Cogito Ergonomics
USA Today
leads with the Immigration and Naturalization Service's decision to return
6-year-old Elián González to his father in Cuba by Jan. 14. All other papers
front the story. The Washington Post goes with Labor Secretary Alexis Herman's
backpedaling on an Occupational Safety and Health Administration directive
making employers responsible for safety and health violations in employees'
home offices. The Wall Street
Journal tops its "World-Wide" box with yesterday's Democratic
presidential debate at the University of New Hampshire. The New York Times goes local
and off-leads the uncertain status of fighting between Russians and Chechens in
Grozny. The Los Angeles
Times , which leads with the governor's State of the State
address, off-leads González and reefers the Labor Department story.
Officially, the INS judged the case based on law and research, but anonymous
officials told the NYT that the administration did not want to damage
relations with Cuba when it is trying to forge new contacts there. Justice
Department officials indicated they would oppose threatened legal moves by
González's angry relatives, who are hosting the boy in Miami. No decision has
been made on how Elián will be reunited with his father: The INS offered to
bring Juan González to the States to pick the boy up, but González has said
it's the Americans' responsibility to bring him home. González senior may be
under pressure from the Cuban government, the LAT and Post
report.
Each story carries President Clinton's boast that his administration has
kept the boy's plight "out of politics," but the two Times dispute
that statement. Castro, whose name isn't even mentioned in the Post, is
treated with kid gloves in the NYT . Only the LAT reports that
Castro has called the situation an abduction. Elián has been roped into someone
else's game: He is the center of an "international tug of war" in the WP
lede and a front-page LAT caption, and the "center of a political
tug-of-war" in the USAT . The NYT turns him into "the central
object in a tug-of-war." How can the situation almost unanimously be a
political "tug of war" if so little is mentioned of who's tugging on the other
end?
A flurry of calls between Labor and the White House resulted in Herman
recanting the home office directive, the Post reports. The confusion
shows that telecommuting has changed the workplace so that traditional rules
and regulations may no longer apply--or perhaps no one's sure how to apply
them. Withdrawing the directive, which first made news Tuesday, may not affect
the policy behind it. Almost 20 million people in the U.S. work at home.
The NYT and WP front the Securities and Exchange Commission's
filing of a civil suit against stock guru Yun Soo Oh Park--"Tokyo Joe" of
Internet fame. Park, accused of committing four counts of fraud, is said to
have advised followers to buy certain stocks, which he then sold on the sly as
their orders lifted the stocks' prices. In 1998, he allegedly accepted 100,000
shares in a cigar maker and Boca Raton deli-owner; in return, he is said to
have recommended the stock to his customers, without revealing his relationship
to the company. The SEC's complaint is its most aggressive move yet against an
Internet stock whiz.
The NYT, Post (in their business sections), and WSJ report
that Amazon.com Inc.'s fourth-quarter revenue, $650 million, failed to match
analysts' "whisper number," which in some circles doubled earlier, published
estimates of $500 million. Stockholders were not impressed: Investors beat the
stock down 15 percent, lowering its market capitalization by $4 billion, to $24
billion.
Coverage of the fourth Bradley-Gore debate is pot luck. The NYT and
WSJ address both candidates' strengthening of earlier statements
defending gays in the military. The Post summarizes the debate topics
as "guns, health, ability" in its headline and mentions Sen. Edward Kennedy's
endorsement of Gore in its subhead. The WSJ highlights in its
"World-Wide" column (as opposed to its story) Bradley's accusation that Gore
contorted his health care plan by claiming it would hurt minorities. According
to the LAT, the debate centered on who might be a stronger president. A
NYT front-pager reports that McCain, in the midst of a fight against the
power of money in politics, twice in the past couple months urged the Federal
Communications Commission to act on an issue that would benefit a major
contributor to his campaign.
Chechens claim to have seized a village southwest of Grozny; Russians said
the fighters fled the capital in desperation. NYT Moscow bureau chief
Michael Gordon reports from North Ossetia, a Russian republic west of Chechnya:
"It is impossible to verify either side's claims since the Russian military has
not taken reporters to Chechnya for three days."
Department of Misplaced Rhetorical Imagery: In light of last year's
school shootings, the LAT lead headline is somewhat startling: "[Gov.]
Davis Issues a Call to Arms for Better Teachers, Schools." Coincidentally, New
York Gov. George Pataki, in the NYT lead, outlined changes in practices
for recruiting teachers, saying that "right now, Colin Powell can't teach in
the New York schools that he grew up in." The LAT story explains that
Davis used images of warfare in his State of the State speech to drum
up enthusiasm for hiring and training new teachers. The "war for the future,"
he said, "will be fought school to school, classroom to classroom, desk to
desk." Today's Papers knows what he means, but had hoped classroom warfare
might be left in the past.
