News Is a Harsh Mistress
Date: 16 January 1994
By Stephan Salisbury
Stephan Salisbury
Mort Rosenblum, a veteran Associated Press correspondent based in Paris, poses a vaguely sinister question for the title of this anecdotal and often entertaining guidebook to foreign news and reporting. But the real questions underlying WHO STOLE THE NEWS? Why We Can't Keep Up With What Happens in the World and What We Can Do About It (Wiley, $24.95) are a bit more mundane: what is news, and why doesn't anyone seem to care much about anything beyond the immediately domestic? Americans are infamous around the world for being uninterested in things foreign -- a foolish attitude on a planet whose nations are more and more interlinked, Mr. Rosenblum argues. Television and the profit motive are the primary culprits keeping the population mired in ignorance, he contends. News organizations forgo foreign news because there is scant consumer interest. No surprises there. Yet given the low priority assigned most foreign events by news media executives, it is still possible for citizens to obtain the information necessary to make informed judgments. Readers must simply hunt it down in newspapers, magazines and journals. Much, of course, depends on the quality of reporting itself, and here is where Mr. Rosenblum is most interesting. He laces his argument with numerous examples of the trials, woes and infelicities endemic to reporting abroad. His devastating portrait of American military censorship during the Persian Gulf war and of the timidity and smugness of the press during that conflict is particularly noteworthy. The fact is that no one stole the news. The news is there; it just has to be claimed, a point Mr. Rosenblum makes rather well.
STEPHAN SALISBURY
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Editors' Note
Date: 15 January 1994
An article on Jan. 7 described a rare trip home to Oregon by Senator Bob Packwood, who is under investigation by a Senate committee because of sexual misconduct complaints by more than two dozen women. The article noted that Mr. Packwood had long refused to speak to reporters for The Oregonian, the state's leading newspaper, because he felt that it had not treated him fairly. In this context, Mr. Packwood was quoted as saying, "Their publisher assured me in the summer of 1992 that they wouldn't pursue" reports of sexual impropriety.
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HALLIBURTON SELLS GEOPHYSICAL BUSINESS TO LITTON UNIT
Date: 15 January 1994
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The Halliburton Company said yesterday that it had sold its geophysical business to Western Atlas International Inc., a unit of Litton Industries, for cash and notes totaling $190 million. The transaction will allow Halliburton to focus on its core energy and engineering services businesses and Western Atlas to add geophysical technology, the companies said. As a result of the sale, Halliburton said it would increase its 1993 geophysical and related business pretax charge from the $234 million recognized in the third quarter to $296 million for the full year.
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NATIONAL MEDIA TO CONSIDER BUYOUT BID BY VALUEVISION
Date: 15 January 1994
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The National Media Corporation says it will take about two weeks to consider a $50 million buyout bid from Valuevision International Inc. In its offer late on Thursday, Valuevision, a television home-shopping company based in Minneapolis, said it would pay $10 a share in cash for 50.1 percent of National Media's stock. It will convert each of the remaining shares into $10 of Valuevision class A common stock. The company has bought about 9.8 percent of National Media's shares in the last month.
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Locomotive to Use Gas
Date: 15 January 1994
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The Morrison Knudsen Corporation has delivered to the Union Pacific Railroad the first locomotive built to run on liquefied natural gas. The locomotive is powered by a 1,200-horsepower engine made by Caterpillar Inc. and is the first of two leased to Union Pacific for tests in rail yard switching operations in Los Angeles.
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Weather Gives Heating Oil Biggest Day's Gain in a Year
Date: 15 January 1994
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Heating oil prices soared about 5 percent yesterday, the biggest one-day gain in more than a year, as the longest sustained cold spell since the mid-1980's settled over much of the continental United States. Rises for copper and heating oil lifted the Commodity Research Bureau's index of 21 commodities to a three-year high. The index, a gauge of inflation, rose about a point to settle at 228.86.
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Dow Up 24.77 to Record In a Broad-Based Climb
Date: 15 January 1994
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Stock prices surged across the board yesterday, pushing several key market indicators to record highs, as evidence of strong economic growth and higher corporate profits offset a rise in interest rates. Technology and semiconductor stocks rose, led by Motorola, which reported strong earnings on Thursday. Electrical equipment, chemical, auto and entertainment stocks also gained.
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NEWS SUMMARY
Date: 16 January 1994
International 3-15 CHINA PLEDGES RIGHTS EFFORT China's President told an American Congressional delegation that he will make an effort in the coming months to satisfy President Clinton's concerns about human rights. 1 CLINTON MOVES TO NEXT ISSUE President Clinton shifted his focus from Russia to the Middle East as he flew to Geneva. He stopped in Belarus, where he became embroiled in a local dispute. 1
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COMPANY NEWS;
Date: 15 January 1994
By Joseph P. Fried
Joseph Fried
A Long Island corporation that makes valves for the Navy's nuclear-powered fleet has agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle civil charges that top executives fraudulently overcharged the Navy, Justice Department lawyers said yesterday. They said the settlement with the Target Rock Corporation was significant not only for the amount of the payment, which they said was among the larger settlements in fraud cases involving military contractors, but also because the company was the sole manufacturer of certain valves used in nuclear-propulsion systems.
