MediaBloodhound

NYT Front|Back: Germ-Free Campaigning vs. Dirty U.S. Contracts in Iraq

FRONT:

In Clean Politics, Flesh Is Pressed, Then Sanitized
In the final days of a campaign season, with so much at stake for the future of our country, what could be more important than the growing popularity of hand sanitizer among politicians? I wish this were satire. Then it might be funny. Instead, this article must go down as one of the saddest excuses for a cover story our Paper of Record could present at the moment.

Though the story makes cotton candy appear weighty, it still manages, however, to paint one politician (and only one), Bill Clinton, in an unfavorable light.

In one semifamous cleanliness lapse in the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton, who had just shaken dozens of hands at a tavern in Boston, was handed a pie but no fork on his way to the car. The ravenous Mr. Clinton promptly devoured it using his unwashed hand.

Nice. Take a president crucified for a blowjob and describe him eating pie with the words "ravenous" and "devoured." The implied debauchery is palpable. You can almost hear the editors chuckling over the ham-handed subtext.

Intro:

Campaigns are filthy. Not only in terms of last-minute smears and dirty tricks. But also as in germs, parasites and all the bacterial unpleasantness that is spread around through so much glad-handing and flesh-pressing.

Excerpts:

Politics is personal at all levels, and germs do not discriminate. Like chicken dinners and lobbyists, they afflict Democrats and Republicans alike. It would be difficult to find an entourage that does not have at least one aide packing Purell.

...

Mr. [Bill] Richardson said that if he ran for president, as he is considering, he had no intention of conforming to the norms of his antiseptic peers.

“I just won’t use the sanitizer,” he said. “I’ve been offered it, but I’ve turned it down.”

This positions Mr. Richardson as the early hygienic maverick of 2008.

“I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty,” he said.

(Incidentally, the article ended on these words. A story so cloying, pointless and insulting to the intelligence of its readers that I felt like I needed a hand sanitizer after putting it down.)

BACK (Page A8):

Report Says Iraq Contractor Is Hiding Data From U.S.
First, this headline is unnecessarily misleading. The "Iraq contractor" in question is Halliburton subsidiary KBR, an American company. As such, the headline gives the false impression that an Iraq company is concealing something from the U.S. government, when it is actually the subsidiary of Vice President Cheney's former company. KBR, along with Halliburton, is part of Cheney's group of war profiteers that have been bilking American taxpayers for billions of dollars while botching everything in their path.

In an election-season gift to the Bush administration, The Times editors not only keep this story off the cover, but the headline further obfuscates who is behind this shameless war profiteering.

KBR's contracts, totaling about $20 billion, "are for housing, food, fuel and other necessities for American troops and government officials in Iraq, and for restoring that country’s crucial oil infrastructure."

So what is KBR is hiding?

The oversight agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, said KBR had refused to disclose information as basic as how many people are fed each day in its dining facilities and how many gallons of fuel are delivered to foreign embassies in Iraq, claiming that the data was proprietary, meaning it would unfairly help its business competitors.

Would you expect anything less from a Halliburton subsidiary?

Here's how KBR has gotten away with it thus far:

Proprietary information is protected by the so-called federal acquisition regulations, known as FAR. But the agency said KBR routinely stamped nearly all of the data it collects on its work as proprietary, impeding not only the investigations into the company’s activities but also things as simple as managerial oversight of the work.

While our soldiers are dying at an ever-alarming rate, with October the deadliest month of the year, Cheney's corporate raiders continue to busily rape the Iraq war chest. Abundantly clear as well is that had there been fair bidding for contracts, KBR - also under investigation for multiple shady dealings, some dating back two decades - would have almost certainly been denied business without Cheney's scheming.

Excerpts:

“The use of proprietary data markings on reports and information submitted by KBR to the government is an abuse of the FAR and the procurement system,” says a memo released yesterday by the special inspector general.

As a result, the memo said, “KBR is not protecting its own data, but is in many instances inappropriately restricting the government’s use of information that KBR is required to gather for the government.”

...

A spokeswoman for Halliburton, Cathy Mann, did not dispute the company’s extensive use of the proprietary label but said, “KBR has included proprietary markings on the majority of its data and property in support of its government contracts for the U.S. Army for at least the last decade.”

...

Ms. Mann added that KBR believed that the use of proprietary markings in work for the United States government “is not only encouraged, but required” by federal laws restricting the disclosure of American trade secrets abroad.

