Press Conference

WASHINGTON -- The message in President Clinton's press conference the other day is that he's just going to brazen it out. And the lesson for the rest of us is that he's probably going to get away with it.Meeting with reporters five weeks after his impeachment trial, the president seemed alternately defiant and aggrieved but hardly contrite. It was clear that this most skilled politician has digested the opinion polls that show most Americans want to forget Monica Lewinsky and move on to even greater economic success.

MOSCOW -- Russia may be in acute economic and political crisis. The course of reform in this battered nuclear power and the very future of President Boris N. Yeltsin may be in doubt.But of three questions put to President Clinton by American reporters during a press conference yesterday in the stately Catherine Hall of the Kremlin, two were about Monica Lewinsky.Clinton answered them without really answering, declining to use the opportunity to issue a more formal apology for misleading the nation about his relationship with Lewinsky, and betraying no particular emotion or discomfort.

An excerpt from a Friday Orange County Register editorial.THERE was an air of easy calm in President Clinton's press conference performance Thursday. Even the questions that probed, however tentatively, the familiar charges of official impropriety drew responses that were relaxed and confident, if unilluminating.For part of the explanation, one need look no further than the stock numbers parading across the bottom of the CNBC-TV screen as Mr. Clinton spoke. When the economy is buoyant and shares rocketing upward, the latest advance in one of the longest and boldest bull markets in history, the details of this or that political scandal lose their sharpness; the gauzy warm light of prosperity softens the scene.

MOSCOW -- Russia may be in acute economic and political crisis. The course of reform in this battered nuclear power and the very future of President Boris N. Yeltsin may be in doubt.But of three questions put to President Clinton by American reporters during a press conference yesterday in the stately Catherine Hall of the Kremlin, two were about Monica Lewinsky.Clinton answered them without really answering, declining to use the opportunity to issue a more formal apology for misleading the nation about his relationship with Lewinsky, and betraying no particular emotion or discomfort.

WASHINGTON -- It was a classic race for a news story, handled with the seriousness of war in the Middle East or an exploding campaign finance scandal. Reporters begged White House aides for the scoop. An initial news "exclusive" got the story wrong. The announcement, cloaked in secrecy for days, spurred leaks and demanded prime time in a presidential press conference.And the subject of all this fuss? He'd rather be eating grass.That would be Buddy, the previously anonymous chocolate Labrador puppy whose owner, President Clinton, finally named for the world yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- The challenge came from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, and it has been answered.The challenge came back in March at the end of a press conference in Washington, where Mr. Farrakhan was presented with an award by the black-oriented National Newspaper Publishers Association.He was on his way out the door after answering questions about his earlier Africa tour, which included visits to Libya, Sudan and other countries opposed to the U.S. when someone shouted a question to him about slavery in Sudan.

In an effort to concentrate on building audiences and cutting costs, Arena Players is reducing its coming season from seven plays to four, as well as continuing fund raising that has brought in $46,000.Fund raising began in March, when a $120,000 deficit threatened the existence of the country's oldest continuously operating African-American theater."I feel that the future is being secured," managing director Rodney Orange Jr. said before a press conference at the theater yesterday.The $46,000 was raised by Friends of Arena Players, a group formed to oversee fund-raising.

HI GUYS,Well, I had a really interesting weekend. As you may have heard, Clinton came to town for a G-7 meeting, and part of his plan was to address the American public here in Moscow. So someone from our Moscow office called me to say there were seven tickets available. They were for the students, not me. So, whatever, I wasn't too crushed. But then someone from the office called and said the (American) embassy needed a gopher for the course of the visit to run errands for the press and best of all it would pay $5 an hour.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Two brothers' trek around the world in search of exotic wildlife -- involving 11 different countries and 600 different species of animals -- will be coming to PBS in the form of a high-energy children's series, courtesy of Maryland Public Television."

Los Angeles -- It's poor, little, honest PBS vs. the big, bad, lying Newt Gingrich.That's the way public television executives are trying to position themselves with the press here as they get set to lock horns with the new Congress for what appears to be literally the fight of their lives.It was Day 1 of the Television Critics Winter Press Tour yesterday -- the annual January sales pitch by the industry for second-season shows -- and PBS was trotting out its new wares in press conferences and screenings just as it does every year.

Refreshing candor from the new leader Watching Steve Kroft's post-election interview with President-elect Barack Obama, I was braced for the wearisome bluster, swagger and hot-air rhetoric that have come with every (so-called) presidential figure in recent memory ("'60 Minutes' scores with Obama interview," Nov. 20). But they didn't come. Instead, we saw a future commander in chief deliver his thoughts with unprecedented calm, clarity, composure and, finally, straight talk. It was a thrilling moment, but not in the standard sense: not because of Mr. Obama's victory but because of the excitement I felt as I watched our president-elect answer questions in a cool-headed and sincere manner.

