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[CT]UNDERSTANDING NEWS JUDGMENT
Even though most journalists would say their job entails reporting the news, any two journalists
probably would not come up with the same definition of the term news. An often-used definition
is that news is a report of what is happening now, or is anything of interest to a large number of
people.
For most of the 20th century, U.S. journalism schools taught that the news also should be
"objective" free of political bias from the publisher and free of personal bias from the reporters
and the editors. But in their role as gatekeepers people who control the flow of information to
others, selecting what is important and what shall be discarded reporters and editors make
personal judgments about whether to share the information with consumers.
This gatekeeping process colors all news. By choosing which stories are newsworthy,
gatekeepers set the agenda for what readers know and think about. Gatekeepers also embellish,
delete and improve messages. For example, sources decide what information to tell reporters;
reporters decide what information to report; and editors decide what information should be
included, combined or deleted from the final product and where it should be place in the paper.
[1]Characteristics of News
In their role as gatekeepers, reporters and editors are trained to recognize and value issues that are
"newsworthy" by virtue of how much the issue reflects, or can be made to reflect,
newsworthiness criteria. News judgment —understanding what is newsworthy — is the process
of selecting and grading news and visuals to determine if they should be used, if they should be
used in part or full, and where they should be used.
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No two publications look the same every day because the publications' editors do not
exercise their judgment in exactly the same way. But criteria do exist to help the editor.
Newsworthy criteria are audience, timeliness, impact, prominence, conflict, proximity,
uniqueness and science or progress.
[2]Audience
The publication's audience is the most important criterion. No two newspaper audiences are
exactly alike. News and visual selections of a newspaper whose circulation area is composed
largely of senior citizens are different from those of a newspaper that caters to a younger
readership. With the help of readership studies and focus groups, editors have a feel for the tastes
and interests of their audiences.
[2]Timeliness
Timeliness is an equally important criterion because news is important when it happens. Nothing
is more stale or of less value than yesterday's news. The "breaking" quality of news is its most
important characteristic. That's why media provide updates to old stories. Updates are attempts to
make old stories timely by presenting new angles, or new perspectives or information.
[2] Impact
The magnitude, or impact, of the event or action and its effect on individuals may determine the
news value of information or images. How many are dead? What is the extent of the property
damage? How many people will be affected? The BBC World News ranked the 7.5-magnitude
earthquake in southern India in 2001 as the biggest story of the year. The British broadcaster
ranked this story higher than the terrorist attacks against the United States that killed about 3,000
Americans because the earthquake killed an estimated 13,000 people and left tens of thousands
homeless.
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Impact also deals with information and images that are personalized and individualized so
audiences can identify with them. It is one thing to publish or broadcast stories and photographs
of the crippled landscape of southern India. It is another to show or report about a grieving child
whose family and home were destroyed. Who can ever forget the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
and the visual impact of photographs of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, or the
photograph of a firefighter in Oklahoma City in 1995 cradling a dying child at the wreckage of
the Murrah federal building?
[2]Prominence
Prominent individuals are newsworthy. Information from or about famous and infamous people
influences news selection. And the more famous or infamous the individual, the more likely the
mass media will use the information. For example, of the thousands of people who have died of
AIDS in recent years, few of their obituaries have made the front page. But the deaths of Rock
Hudson, Arthur Ashe and E-Zee-E's did. Although intruders break into homes every day, this
doesn't become the lead story for the evening newscast. But it did when an intruder broke
through security at the Hollywood Hills home of rock star Madonna, who was in England at the
time. Some Los Angeles anchors reported live from in front of the ornate mansion. Homicides
are all-too common in this country and normally not Page 1 stories. The arrests of actors O.J.
Simpson in 1994 and Robert Blake in 2002 were Page 1 stories because of the prominence of the
suspects.
Prominent individuals help us humanize and individualize information, making the
information more credible and understandable. For example, the abstract ideas of President
Ronald Reagan’s economic theory were personalized as “Reaganomics.”
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In addition, prominent individuals lure audiences to mass media information. Interviews
with “stars” in government, science, medicine, education and economics allow reporters to call
upon experts who help draw attention to information.
