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HOME / the week/the spin: The week's big news, and how's it's being spun.

By Posted Saturday, July 13, 1996, at 3:30 AM ET

(Posted Friday, July 12)

The stock market dropped nearly 200 points after the Clinton administration reported a strong June surge in employment and wages. Noting the irony that good news is bad news has become a routine part of stock market coverage. The Wall Street Journal: "The irony is that despite all of the national concern over wage stagnation, evidence that wages are rising again caused Wall Street to panic and call for the Fed to brake the economy." Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve's failure to raise interest rates at last week's meeting prompted the Journal and the Washington Post to explore the Fed's inner politics, raising the possibility (as did Time this week) that the Fed may be mellowing its fight-inflation-above-all philosophy to allow for greater economic growth.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu wowed Congress and the press. Prior to his arrival, the New York Times--reflecting the consensus view--urged Clinton to deal "firmly" with the newly elected hard-liner. The next day's Times reported that Netanyahu had "rebuffed" Clinton's requests; USA Today's front page headlined, "Netanyahu sticks to guns." But Washington broke out in Bibi Love anyway, as politicians and the press swooned at being so confidently manhandled: The Times sang of Netanyahu "moving with verve" through Washington, "charming" his audiences with "wit and bluntness." The Post depicted his address to "a rapt and admiring Congress."

Coverage of the annual NAACP convention was filtered through the prism of presidential politics. Colin Powell mildly reprimanded Bob Dole for declining an invitation to speak. Dole complained that the organization's leaders "set me up" by inviting him in the first place. He also told Imus in the Morning that the incident was the result of bad staff work (he attended the All-Star Game instead). President Clinton used his own speech at the convention to criticize Dole's support for repealing last year's ban on assault weapons. The Los Angeles Times: "Clinton Chides Dole." USA Today: "Clinton Dares Dole on Gun Ban." The theme was Clinton's ability to capitalize on Dole's absence; the subtext was Clinton's warm relations with blacks vs. Dole's awkwardness.

Three new candidates joined the presidential race. The Libertarian Party nominated gold-bug Harry Browne; former Colorado governor Dick Lamm announced his Reform Party bid; and Reform Party founder Ross Perot declared on Larry King Live, "If anybody should do this, I should do it." The surprise: Browne got treated seriously while Lamm was widely mocked, and Perot, dismissed. The Washington Post's David Broder depicted the Libertarians as "the advance guard" of a "personalized, almost isolated world of computer communication." James Pinkerton (Republican promoter of the phrase "new paradigm") argued in the USA Today that Browne's individualist agenda would help oust "mainframe" institutions such as big government and big business. Analysts portrayed Lamm as "Governor Gloom," dredging up old quotes in which he questioned the economic rationality of sustaining old folks, feeding victims of famine, and teaching retarded kids "to roll over." Clinton pollster Stan Greenberg dubbed Lamm "Tsongas with euthanasia." Bored by Clinton and Dole, the dailies appeared excited at the prospect of a Lamm-Perot contest: Front-page stories in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times played up the impending "showdown."

Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee accused Defense Secretary William Perry of failing to protect U.S. troops from the June 25 terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia. The hearing "marked the bombing incident's transition from national tragedy to hot presidential political issue," according to the Washington Post, "as Senate Republicans appeared to be test-marketing what could prove a useful campaign issue." The Post thickened the plot by disclosing that a week before the bombing, senior Pentagon officials had received a secret report of inadequate security at the target site--a report that Perry "did not mention" under the senators' questioning.

The Senate passed a 90-cent increase in the minimum wage, ending a long holdout by Republicans that resulted in "snatching prolonged painful defeat from the jaws of quick, change-the-subject defeat," according to the New York Times. Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles threatened to prevent the bill from proceeding to a House-Senate conference committee. Other Republicans "shook their heads and rolled their eyes." Republicans who voted against the hike got some credit for putting free-market principle above populist politics. One apparent exception was Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, who "did not cast his vote [for the increase] until the outcome was clear."

