Carpal Diem
Both the New York Times and
Washington Post lead with the government's expected
introduction today of safety rules designed to counter repetitive stress
injuries in the workplace, like carpal tunnel syndrome. The USA Today
lead notes how states will be spending the first installment of the $206
billion they'll receive in settlements with the tobacco industry. Most of the
initial $2.4 billion, the paper reports, will be going to health care, but much
will also be spent on completely unrelated areas, such as roads, jails, farm
aid, schools, and senior centers. The story quotes the architect of state legal
action against tobacco companies, Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore,
as deploring this diversion of funds. The Los Angeles
Times leads with a snapshot of the nation's current political
sentiment, based on 1,800 adults (including 370 who aren't registered to
vote--who cares what they think?). The polling's takeaway: Voters would prefer
Democrats controlling Congress and a Republican in the White House (the
survey's presidential tally is Bush over Gore 55 percent to 40 percent), a
stance the paper summarizes as "Times are good, so throw the bums out."
The big type over the WP lead--"OSHA OFFERS STANDARD TO FIGHT
INJURIES IN WORKPLACE"--is clearer than the big type over the
NYT 's--"AFTER LONG DELAY, U.S PLANS TO ISSUE ERGONOMIC RULES." But with
that exception, the NYT effort is the better story. For instance, what does the WP mean with this first
sentence, "The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will take the
first step today to require many employers to provide work spaces and equipment
to support the physical makeup of each individual doing his job."? And the
NYT uses its third paragraph to cite bottom-line-based business
resistance to the rules as the chief cause in their delay, while the
Post doesn't get to this until its 13th. And while the WP quotes
somebody from something called Food Distributors International as its source
for the bottom-line worry, the Times goes instead with the Small
Business Administration, which the paper explains, is an independent government
agency.
Moreover, the Times has the clearest statement of the dimension of
the problem being addressed: 600,000 Americans injured this way on the job each
year. (A puzzle arising from reading the stories together: Although the
WP doesn't give the injury total, it says the new regime would prevent
300,000 injuries. Can it really be true that fully half of these injuries are
unpreventable?)
The LAT is alone in fronting the news that according to the FBI,
serious crime continues to plummet--10 percent in the first half of 1999. The story
makes the point that the falling crime rate helps police fight crime: lighter
caseloads mean more cops on the street.
The NYT front reports that a class action lawsuit will be filed today
on behalf of millions of Californians claiming that Microsoft used its monopoly
on operating systems to overcharge for Windows 95 and Windows 98. The paper
says that this sort of lawsuit could ultimately be more of a threat to the
company than suits brought by competitors, potentially costing it millions,
even billions.
George W. Bush gave a live interview on TV yesterday (on Meet the
Press ) and what is most important about what he said depends on which
paper you read. The WP emphasizes his praise for what the paper calls
the "Supreme Court's two most consistently conservative and antiabortion
jurists," while refusing to say what he thought about Justice David H. Souter.
The NYT starts off with Bush's profession of opposition to most
abortions but then immediately cites his remark that in his presidency an
anti-abortion stance would not be the principal consideration for appointment
to the Supreme Court. The Wall Street Journal leads instead with GWB's statement of
his commitment to an overhaul of the Social Security system. The Journal
story doesn't mention abortion.
The WP passes along the results of a New York Post online poll
soliciting readers' opinions about the most evil people of all time: Bill
Clinton finished second (voters had to write him in), after Adolf Hitler but
ahead of Stalin, Pol Pot, and Josef Mengele. Hillary Clinton, also a write-in,
finished sixth.
Evidence of just how overpaid college coaches are at even "legitimate"
programs can be garnered from this straight-faced item in the real estate
section of Sunday's LAT : "UCLA basketball coach Steve Lavin has
purchased a newly built custom home in Marina del Rey for close to its $1.5
million asking price."
