James B Stewart

For a nation whose romanticized history includes a young George Washington confessing to chopping down a cherry tree because he "cannot tell a lie," we seem to do an awful lot of lying. But then, the story about Washington is a lie itself, so maybe we're just being true to our national character. In his new book, "Tangled Webs," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart dives deeply into four recent cases of high-profile conspiracies of lies. What he finds does not say good things about us. Starting with former presidential advisor Karl Rove, Stewart argues that quite often presumably honorable people do dishonorable things.

BOOKS Are Lies Ruining America? In the wake of high-profile perjury and obstruction-of-justice cases such as those of Martha Stewart, Barry Bonds and Bernard Madoff, journalist James B. Stewart, author of "Tangled Webs: How False Statements Are Undermining America," will investigate how American ethics have broken down and what can be done about it. Henry Weinstein, a founding faculty member of the UC Irvine School of Law, will moderate....

Once upon a time in the '80s, a small group of men made billions of dollars by breaking the rules, leaving Wall Street awash in scandal when they were caught. Then in the '90s, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist decided to write a book telling their story of greed, insider dealings and other shenanigans. Not necessarily a best seller, you might think. But read on.

For a nation whose romanticized history includes a young George Washington confessing to chopping down a cherry tree because he "cannot tell a lie," we seem to do an awful lot of lying. But then, the story about Washington is a lie itself, so maybe we're just being true to our national character. In his new book, "Tangled Webs," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart dives deeply into four recent cases of high-profile conspiracies of lies. What he finds does not say good things about us. Starting with former presidential advisor Karl Rove, Stewart argues that quite often presumably honorable people do dishonorable things.

There is no startling revelation or smoking gun in James B. Stewart's explication of the omnibus scandal we now call Whitewater. The great value of this book lies in its painstaking, richly reported narration, in which each slippery evasion of the law, each obfuscation of the facts, is placed in its historical progression, its legal and social context.

BOOKS Are Lies Ruining America? In the wake of high-profile perjury and obstruction-of-justice cases such as those of Martha Stewart, Barry Bonds and Bernard Madoff, journalist James B. Stewart, author of "Tangled Webs: How False Statements Are Undermining America," will investigate how American ethics have broken down and what can be done about it. Henry Weinstein, a founding faculty member of the UC Irvine School of Law, will moderate....

Alan Dershowitz, the famous Harvard law professor, attacked "Den of Thieves" and its author James B. Stewart last week for bum raps on Dershowitz' client Michael Milken and for a pattern of religious references that smelled like anti-Semitism. Dershowitz, known recently for obtaining a reversal of the wife-murder conviction of Klaus von Bulow, is properly fierce in defense of his client--who is serving a ten-year term in federal prison at Pleasanton, Calif.

Anyone interested in a broad view of the woes facing the American health care system would come away well-informed, if not depressed, after reading these three new books. Each, in a different way, arrives at the same bottom line: You are responsible for your own success or failure in navigating today's health care system. No one--not your doctor, hospital, government representative, insurer--is looking out for you.

Tangled Webs How False Statements Are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff James B. Stewart The Penguin Press: 474 pps., $29.95

A New York appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a $35-million libel suit against the author and publisher of "Den of Thieves," a book about former junk bond king Michael Milken and the insider trading scandals of the 1980s. The lawsuit was filed in 1992 by Michael F. Armstrong, the attorney for Milken's brother, Lowell.

Anyone interested in a broad view of the woes facing the American health care system would come away well-informed, if not depressed, after reading these three new books. Each, in a different way, arrives at the same bottom line: You are responsible for your own success or failure in navigating today's health care system. No one--not your doctor, hospital, government representative, insurer--is looking out for you.

There is no startling revelation or smoking gun in James B. Stewart's explication of the omnibus scandal we now call Whitewater. The great value of this book lies in its painstaking, richly reported narration, in which each slippery evasion of the law, each obfuscation of the facts, is placed in its historical progression, its legal and social context.

Once upon a time in the '80s, a small group of men made billions of dollars by breaking the rules, leaving Wall Street awash in scandal when they were caught. Then in the '90s, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist decided to write a book telling their story of greed, insider dealings and other shenanigans. Not necessarily a best seller, you might think. But read on.

Alan Dershowitz, the famous Harvard law professor, attacked "Den of Thieves" and its author James B. Stewart last week for bum raps on Dershowitz' client Michael Milken and for a pattern of religious references that smelled like anti-Semitism. Dershowitz, known recently for obtaining a reversal of the wife-murder conviction of Klaus von Bulow, is properly fierce in defense of his client--who is serving a ten-year term in federal prison at Pleasanton, Calif.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ralph Vartabedian has won a 1988 Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism, it was announced Monday. Vartabedian won in the category of beat and deadline writing for his coverage of Northrop and the MX missile. Northrop has experienced long delays and other manufacturing problems in its Air Force contract to produce a key guidance device for the MX. The Loeb awards are among the most prestigious given for business journalism.