Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1995)
VIEWPOINTS EDITORIALS OPINIONS. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Tobacco Corp. threat more smoke than fire ■ OUR OPINION: Free speech, nation suffers when big industry bullies First Amendment rights “Wo aro outraged a trout the revelations in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News," blustered Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp. spokesman Tom Fitzgerald last week after 00 Minutes leaked a story detailing a tobacco additive that causes cane er in laboratory animals. In fact, buckle your read ing seal lndt hocauso this usually calm and mild man nered opinion piece is about to “go off" on a bunt h of blow-hards. How's this for starters l dim, hey Fit/.? Take your bully mentality, vour com pany. your "tough guy" smoke screen, and every thing you represent and go to hell. Better yet, take vour out rage and stuff it back up the end that is not normally used to smoke cigarettes. Whew Ok. now we feel .1 little bit belter. But not much. Fveryone involved In the res ent blow-out over a 1094 clandestine interview between (it) Minutes and for mer BtiW vice-president Jet fre\ Wigand comes out a loser. The American public loses out by not being fulls informed of .1 deadly tobat co additive (we’ll tr\ to refrain from preat hing that medical science has already determined a direct link between smoking and vari ous forms of < .nicer); free spoor h under the First Amendment loses by being muzzled; and CBS loses (redibility and power by noi stepping up to and facing down the threats of a sinis ter tobacco company. B&W Tobacco is like the neighborhood bully that won't stop picking on you until you walk up. look him in the eye and smash him in the mouth. Unfortunately, CBS appar ently doesn't have the guts to do that. We re not advo cating violent e. but there are ways to get the prover bial monkey off your hack Make no mistake, the tobacco industry is fighting for its very life. It has had to hire the best attack-dog pub lic relations firms in the world to keep sis head above the waters of public opin ion. In reality, the tobact o industry's ship has already gone down. The toughest and most ruthless companies claw for tie* few seneunmg ilie pi* servers (threats of legal action to silenc e entities like til) Minutes) - after that, its every man (or company) for himself B&W Tobacco would have very likely gone after CBS's jugular vein with every aunt i’ of legal muscle it owns The company might even have seriously hurt CBS. Perhaps the reason we gel hot under the collar when the media loses battles like CBS did with B&W Tobact o (albeit without a fight), is that we are deprived of our purpose as journalists to expose fraud and scandal. Of course, thanks to CBS’s "never say die" move in leaking the story to two newspapers, the press (and the public) was sliil able to give the bad guys a fat lip and .11 ouple of really good black eyes. 'V Aragon X fr&QSm &*» W"\4*t w< ..•.^ f ••«**•» au***3 the utkk* ,*.» «mj fXtttfAit d****e tftt uamm &t 8* Ongw QMt Pyt»n.fw%g c* #! the u .«>-*«■ ia> ?? yt*,^ I Ottpn A memt*« flt She KtUKUi*J Pnit SW [ of***s«n s^mt*r**&*t v* fsm UaM*Wt| w«fc iWttx it Wte 100 o< €rf* Miwecwsii Us**** UWSMJfltO i&tofttiy jSpiehKjrt gl |h§ (rtfe<4Hig «&l$K<tli t&tttil vgpid {jCttft&it ftpHSM ffat 3gwt»c*f} 0< ff» (OMWW 1 hi imp**! -f* pfrvtS* petqMtfy * he afiMM t|0fflw|f«W irt# OtJ jpwperi tt pr$M£v,tlM th »!• f4N«rtft‘CM«t OM ?N3*ft hw#|‘*J WHP» 0*»,g« Out<tor tatery IHfht ttfcto* Mi v e*em i 3«* m Con«»*?y Ut eenelAHt'li 9&&* ht# U«*n*i» Mem** lpis»v\ 5*-"iAIM Hvfhif tttttefeaa Zh4y i 0*XS Uftv %qim &»»•«* f *»*••! AtUt|tS»#» *rt1f Cceu'fltWi Av'3-O !U > **• *<W <>%». ; vug rr*1Q s#crt| Trrv* MK^nr *»*»' !**?% Mc?yt«. V An.Vf* 0*»C ,,.-Ljj Ptfy V'o'wOw L*s* vhCMftrl UtKWMfM teithatiti tew* torm es&r %*mvtw, «$*.->{** *Ma: it Oita ca***z ih.***$ *%;& fttitiict %*&*<*&» O* tie* JoV'-.l . >V» AJWW t titan* Dm3 ft*is*5 i^j Sfe*#» **fcv* Mi*, te*Je»nv>- ms* tkfim OVKl Mm M »c*«3 *.«■** ; ChthWMtn t*»nv >AJ fa**** (•!** uny H*ft ijy *;*tftKtxed Son* SM»w^«n* C«ty 0#H *X*ry ft#**y cQfrttMl <g* ft** te-< r*^ ,• ****.*.• tt«ii*>gi. P*eJ vt- vw •**c*ar*f*y HUthl Monfepxmry Hf;v tet&t* ft**ft*r%*b At^OvBirtM ttiUnitjr fprtrni ti»y <4ffm VurtAon KilSgR liilfwek Sfc!*n G r»|ft «l Otnvht tk^ UW (tofttm «*»>• ; Wt*nst»ef I>Of» MfCtHW • fcte^ MiiscoOwt# Tony foe Gob* t«ui- Mirp^r •hiPw Jotvsyicr M% lyoo, Jeettmy U*fcc»' Torn ^tmUhS j«n0*r «mm T-wy SMry.ru" fr»ti«3w* Mk-Jtn* «oto •■n*T*jt* ingna ti+tia &#r&ntsc Slwm *£«* «icMt C**m&a-r, Uw»i Bw teca* NtfmujA. 0»x iom. Tut hftght Uo% UcCmi Catty khstMw ^nr. Afttion Storsno S«rtvu W*s**n io»»X8 M««* Kiffh CuhCM WWW Jwfy Coorwty Ci*n#m4 n •n#-yj«» -v-TT itwt/oo* MMW lat mt »1« M Ml? 0***i*f Ad«rr?'t ^ M4 sm MMM1 r Sukers distinction are learning wAat the ^reai chefs have known For centuries When it comes to flavor, nothing beats ammonia. Yes, tobacco companies nog allow you too to savor tbe unbeatable tasle of ammonia, long rccognued as one of natures most enchantinq flavors Smok<» it to Jay. Ammonia. For flavor •NOT ddt3«d to enhance nicotine delivery. Mtf» IVU» y*n '* f<io *•<!.