The week's big news, and how's it's being spun.
Sept. 28 1997 3:30 AM

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William Saletan William Saletan

Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for Slate. He’s the author of Bearing Right.

Marv Albert pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery. In exchange, prosecutors dropped forcible-sodomy charges, which carry a possible life sentence. Albert could get a $2,500 fine and a year in jail, but experts doubt he'll do time, since he has no record. His attorney's spin: He accepted the plea deal because the judge crippled his defense by barring challenges to the accuser's history. The prosecutor's spin: He accepted the deal because a second woman, a longtime lover of Albert's, testified that Albert had bitten her and tried to make her perform oral sex. Upside: He halted a trial that had revealed not only his alleged proclivities--biting, wearing women's underwear, and double-male threesomes--but also his real name: Marvin Philip Aufrichtig. Downside: NBC fired him, ostensibly for having falsely denied the charges to his bosses. Dick Morris offered advice on proper contrition and rehabilitation. Celebrity-trial pundits consoled themselves with the prospect of a lurid civil trial. (9/26)

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President Clinton went to Little Rock to commemorate the 1957 desegregation of Central High School. He pleaded for racial reconciliation and symbolically opened the school's front door for the nine blacks who, as students, had braved a violent white mob to enter the school 40 years ago. Summary of his speech: We have progressed from de jure segregation and discrimination to de facto segregation and discrimination. The local and state NAACP, citing insufficient progress, boycotted the ceremony. Reporters noted that Clinton looked passionate and sincere, just as his aides had hoped. (9/26)

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The Senate held hearings on IRS misconduct. Taxpayers and former IRS agents testified about mistaken-identity prosecutions, snooping, collection quotas, baseless seizures, shakedowns, forgeries, and cover-ups. The acting IRS commissioner apologized and promised to clean up the agency. The White House pleaded that the IRS is improving, and that with so many returns to process, mistakes are inevitable. Analysts portrayed the hearings as a Republican political ploy but chided the IRS for making itself such a deserving target. The New York Times urged IRS agents to be nicer. (9/26)

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Secretary of State Madeleine Albright criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for undermining the peace process. Netanyahu's offense: announcing plans for more Jewish settlements in the West Bank days after Albright had urged both sides to abstain from such provocations--and just hours after a phone call with Albright, in which he had neglected to apprise her of his plans. Analysts said the episode underscored Netanyahu's ability to screw up the peace process and Albright's inability to save it. (9/26)

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Travelers Group bought Salomon Brothers for $9 billion. This is the latest--and according to analysts, not the last--in a series of megamergers in the financial industry. Analysts predicted the consolidation of world finance into a handful of behemoths. Critics charged that these conglomerates will be indifferent to individuals and ethics and will take excessive risks, knowing they'll be bailed out if necessary because they're too integral to the global economy to be allowed to fail. (9/26)

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Miscellany: David Brinkley announced his retirement. The House voted to raise its own pay. British newspaper editors approved a new code of conduct that forbids them from buying paparazzi photos obtained by "stalking and hounding." Cynics pointed out that the code is unenforceable. Christopher Darden married Marcia Carter (not Clark). (9/26)

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NASA dispatched a new astronaut to the Mir space station via shuttle. The agency's administrator said he had decided that the station did not pose an "unnecessary peril." The astronaut currently aboard Mir said that it's a great place to work, and that the new astronaut should go right ahead and replace him. (9/26)

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The Food and Drug Administration will approve thalidomide for relieving symptoms of leprosy. The drug deformed thousands of babies whose mothers took it during pregnancy in the 1960s. The FDA will let women of childbearing age take the drug only if they submit to monthly pregnancy tests and prove they are using birth control. Nevertheless, analysts predict doctors will prescribe the drug "off-label" for AIDS, cancer, and other diseases, inevitably creating a few thalidomide babies. Defenders argue that many sick people are already getting thalidomide on the black market, so it's better to legalize and regulate it. (9/24)

