France won the World Cup. French playmaker Zinedine Zidane was the hero,
heading two goals in the 3-0 upset of defending champion Brazil. French fans,
having been accused of insufficient zeal, upheld the traditional World Cup
post-championship traditions of screaming, yelling, mobbing streets, and
causing traffic accidents. The superficial spin: The Europeans beat the South
Americans. The sophisticated spin: Black, mixed-race, and second-generation
French players (led by Zidane, the Muslim son of Algerian immigrants) beat the
team that had been embraced, overhyped, and overcommercialized by the global
sports media and business elite. The cynical spin: Adidas (sponsor of the
French team) beat Nike (sponsor of the Brazilian team) and will use the victory
to sell expensive shoes to poor kids all over the world. (7/13/98)
Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto resigned after his Liberal
Democratic Party suffered losses in parliamentary elections. Free-market
advocates called the vote a repudiation of the LDP's market-meddling pork and
cronyism. Others interpreted it as punishment for the LDP's equivocation about
what to do to rescue Japan's economy. Pessimists predicted that by weakening
the LDP and opening the prime minister's seat to contenders even less dynamic
than Hashimoto, voters have worsened Japan's paralysis. Optimists predicted the
LDP's whipping may jar it into taking firmer measures (tax cuts and other
stimuli) to fix the economy. (7/13/98)
Western
doctors confirmed Nigerian opposition leader Moshood Abiola died of heart
disease . Abiola, whose imminent victory in the 1993 presidential election
was annulled by the military, died in detention July 7, just as he was about to
be released. Many Nigerians suspect he was poisoned. The superficial spin:
Abiola died of natural causes, not foul play. The cynical spin: Natural? He
died because he had been unjustly imprisoned for five years, which is a subtler
kind of foul play. Analysts agree Abiola is the only man who could have claimed
a popular mandate to supplant Nigeria's military rulers. Pessimists say this
means the country's democracy movement is defeated. Optimists say it means the
country can put aside the 1993 controversy and move on to a new election.
(7/13/98)
CNN
decided not to fire Peter Arnett for his role in the network's
now-retracted report that the U.S. military used nerve gas against American
defectors in the Vietnam war. The report's producers were fired. Arnett, who
narrated the report, was reprimanded. Arnett's spins: 1) "There was no way in
hell I could have possibly gone through the vast material they had gathered,
the interview tapes and everything. I didn't even want to." 2) It's standard
practice for producers to enlist correspondents such as him to ask scripted
questions on camera without having done the preparatory work. By contrast,
Arnett says, he's an "action reporter," who generally does his own research. 3)
"There was nothing I could do ... to halt the onward rush of this story." 4) "I
was never informed that my face on the air gave me responsibility for a major
story." 5) "I'm a company guy. You want me to read a script, I'll read it." 6)
After the story collapsed, "I was basically told to be a good team player and
not say anything." 7) He didn't write the Time piece that echoed the CNN
report, though he shared the byline. 8) "For those who say I should have been
fired with the others--my reputation has taken a major hit around the world."
9) "I was being trashed on a daily basis in the right-wing media." 10) Far from
damaging CNN's reputation, he helped build it. 11) "I hope they don't saddle me
with the blame. I think it's a cop-out." Critics called Arnett's alibis worse
than the crime. The New York Times ' Frank Rich asked, "Is he really
still a journalist, or does he just play one on TV?" (7/10/98)
New
Jersey teen-ager Amy Grossberg was sentenced to two and a half years in
jail for the 1996 manslaughter of her baby, which was found in a trash bag
after dying of massive head injuries. Grossberg's boyfriend, the baby's father,
got a two year sentence. Prosecutors dropped murder charges because they
couldn't prove who had killed the baby. The judge called Grossberg spoiled,
selfish, and blind "to the intrinsic value of the life of the child." The
positive spin: Rich kids aren't above the law. The negative spin: Rich kids get
off easy because they can afford good lawyers who know how to plea-bargain.
