opinion _f 1 TB' 1111; 11 I fill -|ypp|
Reporter makes discoveries during interview
Visiting time at the Lane County Adult
Corrections facility — otherwise known
as the jail — is one of the few situations
where the media must take a back seat
and wait their turn like everyone else.
This was one of a few rather eye
opening discoveries this reporter made
while attempting to get an interview
with none other than the already over
publicized Elizabeth Diane Downs, con
victed in mid-June of shooting her three
children, one of them fatally.
It was almost disappointing to hear the
jail official say that all one needed to do
Commentary
to talk to this convict, now celebrity, was
show up at one of the regular visiting
sessions held twice a week, and simply
ask to see her.
“Easy enough,” I thought as I hung up
the phone. ‘Til just walk right in and
say ‘Hi Diane, you don’t know me, but
I’m from the Oregon Daily Emerald, and
... well. I’d like to know a few things
about you. What has convict life
done to you? What do you plan on doing
in 10 or 20 years from now? How’s
Randy?’ ”
From what I’d seen in the papers and
on television, as well as heard from col
leagues, Downs was open for this sort of
business and my little inquiry would be
a piece of cake.
So with a bulky tape recorder and note
pad in hand, I headed for the jail, feeling
particularly excited at getting what I
thought was about to be an excellent
journalistic experience, an interesting
story and ultimately a good clip.
Not even the many negative remarks I
got from friends regarding the pursuit of
an article on the woman could sway my
scummy, National Enquirer curiosity.
“There’s got to be something about
her no one knows or has looked at,” I
said to them. “I’ll do a feature, a really
worthwhile look at the scenario —
something with real redeeming value.”
But 1 wasn’t fooling them and certain
ly not myself. I was taking advantage of
my role as reporter to get a glimpse of
this woman hnd turn our 40 minutes of
conversation into a successful piece of
highly readable copy.
No one in the line of family and
friends waiting at the jail to see the in
mates seemed to mind my being there.
All I got was a few blank stares and a
couple of all-knowing looks from the
bunch. They probably knew exactly who
I was there to see and decided, if they
even cared to, that I was as uninteresting
as the rest of the reporters who’d made
regular stops there to see Downs.
The woman at the lobby station told
me to lock up my recorder and purse,
though, and wait like the rest until Diane
was brought in. If she agreed to it, I
could interview her, but only after her
mother was through with her visit and
only through a glass barrier over a
phone.
I noticed the attendant had a strangely
humorous look when 1 began asking her
if many people, especiallly the press,
come to see Downs. “Mostly just calls
come in for her,” she told me, and there
weren’t many people in to see her lately,
usually just her mother, she added.
Her obvious amusement with me grew
as I asked whether or not I could talk to
Diane in her cell instead of the crowded
room, as I needed more time and more
privacy. After all, who can hash out
one’s deepest feelings about life without
at least a cigarette or cup of coffee in
hand?
Well, I could forget that option and I
could forget any hope for a nice long
chat. Family was strictly priority here,
and the good intentions of a second
visitor left me with less than 10 minutes
to see Downs.
This fellow was clearly unimpressed
with my presence and put up with my
questions for only so long, as I spoke
with him earlier in the outside area.
“Seems like just about every time I come
up here there’s a reporter around,” he
said after a minute. He wouldn’t give me
his name; all he would say about himself
was that he was there to offer her his
emotional support.
“I want her to know that she does have
people out there that care,” he began. “I
just got good feelings for her. People take
things like this wrong. I can’t see what’s
wrong with visiting people.”
Downs’ mother wasn’t one I was going
to get anywhere with, either, though she
was nice and friendly and even asked for
a copy of my article. Like a woman I’d
interviewed earlier this year whose
backyard is Mt. St. Helens, the eruption
of reporters had gone off a few too many
times for her. And my line of questions
simply bored her as well.
So what did Diane herself finally
reveal to me in our brief discussion? In
short, a look at some pictures of her baby
daughter at two weeks; the hopes she has
about an appeal on her conviction; her
desire to teach teenagers about family
planning someday; and that there was
absolutely nothing special about my visit
except my blouse, which she thought
was a lot prettier than the standard green
one she wore everyday.
She was almost overly friendly, quick
to smile and just as receptive to question
ing as I’d expected and hoped. In many
ways, the session had been successful,
but in more ways it had flopped. Downs
had nothing extraordinary to tell the
world, at least not anything she could
divulge in a brief moment.
She viewed my visit as altogether
friendly, making it hard for me to drive
any hard-hitting questions at her. She
was too open, too comfortable and too
securely isolated for this frustrated
writer to expose or elevate in a matter of
minutes. Her tone was even casual as she
estimated the pending sentencing would
begin at mandatory life at least, probably
more. And the parole she expected
would not be quick in coming.
Perhaps sooner, though, than the suc
cess of journalists like me who try to
scoop up a “hot one” in one fast and
easy sweep.
by Julie Shippen
letters
Continued from Page 2
had almost unanimous bipar
tisan support. Check your
history books if you don’t know
what I’m referring to.
3. The remark about the
atomic bomb is a horrid cheap
shot. We now know that use of
the bomb was militarily un
necessary and an absolute
outrage morally. Looking back
to 1945, one has to remember
that the military was preparing
for a land invasion of Japan
which almost certainly would
have killed several million
Japanese. Neither an invasion or
the bomb was necessary to deal
with Japan’s armed forces. How
wonderful it is to judge our
parents and condemn them for
not knowing what we know
now.
4. With reference to Pol Pot, I
again refer to my earlier point
that diplomatic relations does
not imply approval of a
regime’s internal policies.
Space limitations limit my
reference to a current report cir
culating Congress which shows
a several-year reduction in
military readiness which is be
ing made worse by our current
giant military expenditures on
overly complex weapon
systems which don’t work.
However, Mr.Cross, there is
enough blame to go around
without nasty cheap shots
which are only useful for pro
pagandists purposes.
Andrew Beckwith
Graduate, Physics
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