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All the papers except the New York Times lead with the recovery of a large piece of
wreckage from EgyptAir flight 990 and the discovery of an electronic beacon
possibly emitted by its cockpit voice or data recorder (this story also tops
the Wall Street
Journal 's "Worldwide" box). The NYT fronts this story but leads with a federal judge's order to New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani to restore funding to the Brooklyn Museum, a story fronted by the
Los Angeles
Times . Citing First Amendment violations, the judge issued a temporary
injunction against the city, which said it will appeal and also fight the
museum's efforts to make the injunction permanent.
Many air crash stories are filled with airy nothings. "The large questions ...
remained unanswered," the NYT informs us. "Like many aspects of the early investigation,
numerous facts begged for interpretation and elaboration ... but no immediate
conclusions were forthcoming from officials. ... In an inquiry that will
undoubtedly produce many leads, an intriguing one surfaced Monday" about a
possible suitcase tampering. But two paragraphs later, the Times notes
that officials "were not attaching much significance to the lead." The
Journal does note that the Boeing 767 has an excellent safety
record.
The NYT off-leads the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by the Clinton
administration to admit China into the World Trade Organization by Nov. 30,
when President Clinton hosts a world trade meeting in Seattle. Clinton walked
away from a similar deal in April but restarted negotiations with a call to
Chinese Prime Minister Jiang Zemin "late on the night of October 16." The
"secret exchanges" since then are intended to consummate 16 years of American
efforts to include China in GATT and its successor, the WTO (which sets the
terms for world trade). The Washington Post fronts a story chronicling the preparations
of the tens of thousands of WTO critics expected to protest in Seattle. A
separate Post story notes that the House put off voting on a bill to strengthen
Taiwan-American military relations in deference to the negotiations with
China.
The LAT fronts--and the NYT , WP , and USA Today reefer--the death
at 45 of football great Walter Payton. Payton, who had bile duct cancer, was
the National Football League's all-time leading rusher. All the obituaries note
his legendary training regimen and brute strength, packed into a 5' 10'',
204-pound frame. At age 23 he rushed for 275 yards in a game, a league record,
and received the first of two MVP awards.
The Post fronts a long history of Bill Bradley's military service.
Unlike Clinton, Bradley did not nurture a strong political opposition to the
Vietnam War (eventually he grew cautiously opposed). Also unlike Clinton,
Bradley soberly accepted his duty to serve by enlisting in the Air Force
Reserves. The Post says he secured an extremely rare reservist
position (they numbered in the hundreds)--one which allowed him to tailor his
military schedule to Knicks games. Although he discovered the position through
tips from military friends, the Post reveals that Bradley's
application did not get special treatment from military personnel and that he
specifically asked the Knicks not to lobby on his behalf. Bradley's choices,
the Post notes, "display characteristics that recurred often in his
public life: foresight, circumspection, and skill at finding advantage while
adhering strictly to the rules."
Both the NYT and WSJ opinion pages run critiques of the
country's rush to judgment on airline disasters. "An event with a
one-in-a-million chance of happening to any American on any given day will, in
fact, occur 260 times each day in this country," notes
mathematician John Allen Paulos ( NYT ), who argues that the EgyptAir
crash was almost certainly a random event. (Read Paulos' "Breakfast Table"
dispatches here.)
And Barry Glassner writes in the Journal that most differences in
safety records between airlines have been shown to be statistically
insignificant. Nevertheless, the Post runs a story detailing the (mixed) accident history of
EgyptAir. (To read Michael Kinsley on our irrational fear of flying, click
here.)
Post columnist Richard Cohen predicts the release of Al Gore, Version 2.0: Alpha Male.
"Do not be surprised if, someday soon, you hear Gore growl. Do not be surprised
if, at some Rose Garden event, he bares his teeth at Clinton or--in a suit
selected by [Naomi] Wolf--sniffs him. He may even come up to him and challenge
him to arm wrestle. No one has ever done that to a president before--not in an
olive green suit, anyway. This will surely win Gore the respect, admiration,
and sighs of countless Americans."
