Joe DiMaggio
died of complications from lung cancer surgery. News accounts recited
his résumé--the Hall of Fame, nine World Series championships, 11 All-Star
games, and three American League Most Valuable Player awards--but focused on
his record 56 game hitting steak in 1941, which still stands today. While
sports analysts compared his greatness on the field to that of Babe Ruth and
Lou Gehrig, commentators traced his celebrity to his courteous, humble,
all-American, son-of-immigrants personality. The spins: 1) DiMaggio represented
the grace and dignity of the good old days. 2) Ruth and Ty Cobb represented the
pugnacity and decadence of the good old days, and DiMaggio was the exception.
(3/8/99)
Gov. George
W. Bush , R-Texas, announced he is forming a presidential campaign
exploratory committee. Though he won't officially declare his candidacy until
June, he paraded notable supporters such as former GOP Chairman Haley Barbour
and House GOP Chairman J.C. Watts Jr., before the press. His aides also listed
scores of governors and members of Congress who are backing him. Everyone
agrees his strategy is to create an air of inevitability and suffocate his
competitors. The spins against him: 1) He's inexperienced in public office. 2)
He's inexperienced in national politics. 3) He has no base. 4) He lacks
organization in early states. 5) He's had it too easy and is due for a fall. 6)
His expectations are too high. 7) Elizabeth Dole's entry into the race will
kill his momentum. 8) His supporters don't know what he stands for. 9) He
doesn't know what he stands for. (3/8/99)
Film director
Stanley Kubrick died . Obituaries recalled his movies' eight Academy
Awards, focusing on Dr. Strangelove , A Clockwork Orange , and
2001: A Space Odyssey , also mentioning Lolita and The
Shining . Commentators debated the significance of the bleak fantasies in
which he portrayed human recklessness, madness, brutality, murder, and nuclear
holocaust. The half-cynical spin: He hated people and portrayed them as
savages. The completely cynical spin: He hated people and portrayed them as
savages because they deserved it. (3/8/99)
ABC aired
Monica Lewinsky's interview with Barbara Walters . The biggest news that
wasn't leaked prior to the broadcast: Between trysts with Clinton, Lewinsky had
another affair leading to an abortion. Seventy million people watched the
interview. Since Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr had forbidden Lewinsky to
talk about him in the interview, she bashed him separately in her book, which
is outside his jurisdiction. Pro-Monica spins: 1) She's a victim. 2) She's a
fool for love. 3) She's smarter than we thought. 4) She's still loyal to
Clinton. Anti-Monica spins: 1) She's vain. 2) She's amoral. 3) She's a savvy,
pernicious temptress. 4) She's shameless. 5) She makes Clinton look moral by
comparison. 6) She reflects our decadence. 7) She reflects our empty
sentimentality. 8) She reflects our tasteless commercialism. (Click to read the
"Frame Game" analysis of the interview, and for the "Culturebox" take.)
(3/5/99)
A court-martial
jury acquitted U.S. Marine Capt. Richard Ashby of involuntary homicide
and manslaughter in the Italian ski lift accident. Ashby's jet severed the
lift's cables, killing 20 European skiers . He still faces trial on a
charge that he obstructed justice by ditching the plane's videotape of the
accident. Evidence in the first trial indicated that the plane was flying too
fast and too low but that incomplete U.S. military maps, poor training,
inadequate communications, and a possibly faulty altimeter may also have
contributed to the accident. Italians are outraged. The naive Italian spin:
There is no justice in America. The sophisticated Italian spin: To get justice
in America we'll have to file a lawsuit. (3/5/99)
Former Supreme
Court Justice Harry Blackmun died . Obituaries fulfilled his prediction
that he would always be associated with his majority opinion in Roe vs.
Wade . The conservative spin on his career: He snookered President Nixon and
undermined justice by evolving from a law-and-order moderate into a flaming
liberal . Blackmun's spin: He remained a moderate but seemed increasingly
liberal by comparison as right-wingers took over the court. The liberal spin:
He served justice by evolving from a law-and-order moderate into a flaming
liberal. (3/5/99)
Rwandan Hutu
rebels abducted and murdered eight tourists , including two Americans, in
Uganda. The other six victims were Britons and New Zealanders. The selection of
American and British targets was evidently deliberate. Ugandan troops, with
help from U.S. and British agents, are tracking down the culprits and vow to
bring them in dead or alive. The spins: 1) Did the U.S. and British governments
adequately warn the tourists of danger? 2) Did the Ugandan government
adequately warn the U.S. and British governments? 3) If the lives of two
Americans are so important, why haven't we paid more attention to the 500,000
Africans similarly massacred in the Rwandan civil war? (3/3/99)
