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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1978)
J.W. Forrester Jr., editor and pub lisher of the Daily Astorian says N news paper has to be many things to many people, but most of all, it has to be use ful. “The reader has to feel a need for it,” he says. Forrester is one of two Ruhl Fellows, taking part in the 1978 symposium at the University. The symposium is made possible by a grant to he University’s School of Journalism from Mrs. Robert Ruhl, wife of the long-time editor of the Medford Mail-Tribune. The symposium brings two editors each year to the campus to spend a week in residence speaking to classes in the journalism school and meeting in formally with students and faculty mem bers. Forrester will be here until Thurs day. Forrester says he is essentially a news-side man. He emphasizes the vital importance of newspapers which pro vide readers with the hard-core informa tion necessary for them to be well in formed and productive citizens. "A solid news background is mandat ory,” he says, “but at the same time, we Editor says critical government news wears out audience By ANAMARIA BELL Of the Emerald can't keep hitting the poor reader over the head day after day with meat and potatoes.” Forrester says this in reference to his belief that the press is overdoing itself criticizing the government. "We keep on hammering and probing for something wrong, and that is not healthy,” he stresses. “Too much of this type of news will wear out the audience, we’ve got to give the poor reader some light stuff to go along with it,” he adds. The Daily Astorian leads in circulation in its area of about 10,000 people. It publishes five days a week and Forres ter writes all the editorials daily. Along with this responsibility he has also been a member of the State Board of Higher Education, the Governor’s Commission of Judicial Reform, the Public Employee Relations Board and the Land Conservation and Develop ment Commission. Forrester comments that although some of his colleagues do not approve of an editor being involved in such or ganizations, he believes “it takes more than just sitting in an ivory tower and ordering people around to be a good editor. “An editor should try to solve prob lems actively, not just at the typewriter,” he adds. He says the great concentration on local news at his paper stems from Astoria’s location on the mouth of a major river, which involves a lot of com merce. However, he says his paper also places heavy concentration on news of an international and political scope. Forrester began his journalistic career during the depression. He worked his way through college at Oregon State University, working as a reporter for the Oregon Journal and washing dishes at a sorority house. After graduating, the Oregonian of fered him a sports correspondent posi tion. There was only one catch; they couldn’t pay him. It was two months be fore they did, but he managed. “I was eager and would work for hours and hours trying to please everybody,” he recalls. “I had a tremendous desire to be a good journalist." After two years at the Oregonian, For rester transferred to the Eastern Orego nian in Pendleton. There he met his wife who worked at the paper summers while attending school. Sacred Heart administrator denies charges It is hard to deny charges leveled at Sacred Heart General Hospital’s proposed six-story parking structure from a neigh borhood group without first having read the accusations, a hospital administrator said Tuesday. But Dick Williams, an associate administrator and member of the parking structure planning team, did deny the parking structure planning would be continued if it violated city zoning codes. The charges, submitted in a let ter to the Emerald Monday, are part of the West University Neigh bors’ (WUN) case against the proposed parking structure, plan ned for the southwest comer of 13th Avenue and Hilyard Street. WUN will present its charges before the Eugene City Council’s public luncheon at 11:30 a.m. today, King’s Table, Oakway Mall. WUN charges that the prop osed parking structure violates the zoning code under the "en tirely closed building” rule, contri butes to “neighborhood blight”, adds to traffic congestion, in creases auto pollution and pres ents a safety hazard. But Williams says the appro priate authorities have been con sulted in the planning stages for the estimated $1.75 million park ing structure. Politics still enters into non-partisan race By ANN TRENEMAN Of the Emerald The main question of the county assessor’s race boils down to the political extent of the non-partisan office. The answer, judging by how the race is going and the con troversial nature of incumbant Ken Bylund, is that it is very politi cal. The three contenders for the of fice, voted a non-partisan position in 1976, ail have political ties on the county level. One of the major issues of the campaign seems to be Bylund, who has been running for re election despite the publicized flaps during his term of office. Bylund, a Democrat, has been criticized by opponents Bill Dwyer, chairer of the Lane County Demo crats and Bill Bain, a Republican. They both contend Bylund's office is a wreck and months behind schedule with what Dwyer says is “the high rate of turnover in county government.” Bylund says that statement is unproven and there is no way to judge which office has the highest turnover. He says much of his employee turnover has been due to retirement, employees moving to higher paying jobs and poor working conditions. He admits some people have quit or retired early because of his policies and adds he has fired employees when they refuse to go along with his management ideas. When asked how political his of fice was, he quickly answered, “oh, extremely so.” He adds that his policies, judgments, ideas for legislative tax reforms and the direction county taxation has taken were mirrored in his personal politics. Dwyer and Bylund agree on few issues. But one of them is if a Re publican administrator were elected, he would tend to allow breaks for business while a Democrat would concentrate on Journalists discuss access STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Delegates to a UNESCO confer ence on world news reporting Tuesday discussed means of broadening correspondents’ ac cess to sources and improving cooperation among news agen cies. “I am concerned about the number of countries that keep journalists out,” said Elie Abel, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism in New York and one of 16 members of a special study group for UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. “An assured flow of accurate and balanced news depends upon access to news sources and officials," Abel said. The four-day meeting, which began Monday, was called to give news executives and officials from 43 representative countries a chance to express views to the UNESCO commission. In Abel’s working committee, delegates reached a consensus that access should be improved, but their report was still being con sidered. * Thomas Hammarberg, a Swedish journalist, proposed the 1975 Helsinki accords on visas and working conditions of jour nalists be extended to other coun tries. The Helsinki agreements, cov ering a broad range of East-West contacts, were signed by the Un ited States, Canada, the Soviet Union and European nations. Mallard is faster than your average mutt. ffifikm 1940 FRANK UK BiVD. I (MINI, ORISON OKU PANTR DELICATESSEN f YOU'LL ENJOY THE VARIETY AND A QUALITY YOU'LL FIND AT THE OPEN PANTRY INSIDE YOUR FRIENDLY McKAY'S MARKET 1960 FRANKLIN BLVD. TASTE BUD DELIOHTS. saving money for the home owner. Dwyer says his ties with the state legislature and in labor are two of his most important assets. Dwyer, a licensed tax assessor, ran for State Labor Commissioner in 1974. He is also chairer of NORML in Lane County. Dwyer was a former employee of the tax assessor's office under Bylund, and he says he decided to run agaist his former friend and boss when he began questioning Bylund’s competence as a man ager and in working with county personnel. Bylund feels he is a victim of the computer saying that it is impossi ble to work when the computer is down, and “it’s down a lot.” He blames the county commissioners for failing to allot him more full time employees also. Bain, on the other hand, rarely mentions politics, and rarely men tions his own party affiliation. He concentrates primarily on his past assessing property for banks and talks as if there are no politics in volved, something his two con tenders say is impossible. George Kramer, an aide to County Commissioner Archie Weinstein who sued Bylund for raising his property taxes, initially asked Bain to run, the Emerald learned. Both of Bylund's opponents de plore his recent 10 percent lower ing of the Springfield tax base, cal ling it a political move to receive votes. Bylund firmly says equity is the only reason he had for lower ing the tax base with the method of assessing requiring him to do it. ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE MAJORS LET US HELP YOU PLAN AHEAD TO BECOME A CPA OUR SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS REPRESENT 1/3 of USA CLASSES BEGIN MAY 22 cpa^H REVIEW PORTLAND 503 223-3384
