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About What's happening. (Eugene, OR) 1982-1993 | View Entire Issue (July 16, 1987)
Ashes and Diamonds North’s preppy poet laureate. The senators listened to Milian Rodriguez’s testimony with rapt atten tion, and then issued 18 subpoenas, including one to John Hull—long rumored to be the CIA’s man in nor thern Costa Rica. A curious alliance has developed on the Foreign Rela tions Committee, determined to push forward into the intricacies of the con tra/drug scandal and complaisance of U.S. federal officials witting of this trade. One one side is Senator John Kerry, the most determined prober of con tra abuses on Capitol Hill, and on the other is Jesse Helms,’ whose own pas sionate hostility to the CIA’s activi ties in Central America has pulled him into the investigation. Heims was particularly gratified to hear Mi lian-Rodriguez’s statement that the cartel had been paying Gen. Noreiga of Panama $4 million a month for the privilege of operating in Panama. You Be the Judge Douglas Bennet, President National Public Radio 2025 M Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 Dear Mr. Bennet: Last evening. Senior NPR News Editor John McChesney was an even ing guest on affiliate station WAMU’s Fred Fiske Show. Mr. McChesney’s appearance came in the wake of citi zen criticism of news media coverage of the congressional Contragate hear ings. I am one of those critics, and I am grateful to WAMU for providing the forum for Mr. McChesney to dis cuss NPR’s news gathering philoso phy. I taped the show in anticipation that it would reflect a healthy interchange between your listeners and NPR man agement. Instead it turned out to be a defense by NPR of the deliberately limited scope of the congressional in quiry and the correspondingly limit ed coverage by the news media. I was disappointed but not surprised to hear that while NPR considers the hear ings to have been dealing with “dra matic and important” issues, the Con gress itself finds the public to be bored with it all. I believe the Con gress is correct on this point, and that furthermore, most of the news media cooperate in this congressional effort to shield the public from gaining sub stantial knowledge of our govern ment’s secret, shameful, illegal, and dangerous foreign policy in Central America. Day before yesterday, in one of the more enlightening bits of testimony, former CIA agent Glenn Robinette said he was paid lots of money by General Secord to spy on U.S. citizens in Central America and to purchase derogatory information on them. Two of these spied-upon people are jour nalists who have filed a lawsuit against General Secord and his colleagues for their part in alleged assault, murder, and attempted assassinations associated with agencies of the United States Government. In its meticulously detailed summary of Tuesday’s testimony, NPR made the decision to ignore the Robinette spy story and instead concentrated on the relatively trivial matter of Mr. Robinette’s design of a fancy burglar alarm for Oliver North’s private home. I asked an NPR staff member why NPR did this. He inquired and reported to me that prior to Tuesday’s hearing, the Contragate Committees and Mr. Robinette had entered into a very elaborate agreement to not dis cuss publicly the matter of spying, but to consider instead Oliver North's security alarm system. He said that NPR decided to follow this script. What happened is now history; the script was apparently modified; Mr. Robinette gave limited testimony on the matter; but NPR followed the original script, skipped the testimony on spying, and reported dutifully the protracted interchange about the bur glar alarm. Acting News Director Neal Conan told me that NPR’s handling of the Robinette news summary was a mis take but that such things are after all a matter of “news judgment.” I can wholeheartedly agree with that, and it is just this kind of news judgment that puts your listeners to sleep. If NPR news is to gain credibility in handling controversial matters, it should put more scholarship into some of its token “investigative reporting.” Running interference for our less-than-responsible Congress man keeps the board of dirctors out of your hair, but it will hardly impress your news-hungry public. Although I tend to credit the news media with being better informed on issues than the limited scope of some news boradcasts would indicate, I would concede that there may be times when such restricted reporting of controversy simply reflects a lack of knowledge of the issues. Mr. McChesney’s performance last night could perhaps be explained by his ap parent unfamiliarity with both U.S. Central American Foreign Policy and the elaborate efforts of the Congress to protect the public from learning much about it. This is not meant to be a criticism of Mr. McChesney per sonally. He is obviously a competent person to be where he is. And as busy as he must be, he cannot possibly be expected to keep track of everything. But whether reporting the news is limited by design or by scanty infor mation, NPR should at the very least see to it that news is reviewed by per sons who are conversant with the par ticular subject. That being the case, instances of “unfortunate news judg ment” could less often be ascribed to naivete. Sincerely, Julian C. Holmes Friendly, Maryland June 25, 1987 continued from p. 3 Singlaub’s Treasure When news came from the Philip pines earlier this year the General John Singlaub was down there on a visit, supposedly searching for trea sure, many people wondered what the head of the World Anti-Communist League was actually up to. The answer seems to be that he was pur suing a traditional avocation of the league, the organization of death squads. A year ago President Corazon Aquino pledged that she would order the dissolution of all private armies. On March 16 of this year she ordered all paramilitary forces disbanded. The U.S. embassy exerted enormous pres sure, through the Filipino military and General Ramos, to have this order res cinded or at least delayed, and so the hated Civilian Home Defense Force will continue under another name. The constitution approved in February had ordered the CHDF dissolved because of its record of atrocities. The U.S. embassy had also, slight ly earlier, exerted fierce pressure for Aquino to permit Singlaub to enter the country, under the preposterous pre text of the treasure hunt. Singlaub, it will be recalled, has served in recent years on U.S. Defense Department committees devising counter-insur gency strategy in Central America. Since his visit to the Philippines a number of death squads have sprung up, including Alsa Masa (Rising Masses) operating in Mindanao. On June 16 Secretary of State George Shultz endorsed the para military groups, denying