Critics Say ABC Opened Its Checkbook for a News Source
Date: 31 May 1999
By Bill Carter
Bill Carter
ABC News is revealed to have paid friend of Columbine High School killer $16,000 for exclusive broadcast rights to home videos and other materials; ABC's Good Morning America then presented what it called exclusive interview with Nathan Dykeman without disclosing on air that Dykeman had been paid; photo; network insists payment and interview were not connected, but critics raise strong ethics issues, since paying subjects could encourage embellishment of stories; 18-year-old Dykeman was widely sought for interviews about his friendship with Dylan Klebold, and previously got $10,000 from The National Enquirer; media's pursuit of other students and parents in Littleton, Colo, recounted (M)
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Stepping Carefully in a Newspaper War
Date: 31 May 1999
By James Brooke
James Brooke
Denver Post and Denver Rocky Mountain News strive to be sensitive to victims and families in covering killings at Columbine High School in Littleton; front-page photos; two papers are involved in fiercely contested newspaper war, and editors feared that misstep at time of such community anguish would draw harsh reaction; Post is owned by Media News Group, News by Scripps (M)
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Journalists Coming Home From the War
Date: 31 May 1999
By Lawrie Mifflin
Lawrie Mifflin
Television networks scale back news coverage on Kosovo; photo (S)
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Market Place; Newspaper companies are setting up Web units despite a cooler market for Internet stocks.
Date: 31 May 1999
By Felicity Barringer
Felicity Barringer
Market Place column reports that newspaper companies, including The New York Times, continue to set up Web units despite cooling of market for Internet stocks; graph showing that Internet stocks continue to outperform stock of traditional media companies; Martin A Nisenholtz, president of Times Company Digital, says idea is to 'reach critical mass' in on-line world by achieving maximum possible reach into 30 percent of American households that have Internet access (M)
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Farmers' Right to Sue Grows, Raising Debate on Food Safety
Date: 01 June 1999
By By Melody Petersen
Melody Petersen
Critics say state laws intended to protect farmers and food companies from criticism that might scare consumers away their products are putting a chill on continuing debate about what the public should eat; though some publishers and broadcasters continue putting out reports on food, others have stricken information from scripts, avoided certain food issues or dropped book project out of concern over high cost of defending lawsuits; only 13 state such laws, but because books and television shows must play to a national audience, the statutes in effect are reaching across state borders, causing consumers everywhere to get less information about food safety; photo; map (M)
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At the Box Office, a Force Is With 'Phantom Menace'
Date: 01 June 1999
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace dominates box office over Memorial Day holiday weekend with estimated $64.8 million in ticket sales, passing $200 million mark faster than any film in history; total gross hits $205 million; film Notting Hill, from Universal Pictures, unit of Seagram Co, opens at number 2 with $27.8 million, making it studio's second strong release this month; strong opening gives struggling Universal another dose of good news after its recent hit The Mummy, which has brought in $117.1 million so far (M)
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MEXICO RESTRICTS DEPOSIT GUARANTEE
Date: 01 June 1999
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Mexico says it will phase out unlimited protection of bank deposits from 2003 to guarantee deposits of no more than $105,000 by 2005, move to prompt banks to beef up capital and big depositors to share some risk (S)
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EURO REGAINS GROUND
Date: 01 June 1999
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Euro rises against dollar for first time in four days as comments by European Central Bank officials and reports in British newspapers fuel speculation that bank may use some of its $248 billion of foreign currency reserves to buy euros to halt currency's decline (S)
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BRAZIL MAY CUT SPENDING
Date: 01 June 1999
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Brazil says it will cut spending or raise taxes to trim its budget deficit and shore up investor confidence if nation's highest court strikes down new $1.2 billion Social Security tax; pending ruling threatens to derail major plank in Government's effort to trim its $72 billion budget deficit (S)
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Correction
Date: 01 June 1999
Correction of May 31 Media Talk column on scaling back of coverage of Kosovo refugees
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