[2]Conflict
Information that pits men and women against one another or against animals or nature creates
conflict, and conflict creates drama. Conflict — a disruption in the normal state of affairs
[these dashes look like they are different lengths – AU [Dona: The authors’ dashes look like
en-dashes rather than em-dashes, so you will have to let Joanne know to make them em-
dashes, except between page numbers, etc., in Notes — ca]leads to tensions between foes and
often to some type of conclusion or resolution. Conflict arises in the following situations:
[NL]
1. Good vs. bad. Coverage of arrests, indictments, trials and sentencing provides drama.
2. David vs. Goliath. Audiences are attracted to the drama of the powerless taking on the
powerful or the underdog exposing corruption or winning a battle. Stories of the powerful
victimizing the powerless also attract audiences.
3. Efficiency vs. inefficiency. Uncovering waste in government and industry creates information
that is dramatic and newsworthy.
4. Humans vs. nature. Covering the aftermath of natural disasters such as hurricanes and
earthquakes is essentially a race to save lives and prevent the spread of disease.
The most dramatic and newsworthy form of conflict is violence. President George W.
Bush described the terrorist attacks against the United States in 2001 as a conflict between good
and evil.
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The O.J. Simpson trial played like an evening soap opera. Two people one a beautiful
mother of two had their throats slashed in one of the nation's most fashionable communities.
The accused was a prominent millionaire football hero and movie star. The actors in the trial,
which pre-empted regular daily television programming, included a "dream team" of America's
most noted lawyers for the wealthy defendant, while the People were represented by an attractive
prosecuting attorney.
The 1969 violent slaying of actress Sharon Tate by members of Charles Manson's
"family" remained newsworthy for years. And the brutal and bloody reign of terror in California
by satanic serial killer Richard Ramirez in 1984 likewise remained on the news scene for a long
time.
Newsworthy events that pit humans against nature include accounts of flood and
earthquake devastation. This type of story frequently includes reports about large and small acts
of heroism and how the victims are coping with the devastation around them. The story of Apollo
13’s ill-fated journey to the moon in 1970 is told in terms of humans and technology vs. the
deadly environment of space.
[2]Proximity
Stories in our own back yard have more impact than those that are thousands of miles away.
When a freight train slammed into a passenger train in Southern California in 2002, killing two
people and injuring more than 200, the story and photo ran on Page 1 throughout the region.
Papers in other parts of the nation either ran one of the dramatic photos on Page 1 with the story
inside or had no Page 1 coverage of the wreck. People are more affected by a tragedy close to
home.
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Finding the local angle of a national or an international story will heighten reader interest.
The newsroom word for this is localizing, which can be done with breaking stories as well as
features. How will a new state tax law affect readers in my community? How were local schools
rated on state or national tests? How did my city or state rank in the annual list of best places to
live? Wire editors always check the names and hometowns of victims of plane crashes and other
disasters to see if any of the victims were local residents.
[2]Uniqueness
Novel, deviant or odd information is newsworthy. The more novel, deviant or odd the
information or image is, the more newsworthy it is. In his book, On Press, Tom Wicker writes:
[EXT]The dull, the routine, the unexciting, is seldom seen as news, although ... the dull,
routine, unexciting management of rates and routes for the railroads, truckers, and airlines
may affect far more Americans in their daily lives than some relatively more glamorous
presidential directive or congressional action.
Many TV and radio newscasts end today with some unusual or odd piece of information.
[2]Science and Progress
Some stories about technological or medical breakthroughs have an impact on our lives because
we use that technology and we or someone we know has that disease. Other times these stories
simply pique our curiosity.
For example, NASA’s Web site received a record number of hits on July 4, 1997, when
the Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars and began transmitting images of the distant planet. These
historic photos had no impact on people’s lives, but millions of people were anxious to see them.
[Comp: Keep line of space here because the following paragraph relates to the whole
section]
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The most newsworthy stories are the ones that contain several of the above
characteristics. Stories on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks on the United States contained
timeliness, impact, (the attacks resulted in the highest death toll from a single terrorist attack),
conflict and proximity (they occurred in the United States).
[1]Determining the Front-Page Lineup
Despite the characteristics of news pounded into the heads of every journalism student, surveys
of U.S. newspapers show that journalists seldom agree about what news and feature stories and
images find their way onto America's front pages. One study of the nation's most influential
newspapers The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post found that 25
percent of stories on each paper’s front page did not appear at all in the other two papers.
