Chasing Celebrities to Death	by Walt Brasch No one takes responsibility, -- not the paparazzi, nor the media, nor the world-wide public whose insatiable demands for fuzzy pictures drove the media to sell their editorial souls for circulation revenue
Fast Track to Nowhere	by John Buell Clinton wants "fast track" authority for another round of NAFTA style trade negotiations, but 90% of the U. S firms that promised to add domestic jobs once NAFTA was enacted have failed to deliver on their promises
Who's To Blame For The Tabloidization Of The News?	by Randolph T. Holhut If you think sensationalism in the press began with the supermarket tabloids, People magazine and TV shows like "A Current Affair" or "Hard Copy," you should read a memo written for the staff of one of the Hearst newspapers back in the 1920s
The Long Reach of Burma's Bloody Dictators	by Jim Hightower Can business friends of Burma's dictatorship prevent you from protesting in America? Maybe so, thanks to the WTO
The Empty Goals of Reverend Al	by Joe Conason Sharpton's failure to mature into a significant political figure is tragic not only for him, but for a constituency whose lives are anything but funny. The effect of his presence is not to focus attention on the health, housing, drug, education and employment problems that plague the neighborhoods where he is popular, but to distract from them
Corrupt Washington Distracts Public With Sideshows	by Russell Sadler The IRS hearings, Clinton-Gore fundraising, and other sideshows are efforts to sidetrack the public from the real problems corrupting all political parties and all branches of government
Media's Shallow Sympathies	by Norman Solomon The same media outlets that can go into paroxysms of grief over one celebrity's demise have shown themselves fully capable of ignoring -- or even celebrating -- the deaths of many people
The CIA at 50	by Alexander Cockburn Look history in the face and discover the CIA was no rogue agency, but only the enforcer of U.S. policy
S America Exploitation And El Nino	by Alexander Cockburn It's no longer just a matter of millions of acres of trees going up in smoke, releasing carbon dioxide -- the Amazon basin is now reckoned to hold oil reserves of vast proportions and oil companies exploitation of these new fields is occurring in remote areas with no protection
Letters