With the release of the new memo, that argument is unlikely to gain much traction with members of Congress, federal investigators and the numerous critics who have been calling for access to information on KBR’s work in Iraq almost since the invasion ended.

“The arrogance is astounding on the part of KBR,” said William L. Nash, a retired Army major general who is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on postconflict zones. “It’s time for Congress to step in, because this has just gone too far.”

...

The company could have other liabilities. Outside Iraq, the papers say, there is a Justice Department investigation into possible overcharges in its work in the Balkans from 1996 to 2000. And the securities commission and the Justice Department are investigating payments in Nigeria that may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars the bribing of foreign officials.

There is also an antitrust investigation, and the company says investigations into the Nigerian project found information that “former employees may have engaged in coordinated bidding with one or more competitors on certain foreign construction projects and that such coordination possibly began as early as the mid-1980s.”

The memo by the inspector general said that KBR would sometimes provide data to one part of the United States government, like Pentagon auditors, but with the proprietary label that would prevent its release to the public or even to other parts of the government.

In other cases that clearly irritated the inspector general’s auditors, KBR would hobble their work by releasing data in the form of gigantic but indigestible tables rather than within the kind of software — like Excel spreadsheets — that would let the auditors do their calculations.

Those findings have raised suspicions that if KBR was going to such lengths to keep the data out of the hands of auditors, then the company must have something to hide, said Frederick D. Barton, a director of the Postconflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“There’s been smoke for some time,” Mr. Barton said. “This seems to indicate that there was fire as well.”

NYT Front|Back: No Hardball in Brooklyn vs. Softballs in D.C.

(Guest post by clashbeat.)

FRONT:

Hardball Ain’t the Only Game in Brooklyn Anymore
As newly arrived immigrants play the games of their native lands, baseball in Brooklyn has been eclipsed by other sports like soccer and cricket. Consequently, fewer major league prospects now come from the borough that produced Yankees and Mets managers Joe Torre and Willie Randolph, legendary hurler Sandy Koufax and other hometown heroes. For some aging Brooklyn boomers, this may be a crisis of nostalgic proportions, but it hardly warrants front-page real estate.

Excerpt:

“In the 1950’s, when Brooklyn could lay claim to being recognized as the stickball capital of the world, it produced 26 major league players, according to data obtained from baseballreference.com. This decade, it has produced only six.”

BACK (Page A14):

Sept. 11 Panel Wasn’t Told of Meeting, Members Say
An explosive revelation from Bob Woodward’s new book, State of Denial, is the July 10, 2001 White House meeting between then CIA Director George Tenet and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, of which neither bothered to tell the 9/11 Commission. During the meeting, Tenet tried to instill in Rice some sense of urgency about al Qaeda because he believed this nation was about to be attacked. Now some Commission members are fuming that Rice and Tenet, both questioned under oath, failed to disclose the meeting.

That Tenet and Rice covered their own asses by not volunteering information unflattering to them is hardly a surprise. Both lied under oath and should be held accountable. But the idea that Commission members think they did such a comprehensive job that it would preclude any new revelations is simply laughable. After all, this is an investigative body that ignored survivors' pleas to ask former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani the tough questions (like why the police and fire department radios weren’t designed to communicate with each other) because they thought he was too beloved by the country to be pressed for answers. Or to demand that both Bush and Cheney be put under oath and questioned separately. The Commission, which seemed more concerned about appearing bi-partisan than finding the truth, threw softball questions when the country desperately needed to know what their leaders did to prevent the worst attack on our nation's soil.

Intro:

Members of the Sept. 11 commission said Sunday they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a July 2001 White House meeting at which George J. Tenet, then director of central intelligence, is reported to have warned Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser, about an imminent attack by Al Qaeda and failed to persuade her to take action.

Excerpts:

There has also been no comment on the book from J. Cofer Black, who was Mr. Tenet’s counterterrorism chief, and who, the book says, attended the July 10 meeting and left it frustrated by Ms. Rice’s “brush-off” of the warnings. Mr. Black is quoted as saying, “The only thing we didn’t do was pull the trigger to the gun we were holding to her head.”

The book says Mr. Tenet hurriedly organized the meeting, calling ahead from his car as it traveled to the White House, because he wanted to “shake Rice” into persuading the president to respond to dire intelligence warnings about a possible terrorist strike. Mr. Woodward writes that Mr. Tenet left the meeting frustrated because “they were not getting through to Rice.”

