The Drama of the Gifted VP
Posted Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1999, at 7:10 AM ETThe Washington Post and New York Times lead with the Israeli parliament's vote of confidence in Prime Minister Ehud Barak's peace negotiations with Syria, set to begin this week in Washington. The Wall Street Journal flags the story at the top of its world-wide news box. USA Today goes with a study released yesterday showing that the insurance costs of businesses are rising--at nearly three times the rate of inflation--but because of the tight labor market, companies are absorbing most of the added costs. In fact, says the paper, workers' contributions to their insurance coverage dropped in the past year. The top non-local story at the Los Angeles Times is one that led the NYT yesterday: the Surgeon General's report regarding the surprising prevalence of mental disorders in the U.S. and the alarmingly low rate of treatment.
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StumbleUponThe NYT lead's headline emphasizes the closeness of the Israeli parliament vote, which the paper says is far from the strong victory Barak expected, while the WP's stresses that Barak is making it clear to his Cabinet and the parliament that he is willing to cede the Golan Heights back to Syria in return for security guarantees. The Post says that the diplomatic development has provoked "shouting matches, shock and hope among Israelis, as well as a 7 percent rise in the Tel Aviv stock market." The paper explains that the next internal political hurdle is a referendum on territorial withdrawal. This, says the NYT, will be the first in Israel's history. The Post says that both the government and the opposition may bring in American political consultants for the campaign over that.
The WP off-leads Al Gore's pronouncement--prompted by the publicity surrounding that conviction of an Army man for murdering a gay fellow soldier--that the Clinton administration's "don't ask, don't tell" policy should be abandoned. The paper calls this Gore's "sharpest public break" yet with President Clinton's policies and says that it represents a change from the position Gore had been taking as recently as this past weekend. Gore aides differ, saying that the VP is just now reiterating a stand he's taken inside the White House. The WP says the Bill Bradley campaign noted that with his shift, Gore has just arrived at the position Bradley has been espousing for months. The paper also reminds that this controversy underscores the importance of the gay vote in Democratic politics but could cause difficulties for Democrats in the general election.
Gore's statement comes as the Secretary of Defense ordered a Pentagon investigation to determine whether homosexuals in uniform are being harassed. The NYT fronts that investigation and Gore's stance as does USAT. The investigation raises a question that is only lightly touched on by the papers: How can it work without violating the current policy wholesale? After all, an investigator can't ask soldiers if they are being harassed for being gay without in effect "asking" them if they're gay, and a soldier can't tell an investigator that he is being harassed for being gay without "telling" the investigator that he is gay.
A NYT inside story reports that Great Britain has decided to abandon its proscription of homosexuals in the service in favor of a policy that will ban all on-duty sex but not care about sexual orientation.
The fronts at the LAT, NYT, and WP feature obits for Catch-22 author Joseph Heller, who died Sunday at age 76 of a heart attack. Both Times remember to get past the famous war book's humor to also include Heller's overwhelming depiction of the death of the gunner Snowden. Both the LAT and WP note that later on in his career, Heller wrote for McHale's Navy.
An inside story at USAT reports that the outgoing director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms says he thinks the prime suspect in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing, Eric Rudolph, is dead. Rudolph, on the ATF's and FBI's Most Wanted lists, hasn't been sighted in more than a year.
The NYT goes inside with word that some Democratic donors and some major corporations have collectively contributed $1 million to a private fund for making improvements to the vice presidential official residence. (The story is based on a report coming out today from the Center for Public Integrity.) Gifts include a billiard table, a hot tub, and landscaping. Donors include individuals (not subject to the usual $1,000 limit because the money at issue was spent on Al Gore's house, not Al Gore) such as Bill Gates, Hollywood producer Kathleen Kennedy, and a tobacco exec. Corporate donors include Atlantic Richfield, MCI Worldcom, and Microsoft. The story doesn't mention it, but all three of these companies have issues of tremendous financial consequence currently being considered by the federal government.
The WP front serves up the late-breaking bulletin that online chat has bred a new cluster of acronyms such as IMHO and LOL. And the paper was fortunately able to get a minute with Robert Kraut of Carnegie Mellon University to get his explanation that it's very natural for human beings to shorten words. Kraut, by the way, or so the Post informs, is "professor of social psychology and human-computer interaction" there. Where's an acronym when you really need one?
Disclosure: Slate is owned by the Washington Post Co. Don't understand Today's Papers jargon? Check out the Today's Papers glossary. Get Today's Papers free in your mailbox. Having trouble receiving Today's Papers?
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The readers reply:
I find it interesting that TP chose to take issue with the question "How will the government conduct an investigation [on the harassment of gays in the military] without having military officials asking or enlisted soldiers telling?" The answer to that question is ridiculously simple: solicit anonymous input, of course! That way, the government will get the full, honest truth.
--Kate
(To reply, click here.)
The full truth from an anonymous survey? I don't think so. Gay soldiers will have every incentive to overstate harassment; harassers will have every incentive to say it doesn't exist.
--Will
(To reply, click here.)
how come today's papers totally ignores the page one stories in the new york times and washington post about last night's republican candidate debate in iowa. seems to me to be a significant, and unjustified, omission.
--Sandy Goodman
(To reply, click here.)
In "The Drama of the Gifted VP," TP notes: "The NYT goes inside with word that some Democratic donors and some major corporations have collectively contributed $1 million to a private fund for making improvements to the vice presidential official residence. (The story is based on a report coming out today from the Center for Public Integrity.)"No suggestion is made that Gore's net worth will rise as the result of these contributions.
But the November 2 TP failed to note the NYT' going inside with a story about Bradley's personal enrichment during 97-98, when the ex-senator made more than $5.3 million, more than half of it from speaking and consulting fees. The former member of the Senate Finance Committee, according to John Broder, turned "his celebrity and 18 years of political contacts into lucrative speaking and consulting income."
Or on the same story, TP could have reported that the LA Times, using the AP, went inside, heading that story "Disclosure Links Bradley to Special-Interest Groups." The lead for that piece went: "In the two years between leaving the U.S. Senate and announcing his candidacy for president, Democrat Bill Bradley earned more than $2.5 million in speaking fees, much of it from special interest groups...."
--Tarja Black
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You apparently don't know what an acronym is. An acronym is a set of initials that spell a word. NATO is an acronym. MADD and radar are acronyms. FBI and CIA are not acronyms. Nor is IMHO and it would be stretching the definition to include LOL.
--Robert S. McNeill
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"Late breaking indeed." Most of them have been around for dozens of years at least.
WRT ``Kraut, by the way, or so the Post informs, is "professor of social psychology and human-computer interaction" there. Where's an acronym when you really need one?"''. In fact the HCI folks have long had their own acronym. And that should have been ``Kraut, BTW, ...'' :-)
--Kee Hinckley
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