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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1976)
PSU may fire editors over CIA ads The publications board at Port land State University (PSU) has delayed hearings on the matter of firing the editor and managing editor of the school’s student-run newspaper. The board will decide the future of the hearings v/hen state Attor ney General Lee Johnson forms an opinion on whether the two editors of the paper, the Vanguard, had the constitutional right to refuse advertising from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The opinion was requested by State Rep Vera Katz (D-Portland). Johnsons decision, which could bear on future governing policy for publications other than the Vanguard, could come as early as three weeks or as late as June, board Chairer David Smelt zer said. Earlier this year, Kathleen Hawkins, the paper s editor, and Ray Worden, its managing editor, decided not to accept further CIA advertising. Since then, they have been under fire from the publica tions board That board recently decided to hold hearings on whether to fire the two Meanwhile, PSU speech pro fessor Larry Steward announced the formation of an ad hoc Faculty Support Committee which will consider interpretation of the board s guidelines which state that the editor is responsible for the quantity and quality of adver tising for the Vanguard Editor Hawkins has charqed that the CIA pressured the Vanguard's publcations board to run the recruiting ads The CIA s Portland office sent letters to Tormer vanguard ad manager John Benneth, the publications board and PSU Pres. Joseph Blumel requesting clarification of the Vanguard ad policy and guidelines. That’s pressure," Hawkins said, whether it’s a po lite letter or not." Thomas Culhane, CIA special representative, denied the charge, saying, "We re not putting pressure on anybody. He said that the letters were an attempt to get a statement of policy" and that refusal to run the ads with "no word" on the part of the Vanguard in return was a peculiar way to run a business." The board ordered the Vanguard to carry all CIA and military advertisina that was not factually incorrect board chairer Smeltzer said, also in response to Hawkins charges. This decision was made on the grounds of gen eral principle that it was inappro priate for a university newspaper to engage in the kind of censor ship that is involved in rejecting those particular ads. He said, however, the board acted without regard to whom the advertiser was and that no outside pressure has influenced board decisions on the matter. He characterized Hawkins' statement as a red herring." Smeltzer did admit, however, that the federal government was threatening a suit to force place ment of the ads. Smeltzer said he feels that stu dent news personnel must be ac countable for their actions in addi tion to their normal legal respon sibilities as members of the press. If they re not accountable to us, they aren t accountable to anybody, he said. Smeltzer further said that ad vertising is “susceptible to pub lisher control” (in this case, the publications board), although news and editorial functions are not subject to the same control. He acknowledged that board guidelines state the editor is re sponsible for advertising, but said the board felt those rules are in appropriate to the situation." Unlike the Emerald," Smeltzer continued, “the Vanguard is pub lished by the State Board of Higher Education and is funded partially through incidental fees and partially from advertising re venues. Because of that fact, its actions become state actions.' (The Emerald is supported mostly by advertising revenues and bulk student subscriptions through a contract with the ASUO.) Smeltzer did not feel that the board’s actions constituted a vio lation of students First Amend ment rights. I want to emphasize and re emphasize we are not trying to censor the Vanguard's expressions of opinions or the Vanguard s news stories. We are, from our point of view, simply say ing they can t censor others,” he said. CIA representative Culhane described recruiting on college campuses as “one of the key stones of the recruiting process for the CIA and said a number of people from PSU had been re cruited by him for service in the agency in the last few years. He said anywhere from 20 to 40 pros pects apply for duty each time an ad is run in the Vanguard. (Stu dent editors of the Vanguard have, at different times, both re fused and accepted CIA ads.) Culhane called the CIA’s efforts at Oregon colleges "an attempt to get access to minorities and women’’ and described the CIA as a "professional research organi zation.” Hawkins expects an adverse opinion from the attorney general. Should that happen, she said she would seek legal action against the publications board either through private attorneys or the American Civil Liberties Union. Stevie Remmington, director of the Portland ACLU said her or ganization had “reached no deci sion” and was “trying to get the facts.” @utCunal ‘P’UAeHto I! i i JLZ 4 "Eight Extraordinary Women? featuring The Elizabethan Trio Wed., January 28 Tickets at EMU Main Desk Beall Concert Hall $2.00 - U of O Students 8:00 p.m. 83.00 - General Public F CLIP THIS COUPON SHUFFLEBOARD 1/2 price Recreation Center ★ Ground Floor EMC ★ Good for Winter term FCLIP THIS COUPON "n OFF ANY REGULAR-PRICED DOWN PARKA IN STOCK (EXCEPT SNOW LION BERING PARKA) Outdoor Resource Center downstairs in the old EMU coupon exptres Feb 4, 1976
