France won the World Cup. French playmaker Zinedine Zidane was the hero, heading two goals in the 3-0 upset of defending champion Brazil. French fans, having been accused of insufficient zeal, upheld the traditional World Cup post-championship traditions of screaming, yelling, mobbing streets, and causing traffic accidents. The superficial spin: The Europeans beat the South Americans. The sophisticated spin: Black, mixed-race, and second-generation French players (led by Zidane, the Muslim son of Algerian immigrants) beat the team that had been embraced, overhyped, and overcommercialized by the global sports media and business elite. The cynical spin: Adidas (sponsor of the French team) beat Nike (sponsor of the Brazilian team) and will use the victory to sell expensive shoes to poor kids all over the world. (7/13/98) Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto resigned after his Liberal Democratic Party suffered losses in parliamentary elections. Free-market advocates called the vote a repudiation of the LDP's market-meddling pork and cronyism. Others interpreted it as punishment for the LDP's equivocation about what to do to rescue Japan's economy. Pessimists predicted that by weakening the LDP and opening the prime minister's seat to contenders even less dynamic than Hashimoto, voters have worsened Japan's paralysis. Optimists predicted the LDP's whipping may jar it into taking firmer measures (tax cuts and other stimuli) to fix the economy. (7/13/98) Western doctors confirmed Nigerian opposition leader Moshood Abiola died of heart disease . Abiola, whose imminent victory in the 1993 presidential election was annulled by the military, died in detention July 7, just as he was about to be released. Many Nigerians suspect he was poisoned. The superficial spin: Abiola died of natural causes, not foul play. The cynical spin: Natural? He died because he had been unjustly imprisoned for five years, which is a subtler kind of foul play. Analysts agree Abiola is the only man who could have claimed a popular mandate to supplant Nigeria's military rulers. Pessimists say this means the country's democracy movement is defeated. Optimists say it means the country can put aside the 1993 controversy and move on to a new election. (7/13/98) CNN decided not to fire Peter Arnett for his role in the network's now-retracted report that the U.S. military used nerve gas against American defectors in the Vietnam war. The report's producers were fired. Arnett, who narrated the report, was reprimanded. Arnett's spins: 1) "There was no way in hell I could have possibly gone through the vast material they had gathered, the interview tapes and everything. I didn't even want to." 2) It's standard practice for producers to enlist correspondents such as him to ask scripted questions on camera without having done the preparatory work. By contrast, Arnett says, he's an "action reporter," who generally does his own research. 3) "There was nothing I could do ... to halt the onward rush of this story." 4) "I was never informed that my face on the air gave me responsibility for a major story." 5) "I'm a company guy. You want me to read a script, I'll read it." 6) After the story collapsed, "I was basically told to be a good team player and not say anything." 7) He didn't write the Time piece that echoed the CNN report, though he shared the byline. 8) "For those who say I should have been fired with the others--my reputation has taken a major hit around the world." 9) "I was being trashed on a daily basis in the right-wing media." 10) Far from damaging CNN's reputation, he helped build it. 11) "I hope they don't saddle me with the blame. I think it's a cop-out." Critics called Arnett's alibis worse than the crime. The New York Times ' Frank Rich asked, "Is he really still a journalist, or does he just play one on TV?" (7/10/98) New Jersey teen-ager Amy Grossberg was sentenced to two and a half years in jail for the 1996 manslaughter of her baby, which was found in a trash bag after dying of massive head injuries. Grossberg's boyfriend, the baby's father, got a two year sentence. Prosecutors dropped murder charges because they couldn't prove who had killed the baby. The judge called Grossberg spoiled, selfish, and blind "to the intrinsic value of the life of the child." The positive spin: Rich kids aren't above the law. The negative spin: Rich kids get off easy because they can afford good lawyers who know how to plea-bargain. (7/10/98) Afghanistan's Muslim government announced that police will destroy all televisions and VCRs within 15 days. The government has also banned audiotapes and other entertainment media. An official explained that television and video are "the cause of corruption." Human rights activists called it the world's harshest ban on information. The good news: The government hasn't banned Internet access. The bad news: That's because nobody in Afghanistan has it. (7/10/98) Dow Corning tentatively agreed to pay $3.2 billion to settle silicone breast-implant suits brought by 170,000 women. The deal requires further clarification and approval. The suits blamed the implants for numerous diseases. Editorialists criticized 1) the plaintiffs' lawyers, for trying to enrich themselves by linking the implants to apparently unrelated maladies and 2) the company, for failing to warn women of the implants' genuine risks. Analysts concluded the company didn't want to risk damage awards by tear-jerked juries and that the plaintiffs didn't want to risk being discredited by further studies. (7/10/98) A federal appeals court ordered Secret Service officials to testify about President Clinton's activities with Monica Lewinsky. The Clinton administration had asserted a "protective function privilege," which would preclude Secret Service testimony on the grounds that if the president thought his agents might testify against him, he might keep them at a distance, thereby endangering his safety. Translation of the judges' arguments for rejecting this privilege: 1) If Congress wants to grant such a privilege, it should do so explicitly. 2) Even if the agents can't testify against a naughty president, he might keep them at a distance just to mitigate his shame, or at least to protect his "privacy." 3) When deciding whether to keep his agents away, the president's self-preservation instinct will overcome his fear of inconvenient testimony. Pundits called the decision a reprieve for Kenneth Starr--who has lost some recent court decisions--but noted it doesn't affect the separate assertion of attorney-client privilege for Clinton aide Bruce Lindsey. (7/8/98) Mikail Markhasev was convicted of murdering Ennis Cosby , Bill Cosby's son. Lessons for future murderers: 1) When you dump your gun, don't wrap it in the hat you wore during the murder. (The cops matched the gun to the fatal bullet, and they matched the hair and fibers in the hat to Markhasev.) 2) While in jail, don't write letters virtually confessing to the crime. (Jurors say that's what made this case "open and shut.") 3) Your buddies will turn you in for money. (Markhasev's "friend" tipped off the National Enquirer and led the cops to Markhasev's gun in exchange for the Enquirer 's $100,000 reward.) The media sulked that the trial was over before it could become another O.J.-style circus. (7/8/98) Tina Brown resigned as editor of The New Yorker . She will chair a multimedia publishing company in partnership with Miramax Films. Magazine mavens rehashed the debates over whether 1) she had made The New Yorker trashy or refreshingly hip and 2) its increase in circulation outweighed its financial losses during her tenure. Brown says she's leaving for the opportunity to transcend the print medium and "to own what we create." The Associated Press notes she's leaving two months after The New Yorker brought in a new publisher and began to merge operations with other Condé Nast publications to save money. (David Plotz foretold Brown's departure in a recent Slate "Assessment.") (7/8/98) Singing cowboy Roy Rogers died . Conservatives praised his old-fashioned fidelity, compassion, chivalry, and humility. Liberals lauded his nonviolence. The sunny spin: He was as noble in real life as on television. He was Dale Evans' faithful husband for 50 years; modeled good habits for the kids who watched his show (he gave up beer off-screen and never kissed Dale on-screen); and adopted abused, orphaned, and ethnic-minority children. The surly spins: 1) Gen Xers don't know him and think his name refers only to burger joints. 2) Now that he's dead, the dirt diggers will go after him, just as they went after Ozzie and Harriett. Chapter 1: His real name was Leonard Franklin Slye. (See "Summary Judgment" for more.) (7/8/98)