The only time newspapers agree on front-page news is when it is a major story. For
example, stories of the terrorists attacks on the United States, the deadly earthquake in India, the
U.S. attack on Afghanistan, escalating violence in the Middle East and the collapse of
Argentina’s economy were all Page-1 stories throughout the world in 2001.
What stories and images make it to the front page is determined by a number of factors.
They include decisions by newsroom executives, the role of the paper in the community, what
readers care about, reader demographics, space, influences by America's elite press, the quality of
stories and external pressures on the news media.
[2]Newsroom Decision Makers
According to Los Angeles Times' media critic David Shaw:
[EXT]There is no blueprint, no grand design, no formula or quota, just different editors
all human, all capable of error viewing the world through the prisms of their different
life experiences and making decisions on a daily basis for different readerships in
different historical, cultural and geographical contexts.
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The front-page lineup usually is decided by a committee that consists of the executive
editor, managing editor, metro editors, chief wire editor, graphics editor and photo editor. The
top editor usually has the majority vote. For example:
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A major newspaper had an executive editor who liked to travel and was interested in stories
about airfare price wars. Other editors at the paper began to routinely put airfare stories on
Page 1 without considering their significance to readers.
Another editor was into computers and technology. Stories about innovations in technology
or the Internet frequently ended up on Page 1.
The New York Times runs a lot of international news on Page 1 because many of its top
editors are former foreign correspondents and they take a great interest in what is happening
on the international scene.
[2] Role of Newspaper in the Community
Page 1 lineup depends upon the newspaper's role in the community. For example, regional
newspapers such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe are less
parochial than small, local newspapers, although local news is still important. USA Today, the
Wall Street Journal and the Christian Science Monitor are national newspapers with little or no
local news. The community they serve is the entire nation.
Community-oriented newspapers often publish in the same market as regional
newspapers. They tend to focus on local news. For example, a presidential election may not be
the lead election story in a community newspaper if there is a major local election to report that
day.
[2]What Readers Care About
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Page 1 lineup also depends on readership and what readers care about. At the Orange County
(Calif.) Register, editors at their story-budget meetings classify some stories as "talkers." These
are stories that people in the coffee shops, beauty salons and the like are talking about. They are
usually local, human-interest stories that may not have significant traditional news value, but they
probably will run on the Register's cover.
[2]Demographics
Demographics of a newspaper's readers are not all the same. For example, New York Post
readers tend to be blue-collar workers, while The New York Times' readers tend to be white-
collar. These two demographics have different interests, and the papers report different news in
completely different styles.
[2]Space
Space determines what will end up on Page 1. Most newspapers have six to nine stories on the
cover. The Los Angeles Times runs a Column One exclusive feature on its cover, which limits
the space for other news of the day. Many other newspapers run a one-column index with visuals
touting what's inside that day's edition.
Other newspapers have policies of always running large photos, or personality profiles or
other types of features on Page 1. This takes away space for other Page 1 candidates.
[2]The Elite Press
The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times influence
what will be included on front pages of other newspapers. Many newspapers subscribe to The
New York Times or Washington Post/Los Angeles Times news services.
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These news services provide stories written by the three newspapers' reporters. Each day
the news services also send their subscribers the lineup for their own front pages. The decisions
made at these three papers influence decisions made at other newspapers.
[2] Quality of Stories
Page 1 lineup depends on the quality of the stories. Several years ago the Los Angeles Times was
one of the few newspapers in the nation to report on food riots in Egypt on Page 1. A Times
editor explained that the story ran on the cover because it was written so well. The quality of the
reporting made it a Page 1 story.
[2]External Pressures on the News Media
The mass media's information function in determining what is news and where it is displayed is
influenced by numerous pressures: consumer pressures, political pressures and commercial
pressures.
[3]Consumer Pressures
Individuals, groups and organizations, usually through publicists, attempt to manipulate
information by manipulating deadlines and access and by packaging events. Media managers
manipulate deadlines by releasing information to reporters as close to deadline as possible so
there is little time to scrutinize controversial or accusatory information. Others "hide"
information from the media until Saturday night or early Sunday morning, when papers have
already gone to press.
The wire services will run these stories, but the elite press The New York Times, Los
Angeles Times, Washington Post and others prefer to have their own reporters write major
stories, and these reporters often are not available on weekends. These papers probably won’t run
a story on Page 1 if other papers published a wire-service version the day before.
