About
	Contact Us
	Articles
	Topic Index
	Reports
	Quotes
	On the Web
	Links
	TW Tracker
	Support

Times Watch for May 11, 2004

Abu Ghraib = My Lai, Again

     First it was Frank Rich; now Paul Krugman makes the comparison between Abu Ghraib and the My Lai massacre of Vietnam. From Krugman's Tuesday column: "Just trust us, Donald Rumsfeld said early in 2002, when he declared that 'enemy combatants'--a term that turned out to mean anyone, including American citizens, the administration chose to so designate--don't have rights under the Geneva Convention. Now people around the world talk of an 'American gulag,' and Seymour Hersh is exposing My Lai all over again."

For the full Krugman, click here:

• Abu Ghraib | Iraq War | My Lai | Paul Krugman | Vietnam | Columnists

Times Relays Half-Cocked Anti-Gun Stats

     Glen Justice reviews a Mother's Day gun-control rally in D.C, the start of a campaign to lobby for renewal of a ban on assault weapons.

To his credit, Justice notes a parallel rally by a gun-rights group, the Second Amendment Sisters. Yet he also relays favorable-sounding gun-ban stats in his Monday story: "Gun-related killings have declined in the last decade. The latest statistics available show there were 10,808 in 2002, according to the Department of Justice. That is down from a high of 17,048 in 1993, the year before the assault weapons ban was passed."

While true, that's misleading: Homicides of all types are down since 1993, not just gun-related ones. That suggests other factors are involved in the plunge besides the ban on "assault weapons," which were never a major contributor to homicide statistics in the first place.

Justice continues in an emotional vein: "But killings, especially those involving children, still capture attention. In Washington last week, Chelsea Cromartie, 8, died while playing in a relative's living room when a stray bullet struck her in the head. The story dominated local news, and the child's death was invoked at Sunday's gun control rally, which was held on the lawn in front of the Capitol. 'In the name of Chelsea, we stand strong and tall,' said Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia in Congress. 'The N.R.A. has met its nemesis.'"

Left unmentioned is the District's near-absolute gun ban and its utter futility in stopping gun violence in the District. There's also no indication that the bullet that killed Chelsea Cromartie was fired from an "assault weapon"--the ostensible reason for the rally in the first place.

For the rest of Justice's story on the anti-gun group, click here:

• Gun Control | Crime | Protesters

The Secret of His Success

     Sheryl Gay Stolberg files a profile of media hero Sen. John McCain, again basking in attention after his withering critique of Donald Rumsfeld on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

In "Prisoner Abuse Scandal Puts McCain in Spotlight Once Again," Stolberg lauds the former Vietnam POW: "Mr. McCain lives with the daily physical reminder of that torture. His gait is slightly out of joint and his arms sit at awkward angles to his body. He has difficulty raising them to comb his hair. Putting a suit jacket on is a challenge. This does not seem to slow him down; he is often seen dashing about the Capitol, running off to this hearing or that television appearance."

Then, war heroics aside, Stolberg gets to the heart of McCain's appeal to liberal journalists: He's a reliable Bush critic. "Mr. McCain is known for a rare quality in Washington: candor. Reporters quote him endlessly for the same reason his fellow Republicans are endlessly irked by him: he never fails to offer a Republican critique of President Bush, with whom he has not quite patched up relations after their bitter primary campaign in 2000."

For Stolberg's full encomium to McCain, click here:

• George W. Bush | Sen. John McCain | Sheryl Gay Stolberg | Vietnam

The Philanthropic Passions of Teresa Heinz Kerry

     Stephanie Strom dips into questions concerning the controversial philanthropy of Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wealthy, outspoken wife of Sen. John Kerry, but maintains a softball, civic-minded tone in her piece for Sunday's paper: "…the city of Pittsburgh is in many ways a monument to Mrs. Heinz Kerry's philanthropy. It is home to more environmentally sound buildings, certified as green buildings, than any other city in the country, thanks in large part to the Heinz Endowments. The city's riverfronts are undergoing a renaissance, led by the endowments. Its school administration has changed in response to the endowments' concerns….Mrs. Heinz Kerry is, in her words, passionate about early childhood development. So in 1998, the endowments started a program to make education programs available to Pennsylvania preschool children from low-income families at little cost to the public."

For the rest of Strom on Kerry's wife, click here:

• Teresa Heinz Kerry | Sen. John Kerry

Abu Ghraib Photos Remind Timesman of Vietnam

     David Sanger's Monday news analysis, "U.S. Must Find A Way to Move Past the Images," examines a horrific photo from Abu Ghraib prison and is reminded (of course) of Vietnam: "It will be months, maybe years, before anyone will know for certain whether the image of a hooded Iraqi prisoner connected to electrical wires that was splashed across the world's magazine covers last week will become the symbolic image of the American occupation--the way the photograph of a naked Vietnamese girl running from an American attack helped turn opinion against American action in Southeast Asia."

For the rest of Sanger's story, click here:

• Iraq War | Prisoners | David Sanger | Vietnam

Thanks for the Update

     "Europeans Like Bush Even Less Than Before." -- Headline to a May 9 Sarah Lyall story.

E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org