Reporters on the Job

LANGUAGE WARS: Nicole Gaouette finds that the longer the intifada goes on, the quicker tempers flare. To avoid upsetting very ideologically driven sources, she tries to use neutral language. Terms like Israeli occupation or terrorism can really rub people the wrong way. "I keep it as value-free as possible," Nicole says. But during an interview yesterday with an Israeli political scientist, he objected to speaking with Nicole unless she agreed to use the term terrorism instead of violence. Nicole opted not to do that. "Language has so much power to define the reality, and you don't want to let someone else dictate the language," Nicole says.

Nolove for parades: Fortunately, says Lucian Kim, he's been away from Berlin (on reporting missions) for the past three summers. But in July 1997, his first summer in Berlin, he attended a Love Parade - "out of curiosity."

Thinking that the procession would begin more or less on time, as everything does in Germany, he waited and waited. There were masses of people everywhere, and he had no idea what he was supposed to be hearing or seeing. So he went home, never fully comprehending if he had experienced or missed anything.

PRESS CLIPPING..

CARBONATED PRESSURE: Britain's Guardian newspaper reports that some British lawmakers are enlisting Coca-Cola to back the Kyoto protocols, which President Bush recently backed away from. The members of Parliament urged Coca-Cola customers worldwide to contact the image-conscious soft-drink giant - which donated $1 million to the Bush campaign - to bring its influence to bear.

"We turn not to the foes of President Bush but to his friends, those whose wise counsels have influenced the president, those whose wide pockets have sustained him," Nigel Griffiths, a former consumer affairs minister, said in the Guardian report.

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