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Still other media managers capitalize on slow news periods weekends and holidays —
when editors are scrambling for stories to fill the next day's edition. The media managers offer
self-serving stories that would be rejected on a busy news day.
Publicists can influence the press by controlling access to those who have the information
and by favoring reporters who are friendly "lapdogs" over those who are "watchdogs." Reporters
also can be denied access to the scene of a story. For example, President Reagan denied press
access during the U.S. government's invasion of Grenada. Some years later, reporters who were
not part of a "pool" were denied credentials to cover the Persian Gulf War. And those who were
part of the "pool" were denied access to wounded soldiers and front-line troops.
The news media were denied almost all access to Afghanistan by both the U.S. military
and Afghanistan’s Taliban regime during the U.S. offensive there in 2001. The Israeli
government restricted journalists’ access to its occupied territories during its offensive in 2002.
Media managers influence news elements by packaging events. Historian Daniel Boorstin
coined the term pseudo-event to describe an arranged event that publicists use to transform their
clients or their causes into newsworthy events that will be covered by the mass media. These
manufactured events are usually photogenic and have high emotional appeal. Pseudo-events are
pre- and post-packaged by press releases, which control how the event is to be viewed; news
feeds, sound bites, which attempt to control television and radio coverage; and "spin doctors,"
who are sources who are on hand to provide a biased perspective of what was said or happened.
[3]Political Pressures
Presidents manipulate information through pseudo-events, press conferences, exclusive
interviews and press leaks. Government agencies manipulate access to information in the name
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of national security, and local governments manipulate news judgment by threatening the
financial base of the media organizations.
Presidents can control information by bypassing the mainstream media and holding their
own staged events and press conferences and by granting interviews to favored journalists.
These avenues allow people or issues tied to presidents to become newsworthy. Press leaks by
presidential aides and other government officials also are used to test the assets and liabilities of
issues and possible appointments or to embarrass someone.
Government agencies have denied information to the news media because of "national
security" reasons or for "protection of vital interests." Meanwhile, local governments can threaten
the income of small weeklies and dailies by jeopardizing their status as "papers of record" a
designation that allows them to publish lucrative legal advertisements mandated by
municipalities and states.
[3]Commercial Pressures
In addition to consumer and political pressures, news can be influenced by advertising pressures
and the threat of lawsuits. Advertising is the main source of income for most newspapers and
magazines, and it completely finances most radio and local television stations. More than one
advertiser has threatened to pull its advertisements or sponsorship because of an unfavorable
story. For example, the Washington State Fruit Commission withdrew $71,300 worth of
television advertising from CBS affiliates in St. Louis, Atlanta and Tampa in 1989 after “60
Minutes” ran a story on the chemical daminozide (better known by its trade name, Alar).
Besides pulling advertisements, companies have threatened media organizations with
libel lawsuits. The threat has made many news organizations think twice about pursuing
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investigative reports on controversial issues. The TV program “60 Minutes” reportedly backed
off a story about the tobacco industry in 1995 after it was threatened with a lawsuit.
[1]Categories of Information
Journalists categorize information into hard and soft news, straight and feature stories, spot and
enterprise news, along with terms for specialized forms such as investigative reporting. The basic
kinds of information are hard news and soft news.
[2]Hard News
Hard news is the factual account of a timely event one that occurred during the previous 24
hours and treats an issue of ongoing concern. Traditionally, hard-news stories were written in the
inverted pyramid style in which the most important news elements who, what, when, where,
why and how were included in the first few sentences of the story. The first sentence of an
Associated Press story illustrates the inclusion of these elements.
[EXT]BIRMINGHAM, England A private jet bound for the United States crashed on
takeoff Friday at Birmingham International Airport in central England, killing five
Americans on board.
Various types of hard news stories are spot, enterprise and investigative. Spot news, or
breaking news, is up-to-the-minute coverage of events as they happen. The most dramatic
breaking news in recent years occurred when the TV networks disrupted regular programming
for several days to cover terrorist attacks and their aftermath in New York City.
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After the attacks and the U.S. response, the public was bombarded with numerous
enterprise news or exclusive stories. Here, editors and reporters come up with their own story
ideas, such as airline safety, U.S. intelligence capabilities or the Islamic faith.
