Richard Stengel

Richard Stengel is an American editor. He is "Time" magazine's 16th managing editor.

Stengel is a native of New York. He graduated "magna cum laude" from Princeton University in 1977 and played on the Princeton Tigers basketball team as part of the 1975 National Invitation Tournament. After college, he was a Rhodes Scholar and studied English and history at Christ Church, Oxford. Stengel became a senior writer and essayist at "Time", where he covered both the 1988 and 1996 presidential campaign. He also wrote for "The New Yorker", "The New Republic", "Spy", and the "New York Times".

Stengel also authored several books including "January Sun: One Day, Three Lives, A South African Town" and "You're too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery". In 1993 he collaborated with Nelson Mandela on Mandela's bestselling autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom". He later served as co-producer of the 1996 documentary "Mandela". In 1998, he taught a course at Princeton University called "Politics and the Press." In 1999, Stengel became a senior advisor and chief speechwriter for Bill Bradley, who ran for the Democratic nomination for the 2000 presidential election. Stengel later returned to print journalism and served in several positions at "Time", including as nation and culture editor, and managing editor for Time.com. In 2004, Stengel became president and chief executive officer of the National Constitution Center, a museum and education center in Philadelphia. In 2006, he returned to Time magazine as managing editor.

Stengel is married to Mary Pfaff, who is originally from South Africa. They have two sons.

Controversy

In November 2007, Stengel became the focus of a controversy after Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald exposed a number of factual errors [cite news
last = Greenwald
first = Glenn
coauthors =
title = Everything that is rancid and corrupt with modern journalism: The Nutshell
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Salon
date= November 27, 2007
url = http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/27/the_correction/index.html
accessdate = 2007-12-04 ] in a column by Joe Klein. [cite news
last = Klein
first = Joe
coauthors =
title = The Tone-Deaf Democrats
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = TIME
date= November 21, 2007
url = http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1686509,00.html
accessdate = 2007-12-04 ] Time initially published a subsequent comment as follows: "In the original version of this story, Joe Klein wrote that the House Democratic version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) would allow a court review of individual foreign surveillance targets. Republicans believe the bill can be interpreted that way, but Democrats don't." Greenwald noted that the text of the legislation does not require court review of individual targets, and Time's response, only repeating "what each side says," disregarded this fact. [cite news
last = Singel
first = Ryan
coauthors =
title = Time Correction of Wiretap Story Needs Own Correction
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Wired
date= November 27, 2007
url = http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/time-correction.html
accessdate = 2007-12-04 ] [cite news
last = Mitchell
first = Greg
coauthors =
title = TIME Carries Correction on Hotly Disputed Joe Klein Column -- And So Does 'Chic Tribune'
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Editor and Publisher
date= November 29, 2007
url = http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003679176
accessdate = 2007-12-04] Time later changed the correction, changing "allow a court review" to "require a court approval" and inserting the sentence, "The bill does not explicitly say that." [cite news
last = Greenwald
first = Glenn
coauthors =
title = Time tries again
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Salon
date= November 28, 2007
url = http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/28/new_correction/index.html
accessdate = 2007-12-04 ]

Later, in an article titled "Time magazine refused to publish responses to Klein's false smears" Greenwald reported that Time "refused the requests of two sitting members of Congress... to correct Klein's false statements in Time itself." [cite news
last = Greenwald
first = Glenn
coauthors =
title = Time magazine refused to publish responses to Klein's false smears
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Salon
date= December 4, 2007
url = http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/04/time/index.html
accessdate = 2007-12-04

] Time has, however, told Senator Russ Feingold that they intend to publish his letter to the editor in a coming issue. [cite news
last = Greenwald
first = Glenn
title = Various Items
publisher = Salon
date = 2007-12-06
url = http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/06/various_items/index.html
accessdate = 2007-12-10 ]

Stengel is Time Magazine's managing editor. [cite news
last = Singel
first = Ryan
coauthors =
title = Time Issues Spying Correction
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Wired
date= November 27, 2007
url = http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/time-to-issue-s.html
accessdate = 2007-12-04 ] Deputy managing editor [Painton left Time Magazine to join a book publisher. There is no reason to believe that her leaving is related to her role in the controversy.] of Time Magazine Priscilla Painton is also involved in the controversy. [cite news
last = Greenwald
first = Glenn
coauthors =
title = Demand answers from Time magazine
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Salon
date = November 27, 2007
url = http://sacdcweb05.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/27/time/
accessdate = 2007-12-05] [cite web
last = Hamsher
first = Jane
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Time Magazine Circles The Wagons Around Joe Klein
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://firedoglake.com/2007/11/27/time-magazine-circles-the-wagons-around-joe-klein/
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-12-05 ]

For only the second time since it was first used in "Time Magazine", Richard Stengel approved the changing of the emblematic red border, this time to green. (It had earlier been changed to black on the issue directly following the 9-11 attacks.) Stengel also approved the use of the Battle of Iwo Jima photo, by war photographer Joe Rosenthal.

The April 21st issue of "Time" was entitled "How to Win the War on Global Warming", and depicted the Marines raising a Sequoia tree, instead of the American flag. Donald Mates, an Iwo Jima veteran, told the Business & Media Institute on April 17 that using that photograph for that cause was a “disgrace.” Stengel supported the use of the image and exposed his point of view on journalism. “I think since I’ve been back at the magazine, I have felt that one of the things that’s needed in journalism is that you have to have a point of view about things,” Stengel said. “You can’t always just say ‘on the one hand, on the other’ and you decide. People trust us to make decisions. We’re experts in what we do. So I thought, you know what, if we really feel strongly about something let's just say so.” [cite web
last = Walsh
first = Brian
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = How to Win the War on Global Warming
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20080428,00.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-04-22 ]

ee also

*Glenn Greenwald
*Jane Hamsher
*Priscilla Painton

References

Further reading

* Richard Stengel; "January Sun: One Day, Three Lives, A South African Town"; ISBN #0671732889
* Richard Stengel; "You're Too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery"; ISBN #0684854910
* Nelson Mandela; "Long Walk to Freedom"; ISBN #0316855006