• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, May 1, 2007

Tonight will mark the third straight year that the monsieurs and madames of magazinedom give out awards and bask in their awesome magazineitudinousness without me in attendance. Despite logging more time in service of the genre than anybody not named Samir "Mr. Dr. Magazine Esq., R.N." Husni, I wasn't invited nor extended a presenter gig, which is unconscionably disrespectful to both me and the industry. Don't tell me you weren't looking forward to the staged banter between me and an impossibly lithe Harper's Bazaar editrix as we handed out the statuette for Least Obtrusive Use of Sidebars, 250,000-1,000,000 circulation:

LD: Magazines make us laugh and make us cry. They make us feel the full range of human emotion.
ILHBE: Magazines contain lots of stories and pictures. Many of these stories and pictures are about shoes.
LD: You know where's a great place to read a magazine? The toilet.
ILHBE: (panicked expression on face) The nominees for Least Obtrusive Use of Sidebars are...

It would've been the highlight of the evening -- at least until the Debbie Allen-choreographed tribute to magazine multiculturalism performed by the cast of "The Lion King." In protest, I'm bailing on the city of my birth and heading down I-95, metaphorically, for a klatsch with Washington Monthly, a politics-and-stuff title whose founder lays claim to having coined the phrase "neoliberalism." I don't know much about neoliberalism -- nor, for that matter, liberalism, conservativism, nü-conservativism or whatever Lyndon LaRouche is spouting nowadays -- but I know this: Washington Monthly oughta stop trying to be something it's not. It's a smart, challenging read that clearly doesn't need the occasional bursts of flash.

The May issue of the mag caught my eye for all the wrong reasons. The cover, with its blaring yellow fonts and exclamation points, reminded me of Us Weekly, as did the story touted thereon ("Look Who's Hitched! The secret lives of WASHINGTON'S POWER COUPLES!"). It's never a good thing when a magazine's cover story makes the reader wonder if it is intended as parody.

Good thing I actually bothered to read it. I understand the decision to run with the splashy, smarmy list of 60 power couples -- such stories are buzz magnets -- but its presence undermines just about everything else in the May issue. That includes the main story itself, a creative, thoughtful examination of the ethical conundrums posed by such relationships. It's as if Sports Illustrated decided to trumpet one of its five-line gossipy "Players" bits on the cover, rather than the story inside on the Super Bowl.

Outside of the eight pages devoted to the "sizzlingest power couples," the May Washington Monthly engages the intellect in a way that few other publications do. The lengthy editor's note talks about the overhaul of healthcare in the Veteran Affairs department, questioning whether one of the presidential candidates could get away with proposing a similar fix. The "Tilting at Windmills" and "Ten Miles Square" columns touch on politics and media and scandal and the attendant hypocrisy, and do so without resorting to the shrill tones that often plague such discussions. Better still is the profile of Rep. Tim Ryan, which not only outlines where the guy stands but also how his beliefs were shaped. If there has been a more thorough, balanced profile of a somewhat polarizing politician written in an American magazine this year, I haven't read it.

I do, however, wish that Washington Monthly looked a bit more like The Economist. The mag tarts up its treatment for certain stories (the aforementioned power-couple list), yet doesn't lift a finger design-wise for most others. The exquisitely written book reviews, for example, get a cover shot and nothing else.

And not that this should influence my perception of the magazine one way or the other, but Washington Monthly sure accepts some bizarre ads, whether a pitch for what appears to be a satirical political review ("The Freedom Toast presents a Freedom Roast!... Zaniness Is Sure To Ensue!!!") or a texty plug for Share International magazine ("Despite, nay, because of the plans and actions of dangerous men, the people are throwing off their ancient yoke and claiming their right to be heard"). On behalf of Washington Monthly's readership, I ask the following question: Huh?

So yeah, I enjoyed my time down Washington way. I still don't know a whole lot about the city and its ways, other than that it will have an epic baseball franchise within five years and that its jackasses are more noxious than their New York or Los Angeles counterparts. Whether or not I agree with its ideology, Washington Monthly is about to become the magazine I rely upon to thrash through the thicket of political discourse.

MAG STATS
Published by: The Washington Monthly LLC (owned by the nonprofit W.M. Corp.)
Frequency: 10 issues per year
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