Word: showdowns
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...inevitable facet of the NBA. Eradicating the drug problem in the NBA is about as likely as watching a showdown between the L.A. Clippers and Chicago Bulls this June. It just isn't going to happen. (So, don't worry Lamar Odom, you'll have plenty of extra "recreational time" with your friends this summer...
...colleague Rick Stengel has ably and correctly pointed out in his column that the showdown is a boon to the media - especially in this economic slowdown ("recession"? "bear market"?) - which need round-the-clock news marathons to spike ratings and readership. But ironically, the media are so far also showing a second, contradictory tendency that works against this interest: their tendency to parrot the language of the administration in power, especially when reporting on international affairs. Lest they appear biased or unpatriotic during wartime, for instance, reporters surrender their understanding of English and let "bombing victims" become "collateral damage...
...Well, the current showdown will certainly embolden politicians who reject the One China policy. And the Taiwanese could capitalize on this incident to justify its request for upgraded U.S. arms. There's a large strategic ambiguity in One China, but I think Washington has no real alternative but to persist with that ambiguity - maintaining the balance between the two sides, but refraining from giving Taiwan the impression that they have carte blanche to take more adventurist paths to independence, while signaling Beijing that an invasion would have enormous costs...
...continuing saga - à la Monica or O.J. or Elian - which is why network execs won't be sad if the fliers have an extended holiday in the East. They will be able to have their fancy graphics and chirons; their running heds, like MSNBC's "U.S-China Showdown," or Fox's "U.S.-China STANDOFF' (yes, it's all-caps); their hot-headed guests, like Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (who called the fliers "hostages held by a hostile power" - nice alliteration, Dana!), and opportunities for young and pretty anchors to become sage Ted Koppels. They've already started using the obligatory crisis theme...
...between reformist modernizers and more hard-line hawks who fear that modernization is bringing dangerous social instability, the latter being inclined to view the U.S. in more adversarial terms. Still, it's likely that Beijing, too, will want to put a ceiling on the escalation of the spy-plane showdown...