...

“None of this was shared with us in hours of private interviews, including interviews under oath, nor do we have any paper on this,” said Timothy J. Roemer, a Democratic member of the commission and a former congressman from Indiana. “I’m deeply disturbed by this. I’m furious.”

NYT Front|Back: Recovering Horse vs. Dead and Wounded Iraqis

FRONT:

With Costly Care, Barbaro’s Long Odds Improve
Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby champion horse, is still on the road to recovery. After shattering his hind leg during a race in May and then developing a painful and often fatal joint condition, Barbaro might soon be walking without his cast. Yet, though he has received better medical care than have most two-legged Americans, Barbaro's ability to compete again is still questionable.

Regardless of his star status, The New York Times has, in fact, placed an inspirational horse story on its cover. Outdoing local and national network news stations that tend to end their shows on such sugary high notes (a little sorbet to sweeten the reality of the preceding day's events), The Times positions this heartwarming tale front and center. Even the lamest local station has the good sense not to lead with those tales of Slappy the One-Eyed Racoon or Buster the Tap-Dancing Cat.

Intro:

Barbaro was reclined on his side in a stall. His left hind foot curled out beneath him, revealing a fitting that his surgeon called a foam-lined rubber sneaker. His right hind leg, the one that has been in a cast for 90 days, was hidden beneath a carpet of knee-deep straw.

BACK (bottom of Page A9):

Insurgents Kill 20 in Shiite Pilgrimage Amid Heavy Security
The Decider defended his dead-end Iraq position today, still refusing to consider a withdrawal until the job is done, whatever that job might be. Ensuring an Islamist state, one further entrenched and empowered by an all-consuming hatred of U.S. occupiers?

Meanwhile, as Bush continues to lie, more (as the saying goes) continue to die.

During a holy annual pilgrimage in Iraq on Sunday (the same one that last year killed 950 civilians when a terrorist bomb scare triggered a stampede), 20 were killed and 300 wounded in ongoing sectarian violence. Oh well, just another day of bloodshed in Iraq. So much for "if it bleeds, it leads."

With Bush on the ropes again on his Iraq stance, approval ratings returning to record lows and more Americans than ever certain we should bring our troops home now, leave it to The Times to give our dear leader some breathing room. 

Excerpt:

Witness accounts and street-level images broadcast on Iraqi television described how gunmen on rooftops rained sniper fire onto pilgrims in one predominantly Sunni Arab district here. Security officials fired back, officials said.

The American military released a statement late Sunday that seemed to play down the deaths. “Iraqi military and civil leaders provided a comprehensive security plan to ensure there would be no recurrence of violence that marred last year’s event,” the American statement said. “As a result, there were no major attacks.”

NYT Front|Back: Transracial Adoption vs. Urgent Humanitarian Disaster

FRONT:

Overcoming Adoption's Racial Barriers
The trend of white people adopting black babies in increasing numbers might be news. But front-page news?

Intro:

When Martina Brockway and Mike Timble, a white couple in Chicago, decided to adopt a child, Ms. Brockway went to an adoption agency presentation at a black church to make it clear they wanted an African-American baby.

BACK (page A6):

Floods Claim Huge Toll in North Korea, Group Says
Massive flooding in North Korea last month has left 54,700 people dead or missing and an estimated 2.5 million homeless. Imagine Katrina, but worse. How is this not a cover story?

Excerpt:

The group said the floods had destroyed more than 230 bridges and inundated hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, further straining North Korea’s ability to feed its population. North Korea has relied on foreign food donations since the mid-1990’s, when famine caused by natural disasters and decades of mismanagement is believed to have killed up to two million people.

“Food prices are skyrocketing as food distribution has become nearly impossible” as a result of the floods, the aid group [Good Friends, a South Korean agency]  said.

The group also contended that North Korea, to curb possible unrest, prevented those left homeless by the floods from traveling.

NYT Front|Back: Welfare of One Socialite vs. Welfare of Our Troops

FRONT:

As Mrs. Astor Slips, the Grandson Blames the Son
Phillip Marshall, grandson of celebrated New York City socialite and philanthropist Brooke Aster, has accused his father of mistreating the 104-year-old Mrs. Astor. Allegations include "failing to fill Mrs. Astor’s prescriptions, stripping her apartment of artwork, confining the dogs she doted on to the pantry, reducing the number of staff members looking after her, and forcing her to sleep in chilly misery on a couch that smells of urine." Are these allegations true? Or is this a power play by the grandson? (I'm on the edge of my seat.) Whatever the case, with the world in tumult, how is this front-page news?   