The attacks also brought a proliferation of investigative reporting. These stories included
reports of governments and organizations linked to terrorists and allegations of racial profiling by
authorities.
Straight news is synonymous for this hard-news type of reporting, but it is considered
more of a factual style of writing than a type of news. This is in contrast to a feature treatment, in
which the writer relies heavily on quotations and descriptions. For example, this is how the
writer for the Los Angeles Times began a feature story related to the terrorist bombing in
Oklahoma City:
[EXT] They consider themselves apostles of liberty, but for the last six weeks Terry and
James Nichols have been prisoners of a government they do not recognize.
Terry Lynn Nichols, a 40-year-old with a bank teller's countenance, is confined to
an isolation cell in the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma. His death
may be sought by authorities he believes have seized unlawful power. When he appears
in court, Nicholas shuffles like a windup toy, hobbled by iron shackles.
His brother James Douglas Nichols, bearded and balding with an intense,
blue-eyed gaze, won a measure of freedom last week with his release from federal
custody in Detroit. But the 41-year-old man who once railed about government
restrictions remains tethered to an electronic bracelet, his daily movements limited by a
judge's order.
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The remainder of the story provides readers with the rage these blast-probe figures had toward
government and explores whether they indeed moved beyond mere words in attacking the federal
government.
[2]Soft News
The above feature treatment could be classified as more of a soft news story. Soft news is less
timely, of little consequence and importance and not always based on a current news event. Take
the Los Angeles Times' feature on UCLA's "supersurgeon" Keith Black, who is zeroing in on a
way to remove malignant tumors. Though the article has some hard-hitting information the
prediction that malignant brain tumors may be curable within 10 years the story will be just as
fresh if it were run next week, next month or next year.
Or take the Orange County Register's story of a woman who shed 621 pounds, her house
and her husband. Readers could live without the information, but it made for a good feature that
provided much fare for the tabloids and television talk shows. She became a regular guest on
“The Maury Povich Show.” Her debut on the TV talk show is just one example of the blurring of
lines between information and entertainment that has been seen in television, radio and
newspapers.
[CL] CHECKLIST: NEWS JUDGMENT
>News judgment is used to determine which stories are newsworthy and should be reported to
the paper's readers. It is the process of selecting and evaluating stories and visuals to determine if
they should be used, how much of the story and visuals should be used and where they should be
used in the paper.
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>The people who decide which stories to use and how to use them are called gatekeepers, and
though they always attempt to keep their own biases out of their decision-making process, their
values, cultural background and interests influence news judgment.
>The criteria for newsworthiness are the needs of the paper's audience, the story's timeliness,
impact on readers, prominence of the people involved, conflict, proximity to readers, uniqueness
and science or progress.
>Page 1 story selection is influenced by the newspaper's role in the community, the
demographics of the paper’s readers and what they care about, amount of space, the editors’
interests, story selection by the nation’s elite press and the quality of the writing.
>News judgment also is influenced by consumer, political and commercial pressures.
>The two basic types of stories in a newspaper are hard news, or factual accounts of timely
events, and soft news, which are less-timely stories that may have little consequence or
importance but that the readers might find interesting.
[R]Suggested Readings
Fuller, Jack. “News Values: Ideas for an Information Age.” Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1997.
Jamieson, Kathleen Hall, and Karlyn Kohrs Campbell. “Interplay of Influence: News,
Advertising, Politics and the Mass Media.” Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1992.
Kovach, Bill, and Tom Rosenstiel. “The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should
Know and the Public Should Expect.” New York: Crown Publishing, 2001.
Leonard, Jr. Downie and Robert G. Kaiser. “The News About the News: American Journalism in
Peril.” New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
Robinson, Matthew. “Mobocracy: How the Media’s Obsession with Polling Twists the News,
Alters Elections, and Undermines Democracy.” Roseville, Calif.: Prima Publishing, 2002.
Shaw, David. “News With Impact? It’s Simple.” Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 1992.
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[I]Internet Resources
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). http://www.fair.org/fair
James Fallows Central. http://www.clark.net/pub/rothman/fallows.htm
Pew Center for Civic Journalism Civic. http://www.cpn.org/sections/affiliates/pew.html
also http://www.pewcenter.org/index.php
Project Censored. http://www.projectcensored.org
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[E]Exercise 1: Defining News
How do you define news? What characteristics determine whether a story or a visual appears
on Page 1? What is meant by the agenda-setting function of the mass media? Can you think of
any present-day example of where a visual or a story in one medium became a story in another
medium?