"Smart bombs" in the Gulf War did no better than conventional bombs, contrary to glowing reports at the time, according to a government study reported, in a scoop, by the New York Times. High-tech missiles and jet fighters also were oversold, the study concluded. This represents a second reversal in the long-standing debate over cheap vs. high-tech weaponry. (The first was the Gulf War itself, which seemed a rebuff to the military reformers of the 1980s who advocated many cheap weapons over a few costly ones.) One day after the Times story, the Senate authorized $11.1 billion more for defense next year than the administration had requested.

Food notes: Federal meat inspection was revised. The new system adds "scientific tests" to the traditional "sniff and poke" method. Editorials in the Washington Post and New York Times criticized congressional Republicans for having opposed the new rules. A Senate subcommittee sided with the poultry industry in a dispute over whether birds transported at freezing temperatures should be labeled fresh or frozen. Strawberries were cleared and raspberries were fingered for causing the outbreak of a rare gastrointestinal illness. The Environmental Protection Agency reprimanded the District of Columbia for permitting bacterial contamination of its water. Mayor Marion Barry swallowed a glass of tap water to prove that it was potable.

This week's Olympics angles: 1) Security. The New York Times reported that the expected crush of 2 million visitors had precipitated the "largest peacetime security operation for a public event in American history." More than 30,000 security forces, including 14,000 soldiers, are stationed to repel the terrorist threat. The Washington Post was on the lookout for invaders of another kind--"undesirable aliens" who might sneak into the country using the 40,000 special "Olympic Identity Cards" issued to foreign athletes and visitors in lieu of visas. 2) Defections. Pitcher Rolando Arrojo defected from the Cuban baseball team, joining two boxers who crossed into California from Mexico late last month. Arrojo cited his desire for "political freedom"--a timeless Olympic ideal. But embracing a more contemporary Olympic ideal, Arrojo planned to settle in the Dominican Republic to escape Major League Baseball's draft and qualify for free agency--and a pro contract in the $4 million range. (See NBA item.)

The National Basketball Association signed a six-year, $5 billion labor agreement with its players' union, opening the off-season bidding war for free agents. Early reports highlighted the cutthroat free-market Zeitgeist that now permeates sports. First, loyalty is dead. Players ditch hometown fans for more money elsewhere, while teams dump hard-working veterans to free up money to sign petulant superstars. Second, elite players are soaking up all the available wealth. Some are demanding--and earning--$15 to $20 million of the $24.3 million each team is allowed to spend on its 12 players combined. Third, despite efforts to ensure parity between teams, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Since superstars can earn far more money marketing than playing, agents steer them toward teams in big TV markets.

"Thousands Evacuated as Bertha Advances." "One million urged to flee Bertha's path." No, it's not your mother-in-law paying a visit. It's Hurricane Bertha. Despite the storm's paltry 100 mph winds, it made the front pages of USA Today and the Washington Post, complete with images of fleeing motorists.

Trainspotting doesn't open until next Friday, but the film based on Irvine Welsh's 1993 novel about heroin addicts in an Edinburgh housing project was heralded this week as the next British invasion. The movie earned advance praise for its "wickedly black humor" (Newsweek) and "hallucinogenic editing" (Time), but mainly served as the occasion for another round of is-heroin-back-in-vogue? stories. (See New York's May 1995 cover story, or Vogue, March 1994.) Newsweek's sidebar focused on celebrity junkies, claiming that stars' habits now are being used for promotional purposes. Time Out-New York noted soberly that "[t]he first ten minutes of the film play like an advertisement for heroin," but that "[f]or all its insolence, the film is insidiously moral." The New Yorker reported on a British controversy about the author: "The writer and former heroin user Will Self has accused Welsh of never having injected heroin, a libel that Welsh contests."

Architect Philip Johnson turned 150 (90, actually), and the New York Times celebrated with separate articles on the birthday itself and on two of Johnson's latest projects: a semi-advertising clock tower for Lincoln Center plaza, and a sanctuary longer than two football fields at the Cathedral of Hope, a gay congregation in Dallas. With this birthday, Johnson moves out of the range of controversy and is officially certified as a national treasure who cannot be torn down. A few years ago, coverage of Johnson often discussed his early Nazi sympathies and mocked his architectural trend-surfing. Now it honors his longevity and praises his eclecticism. You are allowed to note, however, that his most famous design--the AT&T (now Sony) Building, which ushered in corporate postmodernism--was overrated.

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