Intro:

Once, she and her pearls and her designer dresses were everywhere that was anywhere in New York society: this benefit, that party, this lunch, that dedication. At her 90th birthday party, she danced the first dance with the mayor. At her 100th, 100 well-connected friends toasted her with Champagne.

...

Now Mrs. Astor, 104, is at the center of a bitter intergenerational dispute that has become public. In a lawsuit, one of her grandsons has accused her son of mistreating her and turning her final years into a grim shadow of the glittery decades that went before.

BACK (page A22):

Americans Showing Isolationist Streak, Poll Finds
This article examines results from the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. One of the most salient findings related to the war in Iraq? The majority of Americans, 56%, want a timetable for a troop withdrawal. Though leave it to The Times to downplay results from its own poll. In the text of the article, the wording is "they supported a timetable for a reduction in United States forces..." But the wording of the question in the actual poll (you can view it by clicking to the left of the article) is, "Do you think the U.S. should or should not set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq?" A sterling job by Times reporter Jim Rutenberg and his editors. It's not like there's a substantial difference between a "reduction" and a "withdrawal." It's not like that one-word change dramatically undercuts the impact of the response. Brilliant.

All right, can the mainstream media finally admit that the majority of our citizens want our troops home now? They could start by not editing out protesters from its coverage who underscore this message?

Another telling Iraq-related finding? "More than twice as many respondents - 63 percent versus 30 percent - said the Iraq war had not been worth the American lives and dollars lost." Yet this eye-popping figure was buried (just like this story) in the second-to-last paragraph, twenty paragraphs into the article. One more sound editorial choice.

Finally, returning to this story's curiously slanted headline, it's interesting to note that, according to The Times, if Americans disagree with this administration's disastrous foreign policy moves and do not wish to become involved in another war (in Lebanon), then that somehow points to an "isolationist streak." But what this editorial decision does point to is that The Times editors seem to have a decided predilection for war-mongering.

Not surprising from the people who brought us Judy Miller and her incredibly lethal WMD lies.   

Excerpt:

Over all, the poll found a strong isolationist streak in a nation clearly rattled by more than four years of war, underscoring the challenge for Mr. Bush as he tries to maintain public support for his effort to stabilize Iraq and spread democracy through the Middle East.

 

NYT Front|Back:Small Colleges' Male Lure vs. Bush's Secret Program

FRONT:

Small Colleges, Short of Men, Embrace Football
The World Cup finale on the front page? Sure. All right. But an adjacent story about how some female-dominated colleges are attracting male students by adding football teams?

Red card.

Intro:

Kevin Bosworth's football career here at Shenandoah University amounted to all of 10 plays, across four years otherwise spent watching from the sidelines. No matter. A reedy tight end, Mr. Bosworth wanted to play football, and the college was starting a team.

BACK (page A11):

Congressman Says Program Was Disclosed by Informant
On Saturday, The Times broke the story of a whistleblower informing the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee of a secret "significant" intelligence program being run by the Bush administration. The disclosure came via a letter to Bush written on May 18 by Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan). The committee was not briefed by the administration until Hoekstra push pressure on Bush to do so. Hoekstra believes the administration's actions could be a "violation of law." On Sunday, he went on TV to further express his concern. Of the administration's failure to inform Congress, Hoekstra said, "I take it very, very seriously."

Here's the really scary part. Until now, Hoekstra has been a loyal foot soldier for Bushco. Prewar intelligence gathering. Torture. NSA spying. Hoekstra gave it all a gold star. He even joined the conservative chorus railing against leakers and the media.

So imagine the abuse of power it would take for this man to say, "Whoa. Now you've gone too far."

Because, ladies and gentlemen, that's one thing we still do not - and may never - know (for national security reasons, of course): the secret Bush administration program that compelled a lapdog like Hoekstra to do the right thing.

Excerpt:

Mr. Hoekstra and other officials would not discuss the nature of the undisclosed intelligence programs. But officials have said he was not referring to the National Security Agency's wiretapping operation or to the Treasury Department's bank monitoring program, both of which he was informed about. Mr. Hoekstra made clear on Sunday that he was particularly troubled by the failure to notify the Intelligence Committee of one particular major program.