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Teamsters president Ron Carey asserted his innocence and blamed his aides (who have pleaded guilty) for the union's money-laundering scandal. Carey said he was out of the loop ("You can't control people") and had been betrayed ("If there is a victim, I certainly am the victim"). Reporters skeptically noted Carey's simultaneous excuses that 1) he had put his campaign in the hands of people he trusted and 2) he hardly knew them. Carey was trying to dissuade Barbara Zack Quindel, the government-appointed supervisor of the Teamsters election, from prohibiting his candidacy in the new election she has ordered (after throwing out his previous victory). Hours later, Quindel quit the case after learning of remotely possible conflicts of interest in the investigation--leaving Carey's fate to her successor. (See Slate's "Assessment" of Carey.) (9/24)

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Raiders trapped and slaughtered 200 civilians in an Algerian suburb. This adds to the 300 civilians slaughtered four weeks ago and the 60,000 people killed so far in the five-year war between the government and Islamic militants. Methods of slaughter: slitting throats, decapitating children, throwing children from roofs, eviscerating pregnant women, and tossing grenades into houses. No one is sure who the raiders are. An Islamic opposition group announced a unilateral cease-fire and called for a truce, which nobody expects to succeed. (9/24)

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Ted Turner pledged to donate $1 billion to programs endorsed by the United Nations, including medicine, land-mine removal, and aid to refugees. The gift represents almost one-third of Turner's worth and will be spread over 10 years. Turner cited Mother Teresa and Princess Diana, among others, for inspiring the idea. Editorialists expressed hope that the gift will shame other moguls and the United States (which has withheld its U.N. dues) into following suit. The New York Times joked that Bill Gates could buy and refurbish the Mir space station. Turner says his wife, Jane Fonda, wept with joy when he told her he was going to give away the money. Cynics suggested other motives for her tears. (For more philanthropic inspiration, consult the latest installment of the Slate 60, our roundup of charitable contributions.) (9/22)

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Attorney General Janet Reno announced a 30-day review that could trigger a 90-day examination that could trigger an independent counsel to investigate whether President Clinton (as well as Vice President Gore) broke the law by soliciting campaign money from the White House. Critics urged her to skip the foreplay and ask for the independent counsel. The elementary spin is that this probe would be a big deal because it touches Clinton personally. The intermediate spin is that it's a trifling distraction from more serious branches of the scandal. The advanced spin is that the independent counsel, once appointed, will set aside this trifling distraction and get on with the serious stuff. Last week, Reno replaced the leadership of the Justice Department's campaign-finance investigation team and expanded its staff. Analysts regard this as a response to investigators' goofs, in particular their failure to discover (until the Washington Post did) that contributions solicited by Gore went to "hard" money accounts. (9/22)

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Also on the campaign-finance front: 1) Sen. Fred Thompson suspended further Senate inquiry into White House wrongdoing, and will focus instead on what's wrong with the whole campaign-finance system. Reformers called it a noble sacrifice of partisan advantage. Right-wing pundits called it an idiotic sacrifice of partisan advantage. Democrats publicly agreed with reformers while privately agreeing with the right-wingers. 2) Vice President Gore hired two lawyers to defend him personally. While stipulating that this isn't evidence of guilt in a court of law, pundits welcomed it as evidence of guilt in the court of punditry. 3) Businessman/accused embezzler Roger Tamraz testified that he gave $300,000 to the Democratic National Committee and its designees in order to buy influence with President Clinton and to promote a lucrative oil-pipeline project. Pundits welcomed his refreshing candor and comic relief. (For more on the Senate campaign-finance hearings, see Jacob Weisberg's dispatches.) (9/22)

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Dozens of doctors and medical personnel have volunteered to be injected with a vaccine carrying HIV. The vaccine has worked in monkeys but hasn't been tested in people because of concerns that the HIV in the vaccine, although weakened, could cause AIDS. The International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care said it will go ahead with the experiment even if the government doesn't approve it. (9/22)

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European elections: 1) Solidarity appears to have ousted Poland's ex-Communist ruling party. A Solidarity-led coalition won a plurality of the vote and will now try to form a government. The ex-Communists' defeat surprised analysts, since the economy was prospering. Best theory: Poles still don't like Communists. 2) Slobodan Milosevic's party won Serbia's elections, which were boycotted by opponents who said the vote would be rigged. This allows Milosevic to retain unofficial control of Serbia even though he can no longer officially be its president. 3) German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's chief liberal opponents did badly in local elections in Hamburg, and the fascist far right did well, signaling a backlash against immigrants and social disorder. (9/22)