routinely preached from the pulpits of Fox News and...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.