Michael Wolff is the author of many books, including most recently The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty. He also wrote a best-selling trilogy about the Trump White House: Fire and Fury, Siege, and Landslide. He has been a columnist for New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, and The Hollywood Reporter, twice winning a National Magazine Award.
A Life Worth EndingThe era of medical miracles has created a new phase of aging, as far from living as it is from dying. A son’s plea to let his mother go.
Martha McCarthyismStewart is being tried not for her crimes
(though crimes there may have been) but for who
she is—rich, famous, and abusive to the help.
Circus MinimusHyped as a great public drama, the Martha Stewart trial was about as exciting as watching an accountant work. Then came Doug Faneuil—Candi […]
Which Martha?There’s the victim, and the schemer, the
Connecticut white lady, and the career girl. So who
is she? Tell us, and you’ll tell us […]
Us and DemGiven a seemingly invincible opponent, winning isn’t the only thing for Dems. Rather, the candidates are fighting a battle for their party […]
Right TimesmanDavid Brooks is the hothouse flower of the
Times’ op-ed page—its token conservative. It’s a
tough job, as he’ […]
Lord in VainWhen Conrad Black became a press lord, then a real lord, his ambition seemed to be to leave the sullied world of business behind. Nice try.
Mean and ProudBill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter fight dirty. Al
Franken fights dirty. So which side to join? Both are
more interesting than the self-regar […]
Reversal of FortuneCall it the law of political gravity: What goes
down (an economy, a president’s stature) must go up. So why are we always shocked when i […]
The New Old ThingIs the recent Net boom a real second coming or just a blip? Even the once-mighty new-media ruling class, back on top (sort of), isn’t pre […]
The Anti-YuppiesDownwardly mobile chic is hot! Naked ambition is ugly!
Success is passé! All true enough—but can
the moralistic New Left win votes […]
Bipolar IraqWe’re winning the peace, say the Bushies.
But if so, what about all those body bags? How the administration is reinventing the PR war.
The Clark Kent TimesmanHow mild-mannered, smooth, ambitious
Steven Rattner transformed himself into
a Manhattan superhero. An excerpt from the controversial new bo […]
Post Mortem?Rupert Murdoch has been willing – for fun and political profit – to lose millions to keep his pet tabloid going. Now, finally, his patience ma […]
Disorder in the CourtKobe Bryant’s best hope for fending off the charges against him? Take control of the ball: Wage a media trial that’s not about rape […]
Rogues’ GalleryWhat do Rush Limbaugh, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Karl Rove, and I all have in common? We’re all guilty as charged! […]
Grin and Share ItThe music industry’s lame lawsuits against MP3-loving kids aren’t going to put the file-sharing genie back into the bottle. As Marth […]
The MogulissimoImagine if, say, Barry Diller bought Universal, then ran for president—and won. Welcome to the surreally complete media moguldom of Italy& […]
Sex and the CandidateWhat’s to love about the idiotic California recall race? We all get to relive Arnold’s sex life! (Too bad the state’s soccer m […]
Dream TeamGiven the quagmire in Iraq and the sputtering economy
at home, the race against Bush is a victory in search of a
candidate. Could Hillary Cli […]
Candidate.comStop the presses! Dean blows up big, thanks to the Internet! It’s a great story, but can Web-based fund-raising really predict the mass ma […]
BBC You LaterNever mind the battle between the BBC and the Blair government. The real nemesis of the all-powerful British broadcasting institution is Murdoch.
This Isn’t War(Yet.) The liberal power elite I hobnobbed with in Aspen seems terminally short on passion—with one tough-talking, very angry exception: B […]
The Media at WarDid journalists working the Iraq beat botch the story of the year? At a forum hosted by New York Magazine, The Guardian, and The N […]
In Search of WM(S)DAre Bush’s Weapons of Mass Self-Destruction plutonium-grade? Will they turn up in Condi Rice’s office? And will they detonate by nex […]
Candidate Who?We know this about Howard Dean: He’s an antiwar
ex-doctor and ex-governor. But is he the guy to beat Bush—or just a stand-in for t […]
The Un-HowellThe Times newsroom rejoices at the return of Bill Keller, a stinging rebuke to Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who’d rejected him. So how do […]
They’ve Come UndoneWhat politics joined together, a polo-playing fast-food tycoon hath put asunder. But how did Andrew Cuomo and Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, scions of the […]
En Guardian!The British are coming—again. The launch of a
U.S. edition of the unabashedly liberal
Guardian may be just what the Bush-whacked […]
WMD, FCC & TinaThere’s a reason big media has given Bush a pass on weapons of mass destruction, but it has to do with a Powell other than Colin. Plus: I […]
Pinch, Power, and the PaperHowell Raines and Gerald Boyd may have fallen on their swords. But that doesn’t mean the man who sent them into battle, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., h […]
Troubled TimesThe Times is more than a newspaper. To its reporters and editors, it’s a religion. And the Jayson Blair Affair is a story of a sinn […]
Al Jazeera’s EdgeThe American media has an almost fetishistic interest in Al Jazeera and its correspondents—not least of all because the Arabic broadcaster […]
My Big Fat QuestionWhile the war was raging elsewhere, I was stuck at CENTCOM, where I was supposed to be lobbing softball questions at generals. Naturally, I did […]
Buying the DreamTime Warner merging with AOL is the old story of the Titanic and that iceberg—they’re
still scrambling for the lifeboats.
Live From Doha . . .… it’s a TV-ready war update spoonfed to hundreds of journalists
by the U.S. military! A report
from the surreal, over-air-conditio […]
Behind the LinesHere in New York, half a world away, the war in Iraq is having
its impact, changing politics and media and mind-sets at
cruise-missile speed. […]
Brill-iantMedia’s biggest bully ducked out of the limelight for fifteen months to write a God-is-in-the-details account of life post-9/11. By return […]
Oh, Get Real!Put a couple of middlebrow programming execs in a dumbed-down,
all-reality-all-the-time network television environment, and does hilarity
en […]
Bush Family ValuesHow do you cover a war that’s a rerun (complete with another surreal Dan Rather–Saddam interview)—a war that’s all about […]
Stop, Thief!If only it were that easy. Music and film execs obsess about our evil file-sharing ways, but demonizing the public they so desperately need won& […]
What, Us Worry? Yes, Us WorryThe impending war, the threat of terrorism, and the troubles on Wall Street, in the media business, and with the economy as a whole are creating […]
Book ReviewDoes the ouster of Random House head Ann Godoff signal the death of books? Nah—the
publishing business as we know it died a long time ago […]
The Altar of WalterFor faithful followers of brilliant careerist Walter Isaacson’s brilliant
career, what’s to be learned from his leaving CNN? Maybe that
e […]
Playing Mogul MurderIt’s a great new parlor game—imagining what happens if your
favorite media tycoon gets hit by a bus. And figuring out who wins and […]