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NEWS SUMMARY
Date: 15 January 1994
International 3-6 ONWARD, CLINTON TELLS RUSSIANS Plunging into a nationally televised "town meeting" in Moscow, President Clinton urged Russians to stay the course toward a free market and democracy and to find a "new definition of Russia's greatness." 1 Reporter's Notebook: Fielding questions and dispensing sympathy. 6 News analysis: Mr. Clinton made it across a tricky tightrope. 6 ASSEMBLY ELECTS A COMMUNIST The newly elected lower house of Russia's Parliament chose a Communist stalwart who opposes reform as its Speaker. It was a graphic reminder of the challenges facing President Yeltsin once President Clinton leaves Moscow. 1 A.N.C. ENVISIONS A REDISTRIBUTION With the white political monopoly rapidly expiring, the African National Congress published an ambitious program to end apartheid by redistributing land, building more than a million low-income houses and asserting state control over the mighty mining industry. 3 CHINA PLEDGES TO FREE 2 TIBETANS In what a human rights group said was an effort to appease Western concerns, China said it would free two Tibetan dissidents. American officials said it was the first time China had released dissidents before they were even tried. 5 A KILLING BLURS ISRAEL'S MIRROR The arrest of three Israeli youths in the brutal killing of an Israeli cab driver has set off a frantic debate. Some call the killing a terrible anomaly; others say it proves that Israeli society has changed. 4 Yitzhak Shamir recounts his days in the guerrilla underground. 4 BITTERSWEET EXODUS FROM SYRIA Damascus Journal: After enduring years of suspicion, even persecution, Syria's Jews now face the challenge of their own dwindling numbers. The Chief Rabbi recently discovered that there was no one left who was qualified to perform circumcision for newborn Jewish boys. 4 LEAKEY RESIGNS WILDLIFE POST After a political storm in which he was accused of corruption, racism and mismanagement, Richard Leakey, the director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, resigned. 3 National 7-10, 22 NEW STRENGTH IN ECONOMY Evidence mounted that the economy grew at a rate exceeding 5 percent in the final quarter of 1993, faster than many economists had expected. 1 SURGE AT WOMEN'S SCHOOLS Women's colleges and girls' high schools are seeing a surge in applications, stemming in part from a belief that girls are treated differently than boys in co-ed schools. 1 RIGHT BRAND, WRONG COWBOY The nation's foremost black cowboy, Bill Pickett, is being honored with a Postal Service stamp that brands him a legend of the West. But it seems the face on the stamp may not be that of Bill Pickett. 7 MRS. BOBBITT TESTIFIES TO ABUSE Lorena Bobbitt told jurors she had been overwhelmed by "pictures" of her husband's psychological and sexual abuses but did not remember cutting off his penis. 7 ANALYZING THE MENENDEZ CASE Legal experts say the turning point in the trial of the Menendez brothers came when the judge let the child-abuse defense proceed, blunting the prosecution. 9 SETBACK FOR ABORTION RIGHTS Abortion rights advocates received a major setback when a Federal appeals court ruled that a Pennsylvania law restricting abortions could go into effect without further hearings on its impact on women. 22 ALASKAN TIMBER CONTRACT ENDS The Clinton Administration announced plans to end a 50-year contract providing an Alaskan company with low-cost wood from the nation's last largely intact rain forest, the Tongass National Forest. 8 NO SPECIAL PROSECUTOR YET Attorney General Janet Reno narrowed her search for a special prosecutor to investigate President Clinton's Arkansas land dealings, but she left for a weekend trip without announcing her choice. 8 HIGH COURT TO STUDY JURY AWARDS The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the right to judicial review of a jury's award of damages is constitutionally required to protect defendants against excessive judgments. 9 DRUG FOUND TO ENHANCE MEMORY Scientists say they have found a drug that greatly enhances memory in laboratory animals. 10 Metro Digest 23 MAYOR DEFENDS POLICE AT MOSQUE Adamantly defending the police as "the only victims" of Sunday's melee at a Harlem mosque, Mayor Giuliani moved to isolate the most vocal critics of his administration's response to the incident. 1 A CALLBACK FOR GUN CURBS Escalating election-year maneuvers on crime, Gov. Cuomo took the unusual step of ordering the Legislature to meet on Monday, a state holiday, to consider legislation aimed at curbing gun violence. 1 Neediest Cases 25 Sports 29-34 3d ARREST IN ASSAULT ON SKATER Federal authorities in Phoenix yesterday arrested a man they say struck the Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan on the knee two weeks ago, rendering her unable to compete in the national championships. 1 HARDING UNDER SCRUTINY Family friends and a former manager say that Tonya Harding, the figure skater caught up in a Maelstrom this week, has become increasingly desperate in recent months over financial and personal problems. 1 Olympics: Kerrigan about to return to ice. 29 Harding may have trouble getting commercials. 31 Business Digest 37 Arts/Entertainment 11-17 Music: Anthony Davis and Earl Howard in dual bill. 11 "How to Make Love," a one-act comic opera. 11 Sylvan Winds. 17 Dance: Three by Bebe Miller. 14 Balanchine's "Jewels." 14 Television: "To Play the King."11 Obituaries 28 Rabbi Eugene J. Lipman, national leader of Reform Judaism. Samuel Bronston, film producer. Joan Avnet, art collector. Dr. Richard E. Gordon, a psychiatrist and an author. Jack Aron, a dealer in coffee and metals and a collector. Editorials/Op-Ed 20-21 Editorials Helping Russia -- and ourselves. Jim Florio's good governance. The Indonesia test. Topics: Double check. Letters Anna Quindlen: The smoke bomb. Russell Baker: Victims of telephone. Ishmael Reed: The sermons Clinton should give. Randy M. Mastro, Eric B. Schnurer: A truly independent counsel. Bridge 14 Chronicle 24 Crossword 17
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