(7/10/98)
Afghanistan's Muslim government announced that police will destroy all
televisions and VCRs within 15 days. The government has also banned audiotapes
and other entertainment media. An official explained that television and video
are "the cause of corruption." Human rights activists called it the world's
harshest ban on information. The good news: The government hasn't banned
Internet access. The bad news: That's because nobody in Afghanistan has it.
(7/10/98)
Dow
Corning tentatively agreed to pay $3.2 billion to settle silicone
breast-implant suits brought by 170,000 women. The deal requires further
clarification and approval. The suits blamed the implants for numerous
diseases. Editorialists criticized 1) the plaintiffs' lawyers, for trying to
enrich themselves by linking the implants to apparently unrelated maladies and
2) the company, for failing to warn women of the implants' genuine risks.
Analysts concluded the company didn't want to risk damage awards by tear-jerked
juries and that the plaintiffs didn't want to risk being discredited by further
studies. (7/10/98)
A
federal appeals court ordered Secret Service officials to testify about
President Clinton's activities with Monica Lewinsky. The Clinton administration
had asserted a "protective function privilege," which would preclude Secret
Service testimony on the grounds that if the president thought his agents might
testify against him, he might keep them at a distance, thereby endangering his
safety. Translation of the judges' arguments for rejecting this privilege: 1)
If Congress wants to grant such a privilege, it should do so explicitly. 2)
Even if the agents can't testify against a naughty president, he might keep
them at a distance just to mitigate his shame, or at least to protect his
"privacy." 3) When deciding whether to keep his agents away, the president's
self-preservation instinct will overcome his fear of inconvenient testimony.
Pundits called the decision a reprieve for Kenneth Starr--who has lost some
recent court decisions--but noted it doesn't affect the separate assertion of
attorney-client privilege for Clinton aide Bruce Lindsey. (7/8/98)
Mikail Markhasev was convicted of murdering Ennis Cosby , Bill Cosby's
son. Lessons for future murderers: 1) When you dump your gun, don't wrap it in
the hat you wore during the murder. (The cops matched the gun to the fatal
bullet, and they matched the hair and fibers in the hat to Markhasev.) 2) While
in jail, don't write letters virtually confessing to the crime. (Jurors say
that's what made this case "open and shut.") 3) Your buddies will turn you in
for money. (Markhasev's "friend" tipped off the National Enquirer and
led the cops to Markhasev's gun in exchange for the Enquirer 's $100,000
reward.) The media sulked that the trial was over before it could become
another O.J.-style circus. (7/8/98)
Tina
Brown resigned as editor of The
New Yorker . She will chair a
multimedia publishing company in partnership with Miramax Films. Magazine
mavens rehashed the debates over whether 1) she had made The
New
Yorker trashy or refreshingly hip and 2) its increase in circulation
outweighed its financial losses during her tenure. Brown says she's leaving for
the opportunity to transcend the print medium and "to own what we create." The
Associated Press notes she's leaving two months after The
New
Yorker brought in a new publisher and began to merge operations with other
Condé Nast publications to save money. (David Plotz foretold Brown's departure
in a recent
Slate
"Assessment.")
(7/8/98)
Singing cowboy Roy
Rogers died . Conservatives praised his old-fashioned fidelity, compassion,
chivalry, and humility. Liberals lauded his nonviolence. The sunny spin: He was
as noble in real life as on television. He was Dale Evans' faithful husband for
50 years; modeled good habits for the kids who watched his show (he gave up
beer off-screen and never kissed Dale on-screen); and adopted abused, orphaned,
and ethnic-minority children. The surly spins: 1) Gen Xers don't know him and
think his name refers only to burger joints. 2) Now that he's dead, the dirt
diggers will go after him, just as they went after Ozzie and Harriett. Chapter
1: His real name was Leonard Franklin Slye. (See "Summary
Judgment" for more.) (7/8/98)
