Papal Bull
USA
Today and the Washington Post lead with the White House response to
Kathleen Willey. The New York
Times leads with the Vatican's official repentance regarding the mass
killings of Jews during World War II. And the Los Angeles
Times goes with the news that the first three University of California
campuses to generate admissions statistics since the system abandoned
affirmative action have seen their black and Latino acceptance rates
plummet.
Yesterday's White House response to Willey was primarily two-fold: a strong
denial from President Clinton, and the release of a raft of friendly letters
Willey sent to the White House after the date she alleges she was groped by
Clinton. In one letter, widely quoted, she calls herself Clinton's "number one
fan." In another, Willey asks to be appointed to an ambassadorship. The
NYT says some of the letters were "effusive." And a piece inside
USAT says they "do not suggest a woman who felt betrayed." (There was
also the effort of Clinton's personal lawyer, Robert Bennett, noted by the
NYT and USAT , to portray Willey as mercenary for trying to land a
book deal.)
None of the day's coverage of the Willey letters pays the slightest heed to
the well-known phenomenon of even physically abused women having trouble
expressing their animosity towards their abusers or physically separating from
them. It's as if nobody in the entire press corps remembers that Nicole Brown
Simpson moved back in with O.J. after those pictures were taken of her pummeled
face.
Despite the six-cylinder spin cycle, USAT says that "there was no
ignoring the dark mood that settled over the White House" in Willey's wake. The
paper noted a rare moment of anger by Mike McCurry, who lashed out at a
reporter who asked him whether Clinton had ever received psychological
treatment or counseling for risky and reckless behavior.
The WP lead makes that point that when originally
confronted with the Willey charges, Clinton released a statement saying that he
had "no specific recollection" of meeting with her, but that his current denial
is based on "a very clear memory" of the meeting.
USAT notes that Ann Lewis, who spearheaded the anti-Willey
counteroffensive yesterday with an appearance on the "Today" show, was a
leading supporter of Anita Hill. But the Post lead puts a finer point on
the matter, noting, "Democratic activists--Lewis among them--had accused
Republicans of attacking the victim when they noted in the Clarence Thomas
confirmation hearings in 1991 that Anita Hill had continued to stay in close
touch with Thomas even after he allegedly harassed her with lewd sexual
remarks."
Such apparently effortless shifting by some women is called to task
pointedly in the Wall Street Journal 's main "Politics and Policy" piece via
a quotation from a Democratic consultant, who says, "What gets to the heart of
it is that feminism is no longer a principle, it's a political tool."
The NYT lead concerning the Vatican points out that while the
document issued Monday is described by the Church as "an act of repentance" for
the failure of Roman Catholics to deter the mass killings in Europe during the
Holocaust, it skirts the issue of the Vatican's institutional shortcomings
during the era, primarily its official silence about the Nazis. The document,
says the paper, took 11 years to prepare, and was greeted coolly by Jewish
leaders. Everybody carries the repentance story on the front page.
Everybody's front page also carries word that the McKinney trial jury didn't
send the former sergeant major of the Army to jail, but did bust him down one
rank, a move that will cost him $10,000 a year in pension money. Also, McKinney
sued his initial accuser for libel, asking $1.5 million. Meanwhile, the
LAT and NYT fronts report that Defense Secretary William Cohen
rejected an advisory commission's recommendation that male and female recruits
be housed separately during training.
The NYT runs the following correction: "Because of an editing error, an article on Feb. 26
about Manhattanites' reliance on mini-storage referred incorrectly to doves and
a rabbit used in the act of Arnie Kolodner, a magician. While he keeps costumes
in mini-storage, the rabbit and doves live in his home. A correction in this
space on Saturday omitted mention of the rabbit."
