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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1985)
editorial Libel trial leads to question of fairness Although both sides claimed victory, the Sharon vs. Time libel trial was hardly a victory for the due process of law. The trial itself was based upon a paragraph which appeared in a Time cover story on Feb. 21, 1983. The paragraph in question stated that former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon had “reportedly discussed with the Gemayels the need for the Phalangists to take revenge for the assassination of Bashir, but the details of the conversation are no* known.” The paragragh was a reference to the Gemayel family, the head of the Lebanese Christian militia known as the Phalangists. whose leader, Bashir Gemayel, had been assassinated the day before Sharon met with his family. It was tire Christian Phalange who carried out the infamous 1982 massacre of unarmed Palestinians in the refugee camps of Shatila and Sabra. claiming revenge for tire assassination of Bashir Gemayel. The Time story directly linked Sharon with plans by the Phalangists to carry out the massacre. To Sharon, it was not just a Ire that Time printed, it was a blood libel against the nation of Israel . Although the jury ruled in favor of Sharon on two ac counts (that Time had defamed his reputation by printing a false statement), it ruled in its final verdict that Time had not “consciously intended” to defame Sharon. Thus, both Sharon and Time were able to claim victory at the end of the trial. But while much erf the national media criticized Time for printing a statement they could not substantiate in court, few acknowledged that events during tire trial went against Time from the beginning. For one. Time had no access to any erf the Israeli witnesses that it considered key to its defense. Specifically, tire Israeli government denied permis sion to any of its top-ranking military and intelligence of ficers to testify. Also, a number erf documents (other than the one known as Appendix B) that were in the hands of the Israeli government and which Tune felt were of great impor tance to its defense were forbidden to he used as evidence by the Israeli government. This is not to say that Time was right in the article it printed. Time was certainly wrong for printing inaccurate and false statements in its story. It was poor journalism by any standards, and Time’s refusal to admit this could hardly be seen as anything other than arrogance. But the fact that Time was never able to call to the stand key Israeli witnesses it felt were essential to its defense leads to the question of whether the magazine was given fair treatment. Had Time been able to summon the witnesses to the stand that it wanted, the results of the trial could have been very dif ferent. In a very real sense, the trial was in Sharon’s favor from the start. With this in mind, it’s hard to rule out that Sharon used the trial to clean up a tarnished personal image and propel him bade into Israel’s political spotlight. Editors note: An error in the Emerald’s production pro cess resulted in a misstatement in Tuesday’s editorial. In criticizing the New York subway shootings by Bernhard Goetz and those who praised the incident as a form of *‘citizen justice,” a sentence read: It would be far more pro ductive to advocate that everyone pack an illegal handgun and shoot the first sucker that messes with them, which is what Goetz did. The sentence should have read: It would be far more productive to advocate that citizens support and help one another in the face of street crime, rather than ad vocate that everyone pack an illegal handgun and shoot the first sucker that messes with them, which is what Goetz did. 'THEK.NOW-l'M AU SET TO BECOME PRIME MINISTER.' tm letters Hunger I come seasonally like the winter I am invisible People notice me only when 1 am with them I am respected and respectable I am unadmired and unadmirabie I am unwanted by everyone But whenever I visit, 1 am received I am the director of food stores I am the instructor of dish-washing I am the harbinger of death 1 faring deads to a peopled kingdom I heat children in the presence erf their parents 1 force a man to take his neighbor's belongings I make a president to have a break voooommmm like the nuclear missiles 1 send materials to a troubled stomach I am hunger The cause erf every endeavor icated to hunger victims of Ethiopia the U.N. Food Agriculture Organization Victor Onyeador Eugene Nightmare The police entered my home at 9:30 p.m. Aug. 31 to remove my child, Autumn, age 6. She refused to go. After a brief but intense chase, she wilted in the aimer while I helplessly watch ed. . .custodial interference, ya know. Arbitrarily, the mother decid ed her children could no longer visit their father 3-4 days per week. She demanded absolute power over all her children ...women's version of rape. She would not listen to their wishes or reason. Autumn faced 11 squad cars and 18 police over a two day nightmare. They finally got her on the third try. I have had no contact for five months. .. .ah.. .restraining orders. The final decree mysteriously omitted any reference to the children’s rights to see their father, visitation. "You have no rights” says the mother, the police, the court. Why? With Modification of Decree pending, I have subpoenaed the judge who signed that final decree to explain. Equal rights four blacks, women, et. al. is/are alive. But what about children’s rights? I choose to give care. But that is not enough in the eyes of the law. I also must pay. I have been sentenced to a year, $200 per month, or bingo, jail. 1 still don’t get to see them. Why? I have written to senators, governors, the president, and even Dear Abby. It is out of their jurisdiction. Simply a matter for the courts. If you have a message for the courts, please contact me now. Do not wait! I will deliver it Feb. 1, my day in court. 503-344-9184, Help. Donald Anderson Eugene All for it So the Women's Task Force is looking for volunteers. Well, I’m all for it. After all, our Presi dent is encouraging all of us to pull together for the betterment of the nation by being volunteers. And you couldn't ask for a better cause. It is time that h11 Americans pull together to bring women out of the bondage that has held them out of good jobs, cheated them of equal pay, and denied them the right to assert themselves, all on thy basis of gender. And now we have an opportunity to right these wrongs. In fact, I thought this was such a worthy cause that I volunteered months ago to work on the organizing committee. Everyone at the first meeting agreed I could have meaningful input, that I was a positive force in the fight for equality of op portunity for the sexes. But 1 made one fatal error that caused the members of the Task Force to deny roe a chance to be a leader in the equality move ment. This error was so dread ful l was asked to leave the meeting by Julie Davis and was never contacted again by that august assembly. I was bom male. Ronald Harper Marketing Irritating Attention students. We need to organize immediately in defense of the unborn plastic dolls. As you may have noticed during the pro-choice march on Jan. 22. these helpless victims are being selfishly slaughtered by a human robot from Maranatha Ministries — the Grim Reaper himself. If you spot someone wearing make up, draped in black polyester, and brandishing a deadly card board blade, wrap both arms around your Cabbage Patch kid and run! If you were able to ignore the lurid presence of the Reaper and his tasteless display of impaled dolls, perhaps you noticed the pro-choice marchers. If the Reaper led you to believe that the marchers were an assort ment of murderous fanatics, consider this: those of us sup porting choice are also " pro life.'' I simply feel more con cerned about the lives and well being of women than I do about the potential lives of three month-old egg sacs (abortion is legal only during the first three months of pregnancy). As a male who will never be faced with the possibility of pregnan cy, the Grim Reaper is being fundamentally hypocritical, and 1 find the tactics he uses to communicate his views ex tremely immature and Irritating. Jennie Bricker pro-choice ,3JV,1085