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[E]Exercise 2: Grading the News
Examine you local newspapers and determine which characteristics of news made the stories on
Page 1 newsworthy. What other stories in the paper that day were candidates for Page 1? Would
you have made the same choices as the editors of the newspaper?
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[E]Exercise 3: Grading the News
You are an editor for a major Southern California metropolitan newspaper. During your daily
editorial conference, your news editor, metro editor and photo editor vie for space for these
stories and visuals. Your front page usually has a mix of local and non-local news. Which six of
the following stories would you use on page 1? What visuals would you use? What would be your
lead story? Explain.
News Editor
OFF THE LABRADOR COAST After two days of storm, the night sky is clear and there is a
half moon over the ice. The red curtains of the northern lights have faded early. A sputter of
static issues from the radio in the wheelhouse of the sealing ship, a hissing backdrop for the
murmured voices of the captain and his mates. (Story about a seal hunt, a frigid, perilous rite of
passage)
WASHINGTON Rigorous academic standards and avoidance of fads seem to be the secret of
success for high schools whose students are bucking a trend toward lower Scholastic Aptitude
Test Scores. That's the conclusion of the National Association of Secondary School Principals,
which studied 34 high schools whose students have done unusually well recently on the
Scholastic Aptitude Test.
BEIRUT, Lebanon The reputed "godfather" of international terrorism was reported dead by
Palestinian officials, but a mystery developed over the cause and place of death of the man who
topped Israel's most-wanted list.
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TEL AVIV, Israel A movement of Israeli army veterans calling itself "Peace Now" drew a
crow of 25,000 to a rally demanding that the prime minister make new concessions for peace.
LAGOS, Nigeria The U.S. president visiting here warned against Cuban military meddling in
Africa and attacked white racism, saying the day will come when Africans cry out with Martin
Luther King, "Free at last! Free at last! Great God Almighty, we are free at last."
WASHINGTON To federal railroad authorities, the nightmare was painfully familiar: a freight
train derails in a small town. Tank cars loaded with toxic chemicals rupture and burn. The town
is evacuated in the dead of night. (Think piece on railroad holocausts linked to jumbo tank car
defects, with file photo)
NEW YORK A paralyzing subway and bus strike has been averted in New York City when
negotiators for the Transport Workers Union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
reached agreement on a contract 4½ hours after a midnight deadline.
Metro Editor
Thirty-three low- and moderate-income families walked away from a lottery with the prize of a
lifetime, a lease on and a chance to eventually own a home valued at $90,000 to $150,000.
(With photo)
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The predicted showers, up to 3 inches of new rain, failed to measure up to that billing, and the
National Weather Service promised a warm and sunny day under partly cloudy skies.
United Automobile Workers Local 148 members rejected by a narrow margin a contract proposal
from Boeing Corp. that would have ended an 11-week strike at the Los Angeles facility.
It was more than four weeks ago, but the memory of that fearful morning at the airport remains
vivid for Dolores Bowen and Gordon Dina. They were released from Memorial Hospital after
more than a month of treatment for injuries they received in a crash of a Hawaii-bound
Continental DC-10. Two others remain in the hospital in critical condition.
Renovation or replacement of a local medical center, expected to cost $250 million, has been
called inevitable by a top county health services official who is reviewing the troubled facility.
Photo Editor
Preparing for the Kill. A seal hunter prods a mother seal so that he can kill her white-furred pup
on the opening morning of hunting season. (To go with seal-hunt story)
New Friend. The first lady holds a Nigerian boy during visit to crafts show. (To go with Nigerian
story)
Lofty Goal. The president reaches high to shake hands with performer on stilts at cultural show in
Lagos. (To go with Nigerian story)
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Luck. The mayor reaches into hopper and the governor names the winner at the housing lottery.
(To go with housing-lottery story)
Inferno. File photo of nine propane-laden jumbo tank cars that erupted in mushroom clouds of
fire over Los Angeles last year. Fires raged for 56 hours. (To go with railroad story)
New Stone Age. Japanese police display a mobile stone-thrower built by foes of new airport at
Narita Airport.