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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1996)
How have this week’s local floods affected you or people you know? Tell us about your experience. ' '///&■ / } gags '"ASsi WrnmSmlmMmmm I W>. Hill mam i i editorials, letters, commentary and perspective BY MAIL: P O Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 BY PHONE: (541) 346-5511 BY E-MAIL: ode@oregon. uoregon. edu IN PERSON: Suite 300, EMU Commentator te\\s in its task By turning to petty shots at ‘fascist cops’ and rambling commentaries on nothing, the magazine is ignoring its conservative roots My freshman year, I wrote a column for the Oregon Com mentatorthat bashed the Student Insurgent for how poorly it looked and read. The Insurgent was using about 50 fonts, pictures of staff mem bers on the front page and hand written captions. To write today’s column, I was sorely tempted to replace the words “Student Insurgent" with “Oregon Commentator’’ and just reprint the damn thing. My for OPINION mm Sctoentom mer magazine has resorted to whining in stead of re porting and being sarcastic instead of fun ny. The Com mentator also looks terrible. The pictures are too dark, too pixelated and quite often don’t have a damn thing to do with the stories. The one graphic highlight is the strik ing young man next to former publisher Justin Good in the now-permanent editorial photo. These graphical shortcomings can be overlooked. There was an exodus of graphics-oriented vet eran staffers over the summer. Coupled with a new design, problems can be expected. The staff told me they’re more aware than anybody about the design problems. What should not be over THE REAL MISSION? Excerpts from the Oregon Commentatofs mission statement: ■ Our main purpose is to show students that a political philosophy of conservatism, free thought and individual liberty is an intelligent way of looking at the world — contrary to what they might hear in classrooms and on campus. ■ We believe that the University should be a forum for rational and in formed debate — instead of the current climate in which ideological dog ma, political correctness, fashion and mob mentality interfere with acade mic pursuit. ■ The Commentator has had a major impact in the “war of ideas” on campus, providing students with an alternative to the left-wing orthodoxy promoted by other student publications, professors and student groups. During its 13-year existence, it has enabled University students to hear both sides of issues. looked is the increasing liberal ization of the magazine I used to call home. There is a difference between cynicism and conser vatism, between sarcasm and hu mor. The Commentator is blur ring these lines more with every issue. For me, the Commentatorwas about the idea that America is a pretty darn good place to live and that we should appreciate the lives a free country allows us to lead. It was about the promise of free booze, too, but mostly of freedom. In the Nov. 5 issue’s “Nobody asked us but...” section, the staff whines about the police blocking off the street during the Hal loween night bust of a party gone bad. Apparently, a police officer was a little less than cordial with the offending staffers. A story about the officer and his lack of manners would have been great. A story about the police verbally abusing people would have been better. Instead, the Commenta tor resorted to Insurgent-style journalism, calling the police of ficer “a fascist bastard" and de scribing the possible sexual inad equacies of the officer. Besides becoming inane, the Commentatorhas also become watered down. Ed Madrid’s piece on ASUO Executive big burritos Matthew Scotten and Glen Banfield was completely toothless, if not downright pan dering. If either of them sticks around to run for an office next year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see excerpts of Madrid’s article in their campaign literature. The idea of offering space to more liberal writers is fine. As I understand it, that is the history of “Another Perspective. ” Offer ing a platform to image-concious feminist Alex Tasaday and Stu dent Senate President Kalpana Krishnamurthy for the “One Shot” column pushes the entire content of the paper further to the left. The Commentotorcompounds the problem by allowing the con servative writers to pontificate on just about nothing. Their “stream of consciousness” style of writing, as former editor Ed Carson described it, leaves read ers, who desire and expect more from the Commentator, disap pointed . The Commentator is the only conservative magazine on cam pus. The Emerald editorials lean to the right, to be sure. But nearly all the news stories in the Emer ald are about