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.
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HE Doesn't MEED To
BE REPUBLICAV OR
0€*\ocRAT. HE'S
A&VE PARTV Politics.
HE ooesu'r need a
PROGRAM. PEOPLE ACC
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t i
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to get Elected, m r
WOULD JUST MAKE M/M
PART Of mE PROBLEM
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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.