"We can't be briefed on every little thing that they are doing," Mr. Hoekstra said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday." "But in this case, there was at least one major — what I consider significant — activity that we had not been briefed on that we have now been briefed on. And I want to set the standard there, that it is not optional for this president or any president or people in the executive community not to keep the intelligence committees fully informed of what they are doing."

NYT Front|Back:King George's Birthday vs. Dubious Mexico Election

FRONT:

A Touchy Topic: Boomer in Chief Hits the Big 6-0
Bush turns sixty. The New York Times fetes King George with a front-page puff piece on how he's handling the milestone. A ridiculous piece of tripe that's hardly fit for print, let alone prime real estate.

Intro:

Let us now peek into the psyche of America's most powerful baby boomer, George W. Bush.

He is not given to self-analysis — "George is not an overly introspective person," his wife, Laura, once said with dry understatement — but Mr. Bush turns 60 on Thursday, and like most other men hitting that milestone, he just cannot seem to get the thought off his mind.

BACK (Page A8):

Suspense Grows as Vote Count in Mexico Race Wraps Up
Mexico awaits the final tally in the presidential election between conservative candidate Felipe Calderón and left candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the closest in its history. "Irregularities" in how the vote was counted sound curiously similar to events in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.

Excerpt:

The official count began amid a volatile political storm kicked up Tuesday by the announcement by federal electoral authorities that some three million votes went untabulated in the preliminary count; by demands from Mr. López Obrador for a vote-by-vote recount; and by objections to those demands from the government.

Mr. Calderón, backed by big business and President Vicente Fox, appeared before the news media to repeat his claims of victory. Mr. López Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City who has the support of the poor, held his own news conference to restate his case that the election had been rigged.

He said his campaign had uncovered irregularities at tens of thousands of polling places. Among them, he said, there were polls where the numbers of votes exceeded either the numbers of registered voters or the numbers of ballots. He said that in some cases votes from a single polling place had been tabulated several times.

"So what are we asking for?" Mr. López Obrador said. "That they conduct a full revision, poll by poll. We will act responsibly, as always. But we are asking the authorities to help clear up any doubts, to review inconsistencies and to not allow the will of the citizens to be violated."

NYT Front|Back:Sniffing Dogs vs. Tracking Zarqawi's Successor

FRONT:

Dogs and Their Fine Noses Find New Career Paths
The sniffing abilities of dogs are being put to use in ever new ways. It's about time. Finally, canines can start pulling their weight, stepping up for the betterment of mankind, after eons of sniffing little more than bombs, butts, wild game and prison escapee trails, and offering their owners nothing but unconditional love. All right, aside from bed bugs, the dogs are also being trained to pick up on the scent of everything from cancer (nothing new, actually - this was first reported in January of 2005) to pirated DVDs to mercury in schools to cows in heat (yes, cows in heat). But does this really warrant front-page real estate?

Intro:

A year ago, Jada, a frisky black mutt, was living in a Florida pound, her days numbered. Today she commands hundreds of dollars an hour at some of Manhattan's most exclusive hotels and apartment buildings. Her fate turned on her newly gained ability to sniff out something reviled in New York these days: bedbugs.

BACK (Page A14):

A Jihadist Web Site Says Zarqawi's Group in Iraq Has a New Leader in Place
What will be the impact of Zarqawi's death? Well, Al Qaeda in Iraq has already named his replacement: Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. Mild-to-excessive crowing and historically inept speculation from the military-administration-media complex notwithstanding, in all likelihood, Zarqawi's elimination will have about as much impact on slowing down the insurgency as did the capture of Saddam, whacking his two sons, the assault on Fallujah, national elections, drafting a constitution and forming a new government. And how nice of The Times to bury this article on page A14. Surely, that Zarqawi's successor has already been crowned is not good news for the Bush administration, which wishes the newly formed government in Iraq was at least half as organized as the insurgency.

Additionally, The Times (like its mainstream media cohorts) continues to mention Iraqi civilian and U.S. troop casualties as though they were ancillary incidents to the war, something to tack on at the end of the report. Once again, it's all in the placement. The editorial directive? Save the worst for last, with as little detail as possible. It's astonishing how much effort the mainstream media puts into making senseless death and suffering more palatable.

