This morning, MSNBC’s Morning Joe hosted Time managing editor Richard Stengel to discuss the magazine’s new non-mutilation-related cover story: “What Animals Think.” As Stengel explained, the story is “about whether or not animals really think or not.” Interesting stuff, though as Slate’s Jack Shafer pointed out in a tweet, Time actually had a similar cover story in August of 1999 called “Can Animals Think?”
But, in fact, the magazine’s fondness for this exact topic seems to be cyclical in nature: Time had a cover story in March of 1993 also called — you guessed it — “Can Animals Think?” Of course, each article contains new scientific research and insights into the mental capabilities of animals, so it’s not as if they are just repeating the same information over and over again. No magazine would be that lazy.
