Columnist critiques media
Cape: American press
narrow, ethnocentric
By Cort Fernald
Ol th* Em*rakl
Kevin Cape complimented and criticized
actions of the press in America and Europe
when he spoke last week to the Rubicon
Society, a Eugene public affairs discussion
group.
Cape, who writes a column on foreign affairs
for the Los Angeles Times and the Eugene
Register-Guard, said the "press in America is
doing a better job on foreign affairs than in the
past."
The level and depth of the political analysis is
better now, he said. "Concentration of power
in an alarmingly few number of people" is
reason for concern about current international
coverage however, Cape said.
The "pack mentality" of American jour
nalists in Europe causes them to write about
the same subjects from the same point of view,
he said. This distresses Cape, who said he
sees foreign affairs coverage as becoming
more important news to Americans.
Press coverage of European governments
needs to be expanded, he pointed out.
Cape noted an apparent lack of cultural
sensitivity in the American press toward other
countries.
"In iran, at the time the Shah fell, there was
only one reporter there who spoke even ac
ceptable Farsi," Cape said He said he couldn't
find a single reporter in Portugal who could
speak Portugese.
Besides the inability of American journalists
covering Europe to speak the languages,
Americans have a tendency to make eth
nocentric comparisons, he said. Coverage of
France’s recent presidential elections is a
good example, Cape said
In order to understand the spectrum of
French politics, American journalists divided
the political parties into conservative right and
radical left modes
American journalists are unable to shake
their own cultural framework when covering
Europe, Cape said. The portrait of Europe they
present thus becomes inaccurate, he said,
because Europeans’ "root assumptions as a
people are different from Americans’.” The
Kevin Cape
United States is a very insular country, Cape
added
"TV news is entertainment" in the United
States, Cape complained. There is a danger in
television news taking complex subjects and
boiling them down to three minute packages,
he charged
The British Broadcasting Corporation
presents outstanding television news cover
age, according to Cape He said he is
especially impressed with the time they devote
to a single story if it requires it.
Cape noted with some ambivalence the way
the American press is committed to objectivity,
which he said isn’t the case in Europe. Among
the major French newspapers — La Figaro is
on the right; La Monde is on the left, he said.
European readers know this and choose the
newspapers they read by their politcal bias,
Cape added.
Bias is unavoidable, but he attempts to be
fair, Cape maintained.
Government ownership of the press is “a
nefarious arrangement,” he said. When the
government changes in France, the television
newscasters and overall tone of the news both
change as well, Cape said.
Cape, a charter member of the Rubicon
Society since its inception 12 years ago, is a
graduate of the University and former Emerald
reporter. He nows spends much of his time
traveling throughout Europe and filing stories
for American newspapers.
Business as usual
but outreach programs
await word on funding
By Steve Hooks
OHwEmmM
Until Johnson Hall gives
further word in October, it’s bu
siness as usual for the Universi
ty's four "outreach" programs,
spared for the moment from the
budget cutting ax.
"Everything is on hold” until
the University studies fall en
rollment figures, University
Pres Paul Olum says.
“It means we know that we
have three more months of
some University funding,” says
Janet Kenney, KWAX radio sta
tion manager. "It's a limbo kind
of thing.”
KWAX. the Bureau of
Government Research and Ser
vice, the Labor Education and
Research Center, and the
Oregon Institute of Marine
Biology were threatened with
major budget cuts at earlier this
summer.
Kenney wondered in early
June if KWAX would still be on
the air in the fall. But earlier this
month, Bud Davis, chancellor of
the state system of higher
education, asked Olum to delay
program cuts in hopes of a
healthier-than-expected fall en
rollment.
"If actual enrollments exceed
our budgeted. projections, it
would minimize the adjustments
needed to balance . . bud
gets,” Davis wrote Olum in a
July 7 letter.
If enrollment figures are not
high enough, threatened cuts
will surface again, Kenney says.
She says she now looks to
public support and a fall fun
draiser to give KWAX a fighting
chance. The station wants to
raise $25,000 from the Sep
tember effort, Kenney says.
A committee also has been
formed to study the station’s
role in the community and to
report the findings to University
and state officials, she adds.
"I couldn’t be more pleased
with our (public) support,” Ken
ney says.
Emery Via, Director of the
Labor Education and Research
Center, says he is also “gra
tified” with his department’s
public support.
”We anticipate to continue to
function for the long run," he
says. His center will be "busily
engaged in programs” through
next summer and will celebrate
its fifth anniversary on Aug. 1,
Via adds.
"We expect it to be just that -
a celebration," he says.
But Ken Tollenaar, director of
the Bureau of Government Re
search, bides his time and
awaits further decisions.
"Have you heard anything
new?" he jokes. However, busi
ness as usual continues at the
bureau, Tollenaar says.
"We’re always on the lookout
for grants and contracts,” he
says. However, “there’s absolu
tely no way the bureau can
generate. enough (outside)
support to maintain our staff if
we are cut off from state fund
ing," Tollenaar adds.
Robert Terwilliger, biology
professor at the Marine Institute
in Charleston, could not be
reached for comment. In an
earlier Emerald article, he, like
Via, expressed optimism his
program would continue.
Olum proposed eliminating
University funds to the four
"outreach" programs after the
Legislature ordered further cuts
to higher education at June’s
special session.
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