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today's papers: A summary of what's in the major U.S. newspapers.

Nothing Like a Dane

Scott Shuger
Posted Monday, Dec. 13, 1999, at 7:09 AM ET

The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times lead with the resumption in Washington this week of Israel-Syria peace talks. Both papers emphasize that prospects for an end to the 51-year state of war between the two countries are excellent. The New York Times leads with a U.S. surgeon general's report, to be released today, stating that although in any given year one in five Americans experiences a mental disorder and that half of all Americans do so at least once in the course of their lives, most never seek treatment. USA Today goes with the Census Bureau's release today of a special edition of its annual statistical abstract of the U.S. that offers a snapshot of how the country has changed during this century. Some examples: In the century's first decade, there were 2 million immigrants from Italy and 50,000 from Mexico, and in its last, the numbers were approximately the reverse; America's air is 10 times as polluted today as in 1900; the population of Buffalo is almost exactly the same as in 1900, while that of L.A. is about 35 times larger. A NYT inside story on the abstract notes that two of the most popular girls' names in 1900 were Florence and Bertha, while today, neither is in the top 10,000.

The reporting on Israel-Syria makes it clear that the most sensitive issues to be hashed out are whether Israel will keep an intelligence-gathering post in the Golan Heights and its access to the Sea of Galilee. The WP account states that in the run-up to last week's announcement of the talks, the U.S. engaged in much secret diplomacy, including a dozen phone calls between President Clinton and Syria's Hafez Assad. Last week, the LAT reported that Yasser Arafat was not pleased by the Israel-Syria thaw, but today's LAT doesn't follow up on this.

The NYT says the surgeon general's report finds that most people with mental disorders don't get help because they don't think effective treatments exist, or they fear being stigmatized, or because they lack applicable insurance. The report endorses, says the paper, equality between mental health insurance coverage and that for physical illnesses and claims that such a coverage increase needn't be costly.

The LAT is alone in fronting the International Olympic Committee's weekend reaction to the past year's 2002 Winter Games bribery scandal: voting in a reform package designed to restore the IOC's reputation. The package's most prominent measure is a ban on members' visits to bidding cities. The story quotes IOC chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch as saying the vote means the problem is solved, but it also notes that the House of Representatives will be questioning him this week at hearings looking into Olympic corruption. In addition, says the LAT, a DOJ investigation continues.

A WP front-page in-depther on Bill Bradley, second in a series, portrays him as driven and insecure as a young scholar-athlete. The story says that as a Knick, he routinely held on to an opposing player's shorts and even garners a quote from the man 26 years later: "He was one of the dirtiest players I ever played against." (And the story also relates that at Princeton, Bradley dated Diane Sawyer, seriously enough that she and her parents visited his house over Christmas one year. Neither Bradley nor Sawyer would comment to the Post about the romance.) Meanwhile, on the USAT front Barbara Bush mounts a defense of George W.'s gravitas: "People don't know that he is a very smart history buff and that's what he reads." (For Slate's take on another aspect of GWB's persona click here.)

Sunday's NYT "Week in Review" confuses with a graphic about "Saturday Night Specials." The text says they are a favorite among criminals, but the stats go the other way: one box shows that SNSs only account for about 15 percent of all guns traced to crimes, and another shows that five of the nine models with the shortest time-in-existence-before-use-in-a-crime are not SNSs. In other words, it's clear from all this that "good" guns are more of a problem.

We remember when "Gilded Age" was just an expression: The Wall Street Journal front reports a "microtrend" in men's fashion: weaving gold into suits.

USAT reports that the U.S. is the third happiest country in the world. No. 2 is Australia, and No. 1 is Denmark.

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Scott Shuger was a Slate senior writer and the original author of "Today's Papers." He died June 15, 2002.
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The readers respond:


I've read the NYT's story on the prevalence of mental illness. It does not explain the difference between mental illness and mental well-being. If somebody feels unhappy about a personal problem, for example, how long must his unhappiness last, and how severe should it be, before he is deemed to need treatment of some kind for which others will pay? The phrase "parity" in connection with mental illness is flung about a great deal. But it doesn't take into account that what is called mental illness is often quite different from physical illness. (For a discussion of this see Insanity by Thomas Szasz.)

--Edward Brynes

(To reply, click here.)


Health insurance premiums are soaring. Many workers who are offered coverage opt out because of the cost. Many employers don't offer health insurance at all because of the cost. Now, along comes the Surgeon General to say that we can add mental illness coverage to our health insurance on the cheap. Yes, and our supposedly troubled Medicare system can start adding prescription drug benefits, too. (Somebody else can fix the system later.)

Don't get me wrong: I'd like to see the stigma attached to mental illness removed and people seek treatment without fear of recrimination. At the same time, I think "treatment" for mental illness is much more subjective than treatment for physical ailments, and thus the costs are less predictable. Nothing is free and few things that are promised as being lost cost really turn out that way. I seem to remember health care costs rising when drug rehab started to be covered--another subjective type of treatment.

I'd like the media to take a really hard look at who pays for what in health care. In too many minds, I think "insurance" is synonymous with "free."

--Will

(To reply, click here.)


So we're supposed to believe that (a) a bunch of shrinks can stump for more patients (and more income) but still be impartial, (b) that parity between mental and physical healthcare can be achieved with "little cost" while (c) tripling the number of people seeking care.

So, where is the other side represented?

--TomFool

(To reply, click here.)


I hope congresspersons remember to question Samaranch about the IOC's recent & continuing shabby history of preventing updates of drug testing at the Games. Athletes will continue using illegal drugs so long as they see some chance of getting away with it; and the IOC stance means it's been pretty damn easy to get away with certain forms of it.

--Paul Lynch

(To reply, click here.)


What on earth is a "Saturday Night Special"? Today's Papers has an annoying habit of either assuming that everyone is familiar with American colloquialisms or printing baffling acronyms, assuming readers know what they mean. Please explain in future.

--Simon Warner

(To reply, click here.)


(12/13)

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