CONTRIBUTORS

JAMES STEWART knows all about peeling back layers of mystery and complexity. He was a Pulitzer-prizewinning reporter and front-page editor at the Wall Street Journal, where he supervised many investigative stories. Stewart's last book was Den of Thieves, a gripping account of the 1980s Wall Street insider-trading scandals. Two years ago, he began peering through the aura of scandal that continues to surround the Clinton White House. The result is a new book, Blood Sport, which is to be published this week and is excerpted exclusively in this issue.

Stewart spent months in Arkansas, Washington and California, tracking down confidential documents and firsthand participants. With the help of researchers Anne Farris and David Kirkpatrick, he has written a groundbreaking, definitive account of the Whitewater and Vincent Foster affairs.

Anyone looking for evidence that might indict Bill or Hillary Clinton will be disappointed. But Stewart does succeed in painting a portrait of how the President's men and their critics have repeatedly shaded, covered up and manipulated the truth to further their various political ends. It adds up to a vivid profile of America's political culture. Though the saga is not pretty, it has at least one redeeming quality. Slowly but surely, Stewart points out, the truth has emerged. "I hope eventually people will come to realize the futility of dissembling," he says.

JOSHUA COOPER RAMO holds a diverse portfolio. Not only does he edit TIME DIGITAL, our magazine within a magazine--which is sent to more than one third of our world-wide subscribers--but he oversees all our electronic publications as well. TIME was the first newsweekly to publish an online edition, launching TIME Online 3 1/2 years ago, and our World Wide Website, Pathfinder, one year later. But as our readers on America Online know, we've been off-line for the past three months. This week we are back, with a new venue and a new look.

The TIME News Center on CompuServe will offer much more than the contents of this magazine. It will be CompuServe's primary gateway for news and current affairs, merging wire-service coverage of breaking news with headline stories updated and enhanced round-the-clock by TIME's correspondents. There will also be forums where subscribers can mix it up with TIME staff members, and online press conferences with celebrities, scientists, politicians, authors, government officials and other newsmakers. (To order a CompuServe starter kit, call 1-800-621-1258.)

Managing what he calls "this rich trove of cyberspace resources" is second nature for Ramo, a journalist and cybersurfer who put Newsweek on Prodigy 18 months ago. Josh, it should be noted, is something of a prodigy himself. At 27, he is the youngest senior editor in TIME's history.