Putting Out the Best China
The Washington Post lead is a rare interview with China's
President Jiang Zemin. The Los Angeles Times leads with news that the federal
investigation into a suspected Chinese scheme to buy influence in American
politics has bogged down because the money trail has gone cold. And the
New York Times
lead is that after four years of relative price stability brought about by the
spread of managed care, the cost of health insurance is about to go up
significantly.
Jiang tells the WP that he urges Americans to tolerate China's
political system and to seek "common ground despite differences," and that his
country and the United States "share the responsibility for preserving world
peace and stability." According to the story, during Jiang's visit, China will
pledge to end sales of cruise missiles to Iran and will receive, in return for
its promise to stop all support for nuclear programs in Iran and Pakistan,
permission to purchase nuclear-power equipment from American firms.
The conversation with Jiang was highly structured. The Post submitted
questions in advance and when the reporters posed them face-to-face, Jiang read
written replies to them. (There was also eventually some informal discussion as
well.)
When Jiang says in the interview that the theory of relativity can be
applied to politics in that democracy and human rights are relative concepts,
the Post is apparently worried that you might not get his reference to
the theory's creator without the provision of his first name, which it adds to
Jiang's remark: ".worked out by Mr. [Albert] Einstein."
The WP front page reports that the agreement to loosen up Japanese
port procedures for U.S. vessels worked out on Friday with Japanese shipping
companies under the threat of banning them from U.S. ports is widely believed
by American trade officials and experts to demonstrate that every so often, to
achieve trade fairness, Tokyo must be "hit with the economic equivalent of a
two-by-four."
How to explain that yesterday's gathering at Arlington National Cemetery of
thousands of female military veterans for the dedication of a new memorial
honoring them was, among the majors, deemed front-page news only at the
LAT ?
The NYT uses the latest round of presidential videotapes to serve up
a one-two anti-Clinton punch. The paper's lead editorial says that a December
7, 1995 tape on which President Clinton tells contributors that the DNC's issue
ads were being used to drive up his poll numbers and that the DNC was being
used to avoid the $1,000 limit on individual contributions to candidate ads "is
smoking with evidence." And William Safire calls a May 21, 1996 tape covering
much of the same ground "a smoking gun." Safire castigates the Department of
Justice for being obtuse in the face of this evidence and urges the Senate to
step up its investigative efforts to fill the void because "a widespread,
criminal conspiracy to violate Federal election laws stares the nation in the
face."
Both the WP and NYT run stories inside reporting on a piece
coming out next week in the Chronicle of Higher Education concerning
college president salaries. It turns out that recently retired Northeastern
University prez John Curry made out the best with a total compensation package
of just under $1 million. Almost all the other top ten college bosses made over
$400,000. The Chronicle reports that the average total pay for
presidents of research universities is $333,239. Neither paper points out that
these salaries are effectively even higher because most college presidents have
housing provided to them.