DOES A dying Hollywood need a civil war today to hasten its erosion?" asks the veteran PR man Julian Myers. The writers' strike reduced the annual funfest that is the Golden Globes to a dry press conference. It has cost the filmmaking industry approximately $100 million dollars. The L.A. economy depends heavily on the award season, with parties, jewels, dresses, caterers, florists, stylists, hairdressers, chauffeurs and hotels all hurting. Not to mention the advertising revenue lost by NBC. The writers seem to be dealing a blow that is perhaps even more severe than they anticipated or intended.

A 30-year-old city man was sentenced yesterday in federal court to 20 years in prison for carrying a loaded gun, crack cocaine and marijuana, prosecutors said. Prosecutors highlighted the lengthy prison sentence at a news conference in an effort to deter criminals from committing gun crimes, part of a new crime-fighting strategy led by the state's attorney's office that would guarantee prison time for those convicted of carrying guns. "Baltimore Exile," a collaboration between federal, state and local law enforcement, would seek significant prison sentences for those convicted of gun crimes by prosecuting more of those cases in federal court, where prosecutors enjoy a higher conviction rate and sentences are generally harsher.

About a dozen Baltimore activists kicked off the local planning yesterday for the 10th-anniversary celebration of the Million Man March - an event they promised would go beyond speeches and mobilize African-Americans to create wealth, and address health, education and social problems. With a press conference at Sojourner Douglass College in the morning and a rally at night, organizers urged people to join the gathering planned for mid-October on The Mall in Washington. This year's event is called the Millions More Movement and would commemorate the Oct. 15, 1995, Million Man March, spearheaded by Louis Farrakhan.

It was a bright moment in hip-hop, a day that undoubtedly will go down in a future chapter of the culture's history. Two of the genre's most visible and successful acts, 50 Cent and the Game, decided to stop acting out gangsta fantasies and squash the feud between them. After years of cartoonishly violent images pervading hip-hop, this truce is welcome relief. "I'm so proud of them," author Afeni Shakur, mother of celebrated rapper-actor Tupac Shakur, said in an interview. Since the still-unsolved 1996 murder of her son, who attended Baltimore's School for the Arts, Shakur has become an outspoken anti-violence activist.

If you absolutely, positively, can't wait to spend $180 for your authentic Orioles Sammy Sosa No. 21 jersey - and it appears from an unscientific sampling yesterday that you have lots of company - fear not. Majestic Athletic, the official supplier of uniforms to all 30 major league teams, began production at 8 yesterday morning. With any luck, you'll be able to wear that Sosa jersey to work early next week. Chuck Strom, senior brand manager for Major League Baseball apparel at Majestic, said the family-owned company couldn't start making Sosa Orioles jerseys until the deal was official.

Towson obstetrician Carol Ritter spent two decades delivering babies, earning a reputation as one of Baltimore's top woman doctors. Then she got sued three times in 10 months. Now Ritter is one of Maryland's most visible physician activists. Like other physicians, she has testified at hearings and spoken at rallies. But she has also become the producer and central character of a documentary. Today she plans to be in Annapolis at the special legislative session on medical malpractice reform, where she expects the final shots of the documentary to be filmed.

Beatlemania was sweeping America on Sept. 13, 1964, when photographer Morton Tadder strode into the Baltimore Civic Center, climbed onto his little magnesium ladder in the middle of the sea of screaming fans and began shooting the band playing onstage. Tadder, on assignment for the London Express, shot two rolls of film before he realized the band wasn't the Beatles, but a warm-up act. "I had no idea," he says. "Once you got past Frank Sinatra, I was lost." But when the Beatles finally came on, he shot about 10 more rolls of film.

For 17 minutes last night, President George W. Bush spoke to the American public about the progress being made in Iraq, and then faced a White House press corps that was uniformly polite but unusually pointed in its questioning about just two topics: the increasingly bloody occupation of Iraq and the Sept. 2001 attacks. Did he share responsibility for the intelligence failures that allowed the terror strikes to occur and for mistaken statements that served to justify the invasion of Iraq?

The Killer Strain: Anthrax and a Government Exposed, by Marilyn W. Thompson. HarperCollins. 256 pages. $25.95. The anthrax killer is still out there. He -- OK: he or she -- presumably takes pride in turning Washington upside down and rattling the American people with about as much powder as some people put in their morning coffee. If his goal was to focus the attention of the U.S. government on bioterrorism, he can consider his letters a smashing success. Now, if he's feeling a bit ignored, he can pick up a copy of the first book wholly devoted to his crime.