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July 6, 2000

Editorial Notebook: Diane Roberts
'Big Brother' is TV gone bad
Just when you thought television couldn't get any stupider, tackier, trashier, more venal, more vulgar, or more downright moronic, along comes CBS' new hyped-to-the-backteeth entry in the video voyeurism stakes, Big Brother.

Editorials
Scaring whistle-blowers
Buried in the must-pass Senate Intelligence Authorization bill is a provision that deserves to be called "the Whistle-blower Comeuppance Act." The proposed law would make it a felony to leak classified information, even if the disclosures benefited the public.

No free water
The drought, population growth and wasteful habits are causing a difficult recovery in water levels, and don't let the afternoon thunderstorms fool you.

Letters
Efforts to build a missile defense are misguided
The present debate concerning a limited missile defense system is absolutely ludicrous and at best self-serving. The only support it gets comes from two sources: the defense contractors throughout the country and the politicians beholden to them for their campaign contributions. All indications at this time have shown that the system, if it works at all, will be of very limited value.  

Perspective
Taking jobs, alienating customers
For weeks Americans have been told that the outsourcing of high-tech jobs is good for our economy. So said Greg Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in a recent report signed by President Bush. So, too, writes Thomas Friedman of the New York Times in articles praising the rise of call centers in India used for everything from making airline reservations and reading medical X-ray films to providing tech support for American computer firms.

Philip Gailey: Democrats fall off campaign finance reform wagon
Well, what do you know. Soft money is back, and it's making hypocrites of all those Democrats who fervently championed the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, not to mention those Republicans who objected to the law's restrictions on issue advocacy.

Bill Maxwell: Who is for the farm worker?
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is touting legislation to improve the lives of Florida's 300,000-plus farm workers, who endure institutional and systemic injustices each day in our fields and groves and their personal lives.

Robyn E. Blumner: For some defendants, an American gulag
In Bernard Malamud's masterpiece The Fixer, inmate Yakov Bok was subjected to psychological torture in a Soviet gulag through the humiliations of constant shackling and repeated strip searches.