Tapes

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Finishing a Chinese lunch at one of the approximately 4,296 shopping malls that pave New Jersey, David Skolnik hands down his verdict on President Clinton and the long-running controversy over campaign finance."

Rogue cop Mark Fuhrman may have ruined the prosecutors' case in the O. J. trial, but he sure saved the show.He's the best TV villain since J. R.'s days on "Dallas," if slightly less believable.Let's face it, the O. J. trial was dragging. It was all DNA this and PCR that. One side's experts debunking the other side's experts. I longed for the early, halcyon days of the trial, when we had real characters. There was the feisty, Latina housekeeper and the dim-witted, blond houseboy. Even a wailing dog beats scientists.

WASHINGTON -- A report by the federal archivists who collected thousands of White House computer tapes in the waning hours of the Bush administration indicates that several sets of the tapes, ordered preserved by a federal judge, have been lost.A Feb. 16 memo from the National Archives panel that gathered the material said that "many dates are missing" from the piles of computer tapes hastily collected in the final 18hours of the administration.A lawyer involved in the case that led to the judge's order said it appeared that "several sets of tapes had been erased, perhaps inadvertently."

DALLAS -- Gennifer Flowers, the Arkansas woman who claimed to have a long-running affair with then-Gov. Bill Clinton, today is releasing for sale what she calls "the complete and unedited" tapes of four telephone conversations with Mr. Clinton she recorded in 1990 and 1991.Mr. Clinton has steadfastly denied having an extramarital affair xTC with Ms. Flowers, a one-time Little Rock, Ark., night club singer and former state employee.A preview of the tapes found extensive discussions between Mr. Clinton and Ms. Flowers about how to deflect persistent media inquiries into rumors of Mr. Clinton's womanizing, but little evidence that would settle the controversy.

When it's lunchtime outside Lexington Market, it's time for "Scar" to get busy. He wheels up his luggage cart and starts hustling bargain cassette tapes at $5 apiece, two for $8.They're bargains because they're pirated."

WASHINGTON -- Richard M. Nixon's heirs plan to continue his 20-year-old fight to control more than 3,000 hours of White House tapes and 150,000 pages of presidential papers, his lawyer said yesterday.But legal experts said Mr. Nixon's death may speed the release of the records, which are locked away at the National Archives and have never been made available to scholars or journalists.The tapes and papers were a crucial battleground in Mr. Nixon's struggle to re-establish his reputation. Starting two months after he resigned as president in 1974, he filed lawsuits to stop the release of the records.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Computer tapes - containing information on 206,000 employees, time-share owners and customers that could be misused by credit thieves - are missing from Marriott Vacation Club International's Orlando headquarters, the company said yesterday, "We regret this situation has occurred and realize this may cause concern for our associates and customers," Marriott Vacation Club President Stephen P. Weisz said in a written statement. Ed Kinney, a spokesman for the timeshare giant, said the tapes contain people's addresses, Social Security numbers "and other sensitive information."

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court in Atlanta temporarily barred Cable News Network yesterday from broadcasting tape recordings it has of deposed Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega talking to his defense lawyers, and CNN vowed to take the dispute swiftly to the Supreme Court.The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, urged by the Justice Department not to let the tapes be aired for the time being, upheld a temporary 10-day ban issued by the Florida federal judge who is handling the government's prosecution of General Noriega for alleged drug crimes.

MIAMI -- News executives and media lawyers found little comfort in a federal judge's ruling allowing Cable News Network to broadcast tapes of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega's prison phone calls.They said yesterday's decision by U.S. District Court Judge William Hoeveler, though positive in and of itself, might still leave a legacy adverse to press freedom.The U.S. Supreme Court's Nov. 18 refusal to lift Hoeveler's temporary ban on the broadcast of the tapes may encourage judges to prevent news outlets from publishing stories until they review material in the media's possession, editors and legal experts said.

Monica Lewinsky has confirmed the authenticity of tape recordings of two conversations secretly recorded by Linda R. Tripp, state prosecutors said in court documents filed yesterday.The Columbia resident was indicted by a Howard County grand jury last month on charges that she illegally taped Lewinsky on Dec. 22, 1997, and then had her attorney illegally disclose the contents to Newsweek magazine.The significance of Lewinsky's confirmation remains unclear because she listened to copies of tapes of conversations that took place in October 1997.