Oregon daily emerald., May 16, 1983, Page 3, Image 3

Reporter claims
Press power is overrated
By Joan Nyland
CM th* Emerald
Stressing the press’ limited power,
Pulitizer Prize-winning political reporter
Seymour Hersh blamed a lack of leadership in
Congress and the “divine right” of presidents
to conduct foreign policy for the U.S. inven
tionist foreign policy.
Hersh, who won the 1970 Pulitizer Prize for
his exposure of the My Lai massacre, told Fri
day evening’s audience of journalists and
University students during the final lecture of
the journalism school-sponsored Ruhl Sym
posium that the press’ power is overblown.
“I don’t think my reporting did anything,”
he said about his coverage of My Lai. "It didn’t
keep one bullet out of one soldier or one
Vietnamese.
Talking about U.S. intervention in Central
America, Hersh said, “The whole point is don't
expect tomorrow’s New York Times to bail you
out of this.”
“Our power is exceedingly limited," he
said. “There isn’t much we can do when a presi
dent runs a foreign adventure. No one story can
stop Central America. The president can do
what he damn well pleases,” including training
Nicaraguan troops.
But Hersh later said “the reporting of the
press...does limit his (the president’s)
options.”
Congress lacks the power to stand up to
the president because nobody speaks out, and
congressional leaders such as Sen. Ted Ken
nedy, 0-Mass., are lying low for later elections,
he said.
Watergate proved that American foreign
policy includes the divine right of presidents to
fend off communism anywhere in the world and
to lie to the American people, Hersh said.
Dwight Eisenhower was the last honest presi
dent, he added.
In 1968, Hersh spoke at the University as
the press secretary for presidential candidate
Eugene McCarthy. Drawing a parallel to the
1984 hopefuls, he said, “I can’t help but think of
the bunch of wimps running in behalf of the
Democratic Party.”
Although Hersh said Reagan probably will
be reelected, Hersh called him “illiterate, im
competent... and basically proud of it."
Walter Mondale, Gary Hart and other
Democratic Party hopefuls exemplify the lack
of leadership, he said.
While Reagan knows he doesn't need
media support, his contenders court the press,
believing the press can make a difference in the
elections, Hersh said.
Continued U.S. operations in Central
America underscore the “irrelevancy of the
press,” he said.
“I blame Robert Redford and Dustin Hoff
man,” Hersh said. “Everybody thinks you can
knock on doors and bring down a president.
Not to blame Woodward and Bernstein, they
did wonderful stuff. It’s the impression that’s
left.”
He said daily coverage of Vietnam,
Watergate and other major news events
become “satire” when compared to his more
than three years of research on his new book,
“The Price of Power: Kissinger in Nixon's
White House.”
Watergate was not a victory for the press,
Hersh said.
Reporters didn’t uncover the major events
leading up to Watergate, such as the secret
bombing of Cambodia in 1969, the overthrow of
the democratically elected Chilean leader
Salvador Allende and orders for the CIA to
“stick it” to the anti-war protesters in 1970.
“Why didn’t Nixon think twice” about
burglarizing the Watergate complex or taping
"everybody” in 1972? “Look what he got away
with prior to that,” Hersh said.
Cable c°ntinued fr°m Page 1
years, Sweet says.
Years ago, a special two-way cable was
laid extending from the Group W Cable office in
West Eugene to the Lane County Fairgrounds,
the University and Lane Community College.
The line allows the cable company to send
and receive broadcasts from customers on the
line. Three hook-ups are present on the Univer
sity campus — at Villard Hall, the EMU and Mac
Court.
With a modulator, the University could
broadcast a wide variety of shows from any of
the locations, Sweet says. But the prospect of
the University or another public or private con
cern picking up the tab for the modulator is pro
mising but not definite.
For 12 years, until 1978, the University
broadcast a wide variety of programming to
cable subscribers from a well-equipped studio
on the third floor of Villard Hall and also had a
number of accredited telecourses for students.
The project was discontinued “because of
a lack of foresight on the part of the University
and also because of the bureaucratic shuffling
they got mixed into,” Sweet says.
Holbo remembers it differently.
“Students did not like it {telecourses). They
said they were paying for real classes, and they
wanted to see real professors,” he says.
In contrast to the University, Lane Com
munity College continued their telecourse pro
gram. LCC offers about a dozen classes that
can be applied towards a degree, including
courses in oceanography, computer science,
business and human development.
Students can receive the broadcasts in
their homes by subscribing to Group W Cable,
and must visit the campus only for registration,
orientation and testing.
In addition to community outreach pro
grams, cable television couid link the data
bases of various University departments and
allow teleconferencing and two-way com
munication between dozens of Eugene area
data banks like the fairgrounds, library and the
4-J school district.
“The possibilities are endless,” Sweet
says. “The sky’s the limit.”
EXCEPTIONAL
MANAGEMENT
OPPORTUNITIES.
For exceptional College Grads (and those who are soon to be)
CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES:
• NUCLEAR ENGINEERING
• BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
• AVIATION • LAW
• MEDICINE • INTELLIGENCE
• CIVIL ENGINEERING
• SHIPYARD OPERATIONS
Sign up for an interview in the Career Placement Office.
Interviews will be held in the Placement Center from 9 am to
4 pm on May 23-25, 1983. Or call the Naval Management
Office at 1-800-452-3872 Toll Free.
me tmu cunurai i-orum presents.
<V$o»"6W(l*9
A slide presentation by Eugene artist
Katherine Gorham
exploring the relationship between women
artists, the institutions of art and ideology
in the U.S. today.
EMU Forum Room • May 24*4:30 p.m.
"After l decided to be an artist, the first
thing I had to believe was that I. a black
woman, could penetrate the art scene,
and that, further I could do so without
sacrificing one iota of my blackness or
femaleness or my humanity
Faith Ringgold
"The Flag is Bleeding"
"My paintings are about
desire, food and sex. the
frantic energy of
contemporary life, and the
allveness of everything.
Women and men. and their
relationships are part of my
paintings I show them
balanced and eouallv active."
Faylinda Kodis
Good Fortune. 1"
This event is free & open to the public.
I Buy Your Baby
1 a Booh
Children's Boohs
Reduced 20%
■ 13th & Kincaid
If 1 Mon-Fri 7:30-5:30
Sat 10:00-3:00
BOOKSTORE Gonsral Books SM-3510
This week May 16-21
Cash register sales only
Limited to stock on hand
Upstairs m General Books