>! *'»05 QQ&T 7SV TV'S 4T MOME /I v :-L Society hears echo of classroom silence the A jury acquits four i ops of beating Rod ney King. 1. A, burns No comment Four hundred years of inequality abruptly ends in South Africa with nation's First free elei lions Business ns usual, National terrorism explodes onto the front page as the Oklahoma City Federal building is bombed Continuing where we left off Fr;u v in the Middle East, O ) walks. Rabin is assassinated, Bosnia smolders. "Contract with Anierii a Million Man Man h Please open your S IU | '-*^1 i or Using a university, a pirn «• devoted to education and dis< ourse, there sun* isn't much talking going on here. Yes, we go an ad nauseam about the mating rituals of the wildebeest, tile laws of thermo dynamics and the symbolism in Jane Eyre, but rarely do we bring our discussions out of the abstract We talk ai ado fig* formal] vvc huh i mis uremi me worm arouno us. I very time some momentous thing happens, 1 come to school yearning for a forum to sort out what has (* curred No luck it makes no sense to me What good are all of the lessons we learn if we don't pay attention to their real ramifications? Is "Sociology of the Family" the only etas* to which the "Contract with America" is relevant? is there not a connection between ''American History" and the O j. verdict ? Professors realize that neither current events nor course curriculum occurs in a vacuum, so why the silence? Well for one. professors have a chunk of mate rial to get through within a 10-week period And if you make room for a class discussion about peace in the Middle last, then the important issues (like memorizing the marine trading routes of the Middle Ages) get pushed by the wayside. That’s no excuse. Professors must appreciate that an occasional debate alxmt a current social issue tan have more educational value than a diatribe about some abstract piece of academia. Not that abstract academia doesn’t have its place What we learn here gives us the tools to recognize and talk about what's happening in our world. But what good are these tools if we're never given the chance to use them? Can't Shakespeare wait for a day? After all. he's not going anywhere. But the kind of insight and emotional intensity that emerges every so often, after an event has tarred our collective consciousness, is going somewhere, it's an ephemeral moment of clarity When significant events shake us up, w o are loft grappling for answers. If we ignore these struggles, we will soon lapse back into every day modes of sleepwalking our way through school and life Maybe, just maybe if we talked about touchy .subjects, delved into risky waters, the discourse and discovery would beget more talk and thought. Then maybe the people in my class dis< us sions would actually talk Maybe the next time the Emerald asks for opinions on race relations, it will get more than four letters Maybe if uni versities produce thinking, questioning individ uals. we won't live in.a nation where we are all held hostage by the rhetoric of liars And mavtie then, we won't all be so paralyzed by fear Because it is fear that promotes the clamp down on classroom discourse and keeps lecture halls from truly being forums of learning. Fear Professors cannot initiate discussions out side of the controlled academic fields of their expertise lest they be accused of pushing an agen da. which these days — with the University mar ried to th>* state legislature — can spell trouble. Fear. Students won't speak up. I've had class es where professors called on pupils to name examples of stereotypes. Silence. Nobody want ed to risk political incorrectness and mention these foul generalizations, even though talking about them, laying them out on the table, is the best way to negate them And real discussions about real issues can get messy, even (shudder) emotional People get upset, offended, freaked out. The classroom becomes a microcosm for society, complete with all its resentments and chasms Hut at the end of the day. it is in such discus sions that we learn No matter, it's still too riskv. too scary. Better to tippyloe around the issues. Heaven forbid someone rile the students' com placency. I'm graduating, and this is my last column. In my time here I have tried to instigate dialogue tiiat went beyond the constraints of the syllabus both in my classes, in private with my profes sors and with my friends, especially my col leagues at the Kmc raid It is from many of these exchanges that 1 learned the most provocative and valuable lessons. Here's a piece of self-righteous advice: Talk about issues, even if it feels uncomfortable. When the outside world mirrors something in your class, or even if doesn't, speak out. Your profes sors will most likely lie grateful and responsive Talk with and listen to your fellow students, especially the ones who seem different from you. If you don’t, then it doesn't matter how many term papers you’ve written end exams you've passed; you have ixien robbed of an education. And if you head out into the real world, unable to think and question, you are a sitting duck, waiting to be duped. Gayle Forman, a senior majanng in journalism, is a columnist for the Emerald.
