Biting Commentary
Yes, the New York Times leads
today with the demise of the federal welfare state, and yes, today's Wall Street Journal gives the top spot (that's column six, top of
the page) to a forecast of growth in elderly care companies. And both the
NYT and the Los Angeles Times do big pieces on the British handover of Hong
Kong. But the Washington Post goes clear across the top of its front page with
Mike Tyson biting Evander Holyfield, under a banner headline: "Tyson's Conduct
Under Review." (Which admittedly falls far short of yesterday's LAT
header: "A Lobe Blow.") And USA TODAY makes Tyson its news section "Cover Story" and
even the NYT puts it on the front.
The Post states that the Las Vegas cops are looking at a video tape
of the fight and its riotous aftermath, and goes on to report that "a portion
of Holyfield's ear was recovered by Mitch Libonati, a hotel employee. It was
rushed to Valley Hospital on ice, 'but by the time it came in, it was not
viable,' said Julio Garcia, the plastic surgeon who treated Holyfield." The
NYT has Libonati saying to a security guard: "I have something he
probably wants." (Apparently, neither the NYT nor USAT reached
Dr. Garcia, because they each say that the body part was lost en route to the
hospital.) USAT gets credit for going to novelist and boxing expert Budd
Schulberg for some historical perspective, but slips a little in saying that
his novel The Harder They Fall inspired the movie "On The Waterfront."
Actually, it inspired the movie "The Harder They Fall."
The Los Angeles Times reports today that a 1991 trip to Asia, made by
the then-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the late Ron Brown, a
trip which has yet to draw the scrutiny of investigators, may have provided the
groundwork for the Democrats' foreign fund-raising from Asian special
interests.
Oh, and in case you hadn't heard, the subhead of that NYT piece on
the new welfare programs breaks the news that they're marked by an "emphasis on
work." Interestingly, the piece belies its own headline proclaiming that the
"U.S. Welfare System Dies as State Programs Emerge" with its observation that
despite many ongoing attempts at reform around the country, "the states with
the three largest welfare populations -- California, New York and Texas -- have
mostly been absent from the trend."
On the front page above the fold, the Post reports that after two
years of study, the Clinton Administration has just decided not to call for new
taxes or regulations on business conducted over the Internet. The piece dwells
on such issues as the problem of lost sales tax revenue and the export of
encryption technologies, and waits until the last paragraph to reveal that this
position was reached for the president by Ira Magaziner, who designed his
health care plan. The NYT handles this information a little differently
in its (inside) story on the development, which it runs under the headline,
"Man Behind Doomed Health Plan Wants Minimal Regulation of Net."
