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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1995)
VIEWPOINTS EDITORIALS OPINIONS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Society should demand higher talk TV standard ■ OUR OPINION: America needs socially responsible talk TV. producers should be accountable Thank you for joining us today. On the program this afternoon wo have the tragic story of a bald man whoso pot sloth was raped by a rabid wombat in a Seattle, Wash, mail Wo will hoar his ini rodible a< count and learn how Kioto Rogers and his pot sloth (lot il are coping with this horrible event As soon as (>< il's emotional siars heal, be and Kioto plan to get married Hut first up. you will witness first hand, the effects of one woman s losing battle with putrid, debilitat ing Ixtds odor. She is suing a clothes manufacturer for sell ing i lollies that make Iter sweat profusely. She savs it has ruined her love life That and more right here on the Wally Show, stay where you are. we'll l>e right bai k. IJntil rei ontly it seemed no one was seriously wilt ing to take a stand against alt the garbage spewing out from TV talk shows No one has been oi>if* to make a serious dent in trash TV's armor — tti.it was Indore the big guns rolled in former hducation S«rotary William Bennett and Senator Joseph I.iolxirman, IW/mn., representing a gutsy group of social reformers, kicked off a campaign hist Thursday to try and bring the producers, hosts and viewers of Talk television to a now level ol six ini responsibility. Citing what he called a "pollution of the human environment" by day time talk shows. Bennett's group launched its offensive to pressure the industry into cleaning up its act. (io get 'em guys It's a pathetic indictment of a society gone shallow when shows like Solly fvssy WHAT DO YOU THINK7 What do you think about race relation* on campus7 Please submit your letter to the Emerald offices at Suite 300 in the f MU or send ut you' thoughts via e-mail at odetg&oregon uoregon edu Letter* on this issue will be published Nov 6 Raphael, Maun- Povich, lor ry Springer, lin ki Lake, len ny /oars. Gera Ido and Mon lei Will mins serve up a regu lar menu of slop TV and actually make money doing so. The sad fa< t is, Ameri can sot inly seems ali-to eager-to-cnnsume the stuff on a daily basis Remember Donahue1 His show used io be among the worst examples of the < ir < us-like "Freak of the Week" stuff found on Talk TV. Donahue, ever the trend setter, can now la* found on an obscure channel at an even more obscure late night (early morning) time slot He has (.hanged his subjet t matter from the gross and cheesy to open* torum discussions over Medic are and the like Of course, this new formal probably won't break any viewensnip records. but at least Donahue is trying to ele vate himself above the swill Top-rated Oprah Winfrey used to produce muck just as yucky as any of her com petitors — until she had a change of heart and decided to make shows that actually offers solutions to some of society's ills. Wlnfrev has also said she will no longer do "victim" shows We hope others follow her example. t 'luortunately. due to the popularity and fiscal suet ess of the "other" kind of pro gramming (and the public's appetite for it), the garbage isn't likely to stop stinking up our nation any time too soon. 'ttl Oligal e> (■*** **1 O 0t£*W3 U N V ’ Olt " <sf f'tjei ’ V 9*'..'ex* (M (Ad ty*tt^> i t! 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At J tegr. >ji*) r* .. ,vu‘,> Jure ASW* Hkf» J.ivv./il" i At** i to*n Me.t<* nttrmmiL Ctrm xxm '«| enget Wo*e Alntna Ctrl* vt*nr x» seem AMai Sloetiw S**m WAAtmi Mttteet n*mg •owtu M!t> Cvtxm iwsenoiv yt«j* CiAtutw* tft Geoitne* veteje CVetntetioe Jefl JcAnwn Joftn t oetg Jo* Al t MAM n 0u*te* Umtrttmt MA1T11 NkhuDOm MAMtl Ct*»«K* AtwiWiet MA4M) m FOR COUM POW6LL. HE OofsMT N£E-D TO \NNouMiE. M£ 'S VON TH-Kbi TtoH^L. HE Doesn't MEED To BE REPUBLICAV OR 0€*\ocRAT. HE'S A&VE PARTV Politics. HE ooesu'r need a PROGRAM. PEOPLE ACC Sick of programs . t i ' f i? we DoesM*r weeo ro CW^PAIGjW. CAf\PAIG*J/N6 IS JUST cmP/{o^iS/A/6 Tie DoesA/'r eveh a/Eed to get Elected, m r WOULD JUST MAKE M/M PART Of mE PROBLEM mis w4v m h. wwa OfSAPW'^r You can believe everything you read ( you wan! to see a writer flint I). just whis II you want to imffle a writer about what JLi ensorship is. introduce them to Noam (ihomsky Chomsky became a renegade critic of the mass media and American politics while working