July 23, 1995

A WEEK from Tuesday, Rupert Murdoch is scheduled to appear before the House ethics committee, where he will be grilled by Democrats about his company's lucrative book deal with the Republican House Speaker, Newt Gingrich. Over on the House floor that week, perhaps even that same day, Republican lawmakers will be trying to push through a major telecommunications bill that would, among other things, let the media baron buy still more television stations and newspapers in the United States. In one sense, this is all in a week's notoriety for Mr. Murdoch -- a man fiercely admired by some as a brilliant entrepreneur and just as fiercely reviled by others as a harsh and domineering mogul. But the simple fact of this double-barreled, center-stage presence in Congress also represents a new phase in a remarkable career: After years as an outsider in the capital's whirl of money and politics, Mr. Murdoch has come to Washington.

GENERAL MOTORS is selling every sport utility vehicle it can make, but a survey has found that soon after they find a home, they generate far more customer complaints than do new cars. No wonder. In my test of Chevrolet's Blazer, Tahoe and Suburban, an ashtray fell out of the dash and a seat adjuster proved balky (Blazer), a power window came off its track (Tahoe), a plastic shield on a shoulder belt was not properly fastened and easily came off, screw covers were not secure, another seat was balky and a light under the hood flickered (Suburban). A colleague recently drove a Tahoe with a Chevrolet engineer and both agreed it had a noisy wiper motor.

NEW YORK CITY'S murder, robbery and burglary rates have plummeted to their lowest levels in a quarter century -- a development that has become a marvel of American law enforcement. But Police Commissioner William J. Bratton will not be satisfied until every last criminologist surrenders. "We'll knock them down like ducks in a row," said Mr. Bratton, speaking of all the standard criminological theories about how crime waves are tied to the size of the youth population, or to changes in the weather, or to unemployment levels, or to drug use patterns, or to the availability of guns.

IF Goldilocks still liked to wander in the woods, Chevrolet showrooms could offer her at least as many off-roading choices as she found on that storied day she came across the bears. There is the Suburban, the papa bear of four-wheel-drive light trucks; the Blazer, the smallish but feisty sport utility that was redesigned for this year, and now the Tahoe, which is meant to fill the gap in between.

Despite the warning by the United States, Britain and France that they would bomb Bosnian Serb forces if they attack the Gorazde "safe area" in eastern Bosnia, senior NATO diplomats and military officers said today that there were serious questions about how the threat would be carried out. "The history of this conflict is that people often agree to threats on the political level, but when it comes down to the military details, all kinds of objections crop up," one NATO diplomat said.