harry esteve
Soul searching
L
Last Friday, members of
Oregon's media spent the day
doing a little soul searching.
The forum was the Universi
ty journalism school’s Ruhl
Symposium, an annual event
dedicated to discussing jour
nalistic ethics.
Listening to the speakers,
the arguments and the sounds
of self-flagellation, it became
apparent that the American
press is in the throes of a pain
ful identity crisis.
Journalists hold a number
of contradictory images of
themselves, images that at
times seem hopelessly naive,
or when held up to close in
spection, blur into indistinc
tion.
One image the old-timers
like to hold, in the words of
conservative publisher
William Rusher, is that of “a
little reporter with a pencil
behind his ear.” Rusher, who
publishes the “National
Review,” told Oregon
newsmen that’s the way New
York Times editor Abe Rosen
thal still sees himself.
Yet the little reporter with
the pencil behind his ear has
the power to crush powerful
men, to ruin reputations, to in
fluence some of history’s
most important decisions.
Or so we journalists
sometimes like to think.
Pulitzer Prize winner
Seymour Hersh, keynote
speaker at the symposium,
tried his best to dispel that
rumor.
That kind of thinking — that
we can go around knocking on
doors and bring down a Presi
dent — can be blamed on
Robert Redford and Dustin
Hoffman who played
Washington Post reporters
Bob Woodward and Carl Bern
stein in the Hollywood
dramatization of the
J
Watergate scandal, Hersh
said.
Hersh won a Pulitzer for his
coverage of the My Lai
massacre, one of the Vietnam
War’s most publicized
tragedies. His stories led to an
investigation, a congressional
hearing and, ultimately,
disciplinary action against an
Army Lieutenant.
But, Hersh said, in a mo
ment of excessive cynicism
that flapped an audience of
usually unflappable jour
nalists, “I don’t think my
reporting did anything. It
didn’t keep one bullet out of
one soldier or one Vietna
mese.”
It’s talk like that that makes
reporters, editors and jour
nalism professors wonder
about their field. And that's ex
actly what it’s meant to do.
It’s been an embarassing
year for the news media.
In Germany, Stern Magazine
glorified history’s wickedest
demagogue by printing bogus
Hitler diaries. ✓
Closer to home, an
American television news
crew photographed a man as
he doused himself with
gasoline and set himself on
fire. The man was critically in
jured with third degree burns
before the camera crew stop
ped their cameras and helped
put out the flames.
Embarassing. So we ridicule
ourselves for our attempts at
sensationalism, we chide
ourselves for sitting in glass
offices without touching base
with our readers.
Like the proverbial
masochist, the sting from our
own whips feels good. It
means we're thinking and it
means we’re changing.
And as we change, the im
age we hold of ourselves
comer a little more into focus.
letters
Oversimplified
In Andrew Beckwith’s May
17 letter, one should question
his assertion that homosex
uals harass bus customers in
the lavatories. It is an over
simplification to equate sex
ual harassment with homosex
uality. Those who engage in
the sexual violation of others,
such as rapists and child
molesters can hardly be called
homosexuals or hetero
sexuals.
To immediately categorize
homosexuals with those who
derive pleasure from
degrading other individuals is
reasoning perpetuated by
prejudice.
Shouldn’t we, who call
ourselves humanitarians, be
concerned with the essence of
a sexual preference? If an In
dividual respects and cares for
another, why then should It
matter what his sexual orienta
tion happens to be?
J. P. Monro9
tophomorm, political aclanca
a p*m<yn3iO*re
your turn
Palestinian struggle
Zionism explicitly has been
and still is a colonialist move
ment. It has sought aid for its
colonialist project (Israeli
State) through an imperialist
power, either Britain or
America.
As Theodore Hertzel,
founder of the modern Zionist
Movement described the ad
vantages of such a Jewish
State decades ago, “For
Europe we would constitute a
bulwark against Asia down
there. We would be the ad
vance post of civilization
against barbarism. We would
remain in constant touch with
all Europe, which would
guarantee our existence. ”
With this chauvinistic at
titude as its backbone and
brushing aside any attempt to
find a less bloody solution,
Zionism gained economic and
political power and used this
stranglehold to finance the
massive, illegal Jewish im
migration to Palestine and the
wholesale expulsion and ex
termination of the native
inhabitants.
Ihus it came to pass that
the tools of this machine, the
Zionist terrorists were
unleashed in 1947-1948 to
open the torrent of blood and
terrorize the victims. In Deir
Yassin some 250 village men,
women and children were
murdered and barbarically
mutiliated. Menachem Begin,
the current prime minister of
Israel, was the hero of that
massacre. The Zionists were
able to conquer 77 percent of
Palestine and expel over one
million people As a result the
racist, settler regime of Israel
was created May 15, 1948.
Immediately the Zionist ter
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ror increased. On October 24,
1956, a new Deir Yassin
massacre was enacted in Kafr
Oasim. The Frontier force
opened fire in cold blood on a
group of Arab villagers return
ing from their work, killing 51
and injuring 13 of them.
On June 5, 1967, the Israeli
Army swept through the Arab
adjoining territories. The
world witnessed a new round
of horror and exodus of hun
dreds of thousands of
Palestinians.
During 1948, 1956, 1967,
1973, 1978 and 1982 terrorist
acts expelled nearly 3.2
million Palestinians from their
homes and properties in
Palestine and have been con
demned to live in 63 refugee
camps scattered through the
neighboring Arab countries.
Their properties and lands
were taken over by the new
Zionist settlers who were ship
ped from Europe and America
post haste.
The viciousness of Israeli
violence was most visible in
Lebanon, For the last few
years, thousands of civilians
have been killed as a result of
continuous Israeli terrorism.
The invasion of Lebanon in
March of 1978, the continual
air strikes on the civilian
population in southern
Lebanon, the air strike on
Beirut in July of 1981 produc
ed massive death, destruction,
population dislocation and ex
tremely desperate health,
economic and social
conditions.
The massive Israeli invasion
of Lebanon in 1982 has
resulted in the total destruc
tion of the Palestinian refugee
campus, total destruction of
Western Beirut and the
massacre of thousands of
Palestinian old men, women
and children in Sabra and
Chatilla camps.
This was accomplished
thanks to the aid of the
American taxpayers' money.
This aid went to Israel in the
form of F-16, F-15, tanks,
missiles, napalm, phosphoric
bombs, cluster bombs and
vacuum bombs. Each year the
U.S. government grants Israel
$2.5 billion.
In 1984, every Israeli settler
will receive $1,250 from the
American taxpayers, accor
ding to calculations from the
newly published study by the
Middle East Institute. The U.S.
government has given more
money to Israel than to any
country in the world. The
United States aid to Israel
from 1948 to 1982 totals $22.6
billion. That is twice the
amount the United States has
given the entire continent of
Africa, for example.
After 35 years of terrorism,
aggression and expansion,
Israel stands now as a little
Middle Eastern version of
Prussia, ever proud of its
power and ever ready for new
rounds of terror and
massacres.
The Palestinian people, led
by their liberation movement
and supported by all peace
loving people, will continue to
struggle for their right for self
determination in their
homeland, Free Palestine.
Saadah Khalil
Saadeh is a member of the
Organisation of Arab
Students. He is a graduate stu
dent in education.
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