Section B·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, October 16, 2000
Perhaps Republicans could pass emergency legislation requiring all Americans to watch the debate or risk stiff penalties. An alternate proposal for Democrats: Enact a law providing generous tax incentives to everyone who tunes in.
Viewers will face temptation yet again from Dark Angel, as well as from The WB's teen drama Angel and countless other diversions lurking elsewhere on broadcast and cable channels.
This threat continues with the final face-off between Bush and Gore (airing at 8 p.m. tomorrow on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and C-SPAN).
Humdrum debates drive away viewers
At the last minute, NBC gave its outlets the choice of carrying the debate or the baseball game it had originally scheduled. Fox went ahead and aired Dark Angel, a sci-fi drama about a sexy superwoman in a fetching cat suit.
NEW YORK — With only one debate to go between Al Gore and George W. Bush, another debate goes on: What good are these presidential face-offs?
This posed a terrible threat to the republic. Although the debate was carried live on at least three broadcast networks and four cable outlets, viewers felt the lure of all that other, noncivic-minded fare. Millions, helpless to resist, fell prey to temptation.
The Associated Press
But before the first debate had aired, it was already at the center of an uproar. That happened when NBC and Fox announced their intention not to carry it live. They were shirking a fundamental obligation, as FCC Chairman William Kennard scolded.
Overrehearsed, unrevealing, boring — those are some of the complaints lodged against them, as if somehow the debates should bear the blame for the debaters.
But could it be that, if they're really so dull, the debates are serving their purpose very well by revealing the candidates as formula-driven, overcautious and, other than those irrevocable differences in personal style, blandly interchangeable.
Who says a presidential debate must be gripping to be worthywhile?
CBS News anchor Dan Rather, for one. It was Rather who proclaimed long stretches of the first Bush-Gore encounter pedantic, dull, unimaginative, lackluster and humdum. Odds are, he spoke for many.
Crossword
ACROSS
1 Sharply defined
6 Hitchcock thriller,
    "Window"
10 Willkers!
14 Kitchen appliance
15 Contribution to the pot
16 Utility
17 Garret
18 Well-behaved
19 At the summit
20 Early Bears hit
22 Actress Russo
23 Calm
24 Got around
26 Uma of "Pulp Fiction"
27 Pushed a broom
35 'Some'
38 City on the Erie Canal
40 Champing at the bar
41 Dued
42 Madagascar primate
43 Love deeply
44 Bonzo or Clyde of the movies
45 Plains shelter
46 Music teacher
47 Quick
52 Superlatively sage
58 Tibetan monk
59 Member of Guatemala
54 Part of UAE
64 Mischievous Norse god
65 Muddle
68 Bridal netting
69 Footnote abbr.
70 Wide-eyed
69 __ Stanley Gardner
71 Lions' lairs
71 Mighty mount
DOWN
1 Boorish
2 Shaping device
3 Go in
4 Stay
5 Brief look-see
6 Storm
10/18/00
© 2000 Tribute Media Services, Inc.
All rights reserved.
7 Seth's son
8 Molecular component
9 Pay off a note
10 Make certain
11 Chose
12 Fourteen pounds,
in England
13 Had aspirations
14 Doggie doc
15 Safe
17 Out of sight
tences
18 Inappropriate
19 Winning "of little
Women"
20 Body of water
21 Gum lump
22 Pride in oneself
23 Porous
24 Star element
25 Mischievous
child
26 Pool tool?
27 Exist
28 Peeper protector
29 Night flyer
49 Great ___ Lake
50 Kitchen knife
51 Computer
52 Bunny and Lend
54 Assasinated
Egyptian
55 Jockey Arcaro
56 Figure out
57 Trapped in
inches
60 Ear out
61 Thin coating
62 Assists
RETIREMENT INSURANCE MUTUAL FUNDS TRUST SERVICES TUITION FINANCING
TIAA-CREF provides financial solutions to last a lifetime.
Building your assets is one thing. Figuring out how those assets can provide you with a comfortable retirement is quite another
With TIAA-CREF, you benefit from something few other companies can offer: a total commitment to your financial well-being, today and tomorrow.
Just call us. We'll show you how our flexible range of payout options can meet your retirement goals.
*Note: Availability may depend on your employer's retirement plan provisions contract. Under federal tax law, withdrawals prior to age 59% may be subject to restrictions, and may also be subject to a 10% additional tax. Additional restrictions also apply to the TIAA Traditional Annuity.
With TIAA-CREF,
you can receive:*
- Cash withdrawals
- Systematic or fixed-period payments *
Ensuring the future for those who shape it."
- Lifetime income payments**
- Interest-only payments
**Guaranteed by our claims-paying ability.
CREF Growth is one of many CREF variable annuities.
- A combination of these
For more complete information on our securities products, please call 1.800.842.2733, ext. 5509, to request prospectuses. Read them carefully before you invest. 1. Due to current market volatility, our securities products today may be less than shown above. The investment results shown for CREF Growth variable annuity reflects past performance and are not indicative of future rates of return. These returns and the value of the principal you have invested will fluctuate, so the shares you own and may be more or less than their original price upon redeemation. * TIA-CREF Individual and Institutional Services, Inc. distributes the CREF and TIAA Real Estate variable annuities. * Teachers Personal Instruments Services, Inc. distributes the Personal Annuities variable annuity component, mutual funds and tuition savings agreements. * TIAA and TIA-CREF Life Insurance Co., New York, NY, issue insurance and annuities. * TIA-CREF Trust Company, FSR provides trust services. * Investment products are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not bank guaranteed. © 2000 TIA-CREF 08/03
SEARCHING SUCKS
THIRD VOICE DOESN'T
Let the information you want on the Web come to you Don't go anywhere. Just click. Third Voice - free software that brings you info in a way that goes above and beyond what your search engine can do. Get it.And get it over with.
thirdvoice www.thirdvoice.com
$ \textcircled{2} $ 2000 Third Voice Inc.
---