A L S O__T O D A Y

Source for Kathleen Willey story sues Newsweek's Michael Isikoff
By Joe Conason
Julie Steele claims reporter violated explicit agreement that their conversations were off the record

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T A B L E_.T A L K

The president is history! Cancer cured! Comets to strike earth! Join the discussion on overblown news items in Table Talk

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R E C E N T L Y

The truism show
By James Poniewozik
The op-ed-ization of Jim Carrey's new flick turns its anti-TV take into a rerun
(06/10/98)

Rolling Stone gathers no Marx
By David Weir
Rolling Stone is 30! Jann may have forgotten -- but a former contributor remembers the mag's semi-subversive mission
(06/09/98)

Making Magic
By Frank Sanello
Magic Johnson is beating AIDS -- now he wants to beat Leno and Letterman
(06/08/98)

Arianna upstaged by "Baywatch" babe
By Carol Lloyd
Arianna Huffington's L.A. book party featured Hollywood schlock, political hobnobbing and celebrity humiliation
(06/05/98)

Are men better writers than women?
By Laura Miller
A Harper's essay takes up the touchy question of whether size in literature matters
(06/03/98)

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BROWSE THE
MEDIA CIRCUS
ARCHIVE

Content's star shortage

MEDIA WATCHDOG STEVE BRILL TRIED -- AND FAILED -- TO GET BIG-NAME MEDIA TALENT ON HIS MASTHEAD.
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BY HARRY JAFFE | "Now there's a fearless media watchdog." Thus Steve Brill's promotional material heralds the advent of Brill's Content, the "long overdue," "authoritative" new magazine that promises to expose journalistic incompetents and charlatans, separate the wheat from the chaff on the Web and help you get to the truth. The first issue is due out on Monday.

So who did Brill hire to do the exposing, the separating and the truth getting? He had the money -- he made millions when he sold Court TV and the American Lawyer -- and the clout to hire the best and the brightest reporters and media minds. And he tried mightily to get big-name journalists. But nary a Carl Bernstein or Mike Wallace appears on the masthead. That may not harm the quality of his magazine, but it will make it harder to get a prestige bump.

The magazine began to take shape a year ago. At first, the staff consisted of Brill, his wife, Cynthia, former American Lawyer publisher Peggy Samson, a secretary and an intern. The first order of business was to find an editor. Brill went to an American Lawyer alum, Don Baer, who had also worked at Legal Times, a Brill-owned paper in Washington. In August, Baer left his job as White House communications director and helped launch Content. But when Brill offered Baer the editor's job, Baer turned him down. "We went 'round and 'round," Baer says. "It's a great thing Steve's doing, but ultimately, I decided I didn't want to pull up stakes and move to New York."

Next Brill tried to reel in James Warren, the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau chief and media critic. Warren, a friend of Brill's, also had written for American Lawyer. Did he want to be editor? "We had long, serious negotiations," Warren says. "He made a very, very attractive offer." Why didn't he take it? "Because I have a good gig here," he says. "Not because of the negatives. There's a crying need for something like this."

Another friend of Brill's, Time political writer Michael Kramer, started working part time for Content last summer. Kramer, who was married to Judge Kimba Wood, was displaced when Time managing editor Walter Isaacson axed his political column, and he signed on as Content's editorial director.

Brill finally settled on himself as editor, but continued to beat the bushes for big-name staff. "He knew he needed some big time, real huge talent for credibility purposes early on," says Warren. Brill tried to hire Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, author of "Spin Cycle," a book about the inner workings of President Clinton's press operation. Kurtz would have been the Washington presence. "We were in the nuts and bolts of contract talks," Brill says. "Then the Monica Lewinsky story broke, and Howie said he loved the daily newspaper job." Kurtz will write regularly for Content, however, starting with a piece in the first issue about the way "60 Minutes" handled the Kathleen Willey interview.

Next, Brill went after William Powers, media critic for National Journal, to handle the Washington scene. Never shy about name-dropping, Brill says, "My friend Woodward told me to grab him."

"I was very intrigued by the offer and the project," says Powers. "The media needs tougher, more thoughtful scrutiny." Powers, however, decided to stick with National Journal, leaving Brill without a full-time Washington presence.

"We're talking to others," Brill says. "Can't say whom."

Brill was able to land a few name players, including James Cramer, who will write a financial column, and David McClintick, author of "Indecent Exposure," who will become a contributing editor. Brill says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Stewart, author of "Den of Thieves," "may come on the masthead," and says he's trying to fetch "old American Lawyer alumni who are midway through New Yorker contracts."

Four days before Content's debut, Brill says he's all staffed up. Many of his foot soldiers have established journalistic records: Abby Pogrebin, who worked with Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes"; Lorne Manly from the New York Observer; Eric Garland from Adweek; Amy Bernstein from U.S. News and World Report; and Elizabeth Lesly Stevens from Business Week.

Brill declined to divulge any specifics about the first issue. He didn't want to discuss his opening shot, a long opus on the sourcing of the early Monica Lewinsky stories. In general, however, he says: "People have really misunderstood the first issue. It's not a souped-up Columbia Journalism Review. We don't want essays or essayists. What you will see is specific stories and hard reporting."

Public remarks about Brill and his enterprise tend to be milquetoasty, for obvious reasons: Working journalists don't want to piss off the self-appointed Media Watchdog. ("60 Minutes" executive producer Don Hewitt, who told Newsweek, "What do I care about Steve Brill? He's not a media writer. He's a guy who looked around for an enterprise to make money at," is a dramatic exception.) Off the record, some writers who have interviewed with Brill for jobs or assignments say they have come away with the sense that the editors can be a little unfocused and unrealistic. In a less critical vein, they also report that Brill and Kramer are as interested in positive stories about reporting as hatchet jobs. "Brill stressed balance," says one writer. "Stories about when things go right as well as wrong."

Meanwhile, Brill has already come in for some criticism from the press he intends to critique. In May, USA Today broke a story that Brill was negotiating with "Dateline NBC" to collaborate on stories. Brill's staff asked how Content could report on NBC while working with it; a chorus of critics joined in. In a day, Brill reversed course and said it was "a dumb thing to do."

Will the pit bull prove to have thin skin when the press inevitably bites back? "I think it's terrific," he says.

We'll soon find out.
SALON | June 12, 1998