Hearing Impaired
The Senate's political fundraising hearings continue to play big. The
Los
Angeles Times leads with the report that at the hearings, "the
Democratic Party's former finance director [Richard Sullivan] testifies that
top Clinton aides helped install the central figure in the controversy, John
Huang, as a top party fundraiser; Clinton, attending a NATO summit in Madrid,
Spain, acknowledges that he may have helped play a role in Huang's hiring." The
Wall Street Journal puts this same story at the top
of its "World-Wide" news column. The New York Times
also leads with the hearings, but prefers to stress that members of the
investigating committee have learned that Attorney General Janet Reno is
opposed to giving Huang immunity from prosecution. But there is a little
variety today: USA Today leads with a likely change in airline security
procedures, and the Washington Post goes with a likely change in the TV rating
system.
The NYT 's hearing coverage has Sullivan giving the following
testimony about a memo apparently describing a schedule of fund-raising coffees
at the White House, even though these are barred by law from being conducted on
federal property: "Senator, the coffees helped us with our fund-raising. I was
the fund-raising director. But they were not fund-raisers. They were not
fund-raisers." Instead, Sullivan explained, the "coffees were a tool in helping
us motivate and energize the people that we needed to motivate and energize to
help us raise the $130 million that we wanted to raise."
USAT , the NYT , the WP , and the LAT each give
above-the-fold coverage to yesterday's decision by Nevada boxing authorities to
fine Mike Tyson nearly $3 million and to revoke his boxing license for at least
one year as punishment for biting Evander Holyfield on both ears during their
championship fight last week. The papers indulge in much speculation about
whether or not this means the end of Tyson's career. The bald, brawling boxer
known as "Butterbean" tells USAT that he's willing to fight Tyson, "if I
could put duct tape on my ears."
There's also a lot of coverage of yesterday's change at the top at Apple
Computer: the departure of CEO Gilbert Amelio. All the stories agree the
development means an expanded role at Apple for co-founder Steve Jobs, who
recently rejoined its management team after being forced out in 1985. But they
don't all agree about what actually happened. The NYT says Amelio
stepped down. The WSJ says he was ousted. The USAT headline says
he quit, but its text says he was ousted. The LAT headline says he was
ousted, but its text says he quit.
The WP carries a story deep inside that's sure to move up at least a
little in the days ahead. Seems that at the Madrid NATO meetings, while
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was kept waiting for a tardy President
Clinton, he vented a bit about Clinton to some European leaders, and a
television network's audio system picked up his comments. "Take the quarrel
over whether to admit the Baltic states," Chretien said, in remarks that were
aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "That has nothing to do with world
security. It's because in Chicago, Mayor [Richard] Daley controls lots of votes
for the [Democratic] nomination."
Today's NYT op-ed page continues a disturbing trend. Earlier in the
week, Alec Baldwin got prime space on the page to co-author a rehash defense of
the National Endowment for the Arts. Today, it's Steve Martin with a piece
about how the Mars probe discovers kittens there that are just like earth
kittens except that they remain kittens forever and can parse sentences in the
newspaper. Really. Jeez, when Anthony Lewis wants a change of pace, he doesn't
get a part in "Father of the Bride."