a symposium, dis cussion group, meeting, protest or some other liberal news-ma nipulating event. On a more personal note, I was quite worried about how the Commentator would function this year. I felt during my tenure as editor for the Commentator that I did not always put out a quality product, especially near finals. But I was convinced cur rent Editor-in-Chief Farrah Bostic could crank out a quality product with the fantastic staff she had. Instead, everyone quit over the summer and all hell broke loose. My worst nightmares became more vivid with each issue pub lished. A new issue came out earlier this week. The graphics were smoother and the content was much more conservative than be fore. It was even funny. As I tried to read the parody of the Emerald retraction to the news room, I laughed so hard I cried. But former Publisher Owen Brennan Rounds was in the Commentator office on layout night writing and editing. How much did he lend to the process that improved everything? I sus pect quite a bit. Owen has a ten dency to not take a backseat, es pecially with his pet project. However, I'm convinced that the ever-increasing liberal edito rial content, the whiny humor and the sloppy editing will all continue once Owen returns to Portland. It looks different and it reads different. The Commenta tor is not the magazine it once was. Thom Schoenhorn is a copy chief for the Emerald. His views do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. I LETTERS Make an ESCAPE Every term, student groups sit in the EMU promoting their orga nizations and events. However, only a few students take advan tage of what they have to offer. ESCAPE Field Studies has hundreds of opportunities for students to get involved in their education. Unfortunately, many of these positions go unfilled every term because students are either too busy or too lazy. I ques tion how this University could be one of the top activist schools in the nation. Furthermore, don’t expect a degree to be all you need. Employers want people who have work experience in real world settings. If you want to get hands on ex perience, then you should take advantage of one of the many op portunities that ESCAPE and the University have to offer. Your tu ition pays for unions and student groups to operate, so take advan tage of it. Donovan Pacholl Journalism P.o BOX 3159. EUGENE. OREGON 97403 The Oregon Daily Emerald is published daily Monday through Fri day during the school year and Tuesday and Thursday during the sum mer by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. A member of the Associated Press, the Emerald operates independently of the University with offices at Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. Editor-In-Chief: Steven Asbury Managing Editor: Jennifer Carter Night Editor: Jennifer Carter Community: Jennifer Schmitt, editor. Doug Irving Entertainment: Nicole Kreuger, editor. Jesse Stephenson Higher Education: Shana Cohn, editor. Tamyra Howser, in-depth. Laura Cadiz, Benjamin Kwasney Opinion: Ashley Bach, editor. Chris Hutchinson, illustrator. Brian Diamond, Larry Haftl, Sonja Sherwood Student Activities: Kristin Bailey, editor. Angie Suchy, Tom Potter Sports: Mark McTyre, editor Andrea DeYoung, assistant editor Chris Hansen, Ryan Frank, Ryan Halvorsen Copy Desk: Thom Schoenborn. copy chief. Sarah Kickler, Paul Meznarich, Mike Schmierbach, Kendra Smith Presentation: Dennis Bolt, editor. Matt Garton Photography: Mathew Stiffler, editor. Andrew Brackensick. Joe Bunik. Amanda Erickson, Shannon Kilduff, Chad Patteson Freelance: Lara Pittman, editor. On-Line: Nicholas Stiffler General Manager: Judy Riedl Advertising Becky Merchant, director Anne Amador, Lee Yen Beh, Marco Ching, Yujin Chi, Matt Johnson, Anne Miller. Trina Shanaman, Rose Soil, Matt Solomon, Greg Walsh Classified: Tara Sloan, manager. Natasha Lumpkin, Debbie Levy, Heather Moye Production: Michele Ross, manager. Ingrid White, coordinator. Shawna Abele, Laura Daniel, Susan Head, Trevor Kearney, Tara Knight. Melissa LeBahn, Molly McCanta, Allison Stormo, Mike Young Business: Kathy Carbone, supervisor Judy Connolly Distribution: John Long, John Pauli. Ferenc Rakoczi Newsroom.(541)346-5511 Display Advertising.. (541)346-3712 Business Office.(541) 346-5512 Classified Advertising.(541) 346-4343 ARMY OBSTACLE COURSE * incrmhbu time, FEMALE RECRUT/ MOW DID YOU DO (TP MY DRILL INSTRUCTOR. CONTACT US What do you think? Write us a letter ex pressing your opinion or e-mail us at ode@oregon.uore gon.edu. Letters to the editor must be limited to no more than 250 words, legible, signed and the identification of the writer must be verified when the letter is sub mitted. The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or style.