that they were squads of vigilantes. Lucy Komisar, author of a new book on Aquino, reckons there are now about 13,000 members of the squads throughout the Philippines. If the Salvadoran model holds, these groups, operating with infrastructural support and manpower from the Fili pino military and interior ministry and with CIA logistical back-up, will step up a death campaign among labor and student and rural opposition leaders. Aquino can either remain in impotent complicity or get kicked aside in a year or two. Footnote: The determination of the U.S. to beef up “security” in the Paci fic against another major explosion in the Philippines probably lies behind the coup on May 14 that deposed the newly elected Fijian leader Timoci Bavadra and his cabinet. Bavadra has claimed that Singlaub was in Fiji shortly before the coup. Former U.S. mercenary Jack Terrell, now based in Washington, has said that the actual coup was carried out by a squad of U.S., British and West Germans oper ating off a West German “research vessell" that vanished the following day. Bavadra was anathema to the U.S. because of his government’s policy against visits by nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered ships. Expect simi lar interventions elsewhere in the Pacific. ■VIDEO SCANLINEVideo Reviews by Sean Axmaker New Releases and The Fab Four Something Wild Jonathon Demme’s quirky comedy Something Wild, a strong critical hit with an avid following, is certainly one of the best features of 1986. Me lanie Griffith (looking like silent film star Louise Brooks) plays a spunky, free-wheeling young woman who likes to shake up the establishment. Enter staid Jeff Daniels, rising manager and closet petty thief. Grif fith takes the somewhat willing Daniels on a merry-go-round of wild encounters, beginning with an un expected motel fling and ending with her high school reunion. There the fun and games take a dangerous turn with the introduction of the unnerv ing Ray Liotta, a suspicious character from Griffith’s past. Something Wild straddles two genres—the screwball comedy and the thriller. Somewhere in the mid dle the wild, unpredictable comedy becomes dark, no longer harmless fun, and the elements of the thriller take shape with the influence of Liot ta. In an almost Hitchcockian man ner the innocent becomes dangerous and the characters must put not just their reputations but their lives on the line. Demme fills his world with richly layered atmosphere, developed through decor, costume, music and pace as much as through the acting of his leads and his minor characters. Everywhere you look there is more than meets the eye, in Daniels, in Griffith, in Liotta, in the film as a whole. Something Wild is exactly what it promises. The Color Purple A film with its share of controversy, Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple delighted people pleased to see Alice Walker’s award winning novel on the screen and appalled many more upset that a wealthy white suburban male had the audacity to interpret the experience of a poor black woman in the turn of the century rural South. Whoopi Goldberg is Celie, the wide eyed young woman sold into marriage with the cruel Danny Glover (Mr.). The film follows her struggle through to old age, chronicling her rela tionships with Mr.’s lover Shug Avery (a sympathetic friend), Rae Dawn Chong and her sister who long ran away, pressured by her father’s advances. The film is a visual feast, full of July Special 20% off tM, Books n a THE KIVA 125 W. 11THAVE., EUGENE 342-8666 •ERVIE 0 UP 1 PeinTWEAR SERVICE QUALITY 'OP OREGON T-Shirts Piece Goods Special Orders Six-color Capability • Full Service Art Department “Call 3asan & Victoria!" 344-4225 ^spai Car Care with a Conscience Audi • BMW Porsche • Volkswagen Alfa Romeo : uropeari Automotive Specialists 687-0040 1975 W 7th Avenue rugene Oregon 9/402 Hours 8 gm to 3C. p n ' IIHili I color, densely realized decor and glorious camerawork. The acting is fine, the music quite good. On the debit side Spielberg presents the deep South as an almost fairy tale wonder land where princess Whoopi (an ET like waif under Spielberg’s guidance) suffers at the hands of bad people. The issue of racism is played down to emphasize the cruelty of black males, an easy out for Spielberg who doesn’t have to face the connections between the two. Many people enjoyed The Color Purple. Many were simply happy to see a film featuring a black cast. (How many have you seen in the last few years?) I found the film seriously wanting, but nonetheless there is much to be said for what the film does provide. The Beatles on Video When the Fab Four conquered the English speaking world, they left their mark in a number of media, including a small but striking legacy of film and television work. With the 20th an niversary of Sgt. Pepper rekindling in terest in the Beatles, a survey of video glimpses seems in order. The first and best of their motion pictures is A Hard Day’s Night (1964), energetically directed by Richard Lester in a distinctively anarchic style. Though made simply to cash in on their popularity, the quickly made black and white film has a witty screenplay (written to fit the Beatles’ individual personalities), which the group confidently performs, and a wonderful set of songs written for the film. The follow-up picture, Help! (1965), shot in color on a bigger budget in international locations, is fun but not as sharp or distinctive as the first. Though they had little input in the animated Yellow Submarine (1968), for which they wrote two original songs (the voices were provided by ac tors), it is a surprisingly entertaining feature. Let It Be (1970), a docu mentary undertaken to pull the group together, conversely chronicles the disintegration of the once great group and is interesting largely for historical reasons. The Compleat Beatles (1982), a British made-for-video documentary, is a good introduction to the Beatles and Beatlemania for those rusty on their history. It features a good as sortment of clips and interviews and great music. Hardcore fans may want to follow this with the spoof The Rutles, made by Python alumnus Eric Idle with help from the old Saturday Night Live cast. Other interesting tapes include The Beatles Live, a presentation of live performances on the British TV show Ready Steady Go! from 1965, and Fun with the Fab Four, an inconsistent video pre sentation with no music but a number of interviews, newsreel bits and odd television clips concluded with the justly renowned performance of Pyramus and Thisby (from A Mid summer Night’s Dream), a bit of Beatles tomfoolery for British TV. One last piece of advice—stay away from the awful Magical Mystery Tour, a truly rotten film made worse by in ferior video transfers. You have been warned. TO ADVERTISE call 484-0519