for a Massachusetts Institute of T« hoology think tank in the 1'WiOs His platform complaint: What we read is lies, damn lies — sort of According to Chomsky, the image of the world that reaches us through the media is skewed by somebody or something, somewhere Most of our "new s" is ideological junk disguised as verifiable facts But Chomsky evidently makes a distinction between popular media and student media. Stu dent media doesn't attract tho attention o( big time < ensors bt* #u«t their role in construct ing reality is negligible Chomsky’s visit to Corvallis last week reminded me of an episode from his video Manu facturing Consent, in whit h ln< was approached hv the editor of a student paper The young tnati was full of piss and vine mam ({nr lli* had probably taken Minin media-theory classes with instnictors who thought Chomsky was a crank The student asserted that no one controlled what his pagier printed Ims ause it had absolute editorial autonomy from the university First Amendment all the way He was confident that he could fill his paper to the flag with political dissident e or spark the fires of popular revolt with never a nay sav from the dean. Maybe he lived in one of the sis states that has legislation protecting student journalists from « hool censorship. Oregon isn't one of them. Chomsky's reply was brief. He simply pointed out that student papers have relative freedom precisely because they never print anything that could possibly spark the fires of popular revolt Student papers aren't policy makers Student papers don't construct reality. Student papers don't count. Which means? It means student papers are hasty products, written by not-yet-professionals with midterm worries. Student media have few network links to the [jeople who one the policy makers and who do shape the news outside the university. And that means that when you shake everything down, most of what anyone reads in student papers is superficial, stereotypical or dull, and this column is no exception. This will come as no surprise to readers, but it has one important implication for student journal ists: abundant freedom to print more of the same. Which means I and rny fellow media concu a Most of w hilt anyone reads in student papers is superficial, stereotypical or dull, and this column is no exception 99 bines < an write whatever we want because the chances of one of us writing anything "danger ous" are slim Researchers will not lav citing the Emerald in their reports, nor will our words be quoted in larger articles in better publications. Clinton won't cry if the Emerald doesn't like him. Maybe if wo imitated the Kent State riots and got shot by police, or if we did something com parable with the ltMiH student rebellions in hurope, our actions would become part of the sot ial construction of reality that orders tint political const ious But until the University comes up with its own Ninja Turtle political agenda, the Emerald will tie scrutiny-free. 1 find that heartening Who’s to say the First Amendment should be used to say anything important ? A couple of years ago, the Marquette Universi ty paper shut down because of disputes between the staff and the Catholic school officials The problems between the student journalists and the school were mostly allegorical — the st.ifl once used the headline "This is Hell" for an arti cle about the campus A similar controversy would never befall the secular Emerald. Hell, the Marquette Tribune's funner business manag er now works for the Emerald Nearly l.(KH) college publications operate in the United States But for all of them, the issue of c ensorship comes up rarely. Whether editors are unconst lously obeying the unvoiced laws of information production, or whether college news just isn't a big enough deal to interest the world, the result is the same: No new tales to tell. Chomsky warns us to worry atxmt the news that isn't being told. His favorite example is the brutal annexation of East Timor by Indonesia. This “non-news", says Chomsky, is the most important information in (or conspicuously not in) tho media I'd argue that none of this "non-news" is in the Emerald So when Chomsky wants tho public to beware of biased media messages or to be on guard for what the media aren't saying, he is not referring to student patters. Which means it’s perfectly safe to believe everything you read in the Emerald. Enjoy! Sonia Sherwood, a senior majoring in journal ism and English, is a columnist for the Emerald.