Excerpt (last four lines of the article):

Two Iraqi boys, one 6 months old, the other 4 years old, were killed Monday during an operation near Baquba, when American forces came under machine-gun fire from a rooftop, the military said. Missiles, car bombs and roadside explosives killed at least 18 other Iraqi civilians and wounded 101 around the country on Monday, the military said. And the military said an American soldier had been killed Friday by a roadside bomb while on a logistics patrol in Ad Diwaniya. No other details were released.

 

NYT Front|Back:Puff Piece on Harris vs. Data Theft of Troops

FRONT:

Senate Contender in Florida Presses On
Journalist Mark Leibovich follows around Katherine Harris, of 2000 Florida recount infamy, who is now running for Senate. To put it mildly, even those in her own party are less than thrilled about her candidacy. This goofy article is a mix of Harris up-close and personal and quotes from others on Harris, almost uniformly negative, with the exception of her campaign finance chairman. It's not that this story isn't hilarious, unintentionally on par with The Onion or The Daily Show; it's just that it's not worthy of front-page news in our Paper of Record.

Some choice excerpts. Exhibit A of her kookiness:

Once Ms. Harris wins her race for a Senate seat, she says, she plans to travel everywhere with a guide dog....Ms. Harris explains that she intends to participate in a program that provides guide dogs for volunteers to train. While cynics may assign unflattering symbolism to a politician who is not blind being led around the Capitol by a guide dog, Ms. Harris is undeterred — by this or by the perception that her role in 2000 makes her too divisive to lure the swing voters necessary to defeat the incumbent Democrat, Bill Nelson.

Exhibit B:

She is especially animated when the topic turns to animals, including the guide dog she plans to train starting in November. She will care for the dog for 18 months, spending nearly all her waking hours with it. "You can't let them sleep in bed with you," Ms. Harris said. "Which is going to be harder on me than the dog."

And Exhibit C:

When a supporter in a Venice veterans hall said he once witnessed Ms. Harris leave her vehicle to escort a turtle across a highway, she became gravely serious. "All of my life I have stopped for turtles," she said firmly, even defensively, as if someone had challenged her commitment to turtle safety.

BACK (Page A20):

Size of Military Data Theft Grows to Affect Millions of Troops
The theft of personal data of U.S. military members is far worse than what the government originally stated. In May, they told us that about 26.5 million veterans and their spouses were affected. Then, over the weekend, the Veterans Affairs Department revealed that the theft did include data for about 50,000 active-duty National Guard and military personnel as well. Today, that number has swelled to encompass 2.2 million active-duty members of the military. One more jaw-dropping incident of incompetence on the Bush administration's watch.

Excerpt (the article's most explosive fact, not mentioned until the last few lines):

The analyst whose home was burglarized has been placed on administrative leave. Department officials told Congress that he had been taking home sensitive data for three years before the theft last month. Jim Nicholson, the veterans secretary, said in testimony to Congress that the employee had broken no law but had violated department policy.

This guy's been bringing home sensitive data on millions of active-duty members and veterans for three years and officials are just getting wind of this now? How is that possible? You'd find better oversight at the Casino Control Commission in Atlantic City.

NYT Front|Back:Litigious Glass Blower vs. Blowing National Security

FRONT:

Glass Artists Face Off in Court
One of the most successful glass artists is suing rival blowers and a collaborator for allegedly copying his work.

Excerpt:

"Mr. Chihuly has sued two glass blowers, including a longtime collaborator, for copyright infringement, accusing them of imitating his signature lopsided creations, and other designs inspired by the sea."

BACK (Page A18):

Security Cuts for New York and Washington
The Times giveth and The Times taketh away. Yesterday, on its website, it published this story about Homeland Security cutting anti-terrorism funding to NYC and Washington, D.C. And though The Times reported this midday, not one nightly newscast or cable news talk show mentioned it the first day this broke. Today, now that this story is getting play, The Times publishes an updated version in its newspaper, but decides to bury it on page A18. Truly mind-boggling. A story with both national and citywide repercussions and The Times not only doesn't see fit to place it on the front page, but dispatches it to the indexed Siberia of page A18.

Excerpt:

"New York officials were given a one-page tally that explained, in part, how the region's risk-based standing was calculated. The document said the region had no "national monuments or icons," four banking or financial firms with assets of over $8 billion, 28 chemical or hazardous material sites, as well as nearly 7,000 other possible important, high-risk targets, like hospitals or major office buildings, a tally that some city officials said had major omissions or errors."

No national monuments or icons?! To paraphrase the saying: Only to New York.