▼ EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
Steven Asbury
MANAGING EDITOR:
Thom Schoenbom
NIGHT EDITOR:
Thom Schoenbom
EDITORIAL EDITORS:
Ashley Bach & Brian Diamond
i
editorials, letters, commentary and perspective
NEWSROOM:
(541) 346-5511
DISPLAY ADVERTISING:
(541) 346-3712
BUSINESS OFFICE:
(541)346-5512
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING:
(541) 346-4343
From free press to
corporate propaganda
COFFOWl^2
Consolidation of
ownership of the media
has helped turn the
media into a tool for
promoting big business
and government
interests
CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerak)
When I was a young girl,
I’d try to imagine what
living in Russia would
be like — long bread
lines, the KGB infiltrating every secret
meeting, punishment for every dissi
aent. l tearea
the wicked
communists
would invade
the United
States and
spread their
evil in our
angelic capital
ist society.
I realized the
Russian people
had no free me
dia, a major power of the people in
any society, which meant they had
no way to know what atrocities their
government was committing, yet I
could not forgive Russia for being
communist, even though I didn’t
know what communism was.
All grown up now, I recognize the
cold war brainwashing that went on
for decades, and I’m glad I was only
on the tail end of it. But I realize that
the government could never have so
successfully placed fear into our
hearts without one important vehi
cle: the media. And nothing has
changed.
And who owns the machine? The
American public? Yeah right. The
parent company of CBS is Westing
house; NBC’s parent is General Elec
tric. Corporations merge, making the
owners of the mainstream media into
just a handful.
Why should we worry who owns
the media? If corporations decide
what information the public re
ceives, they can censor their unethi
cal and often illegal acts. The May 9,
1997 issue of Eugene Weekly fea
tured a story on “the top 10 stories ig
nored or under- reported by the U.S.
news media.”
Within the description of these sto
ries we find corporate crime killing
human beings (Eugene Weekly dies
that in 1987, 50,000 to 70,000 work
ers died prematurely due to on-the
job exposures to toxins. Compare this
to the number of murder victims,
which was about 21,500. Another
story focuses on Shell Oil’s possible
connection to assassinations.), the PR
industry’s infiltration into the media
and government actions held from
the public eye in order to make more
money for corporations who receive
government contracts.
The big corruption and crime that
goes on in this country and the rest of
the world is often difficult to compre
hend. I know that as a college-aged
student, it is easy to feel powerless,
to do what they want and brush these
problems under the carpet.
But the actions of big business and
the government are not the only
truths being edited. Everyday stores
are sensationalized on TV and muf
fled when the truth might affect the
readers.
As a columnist, I have to wonder
whether I am feeding into the corrup
tion of our media. I encourage every
person who reads this to seek out the
truth and to not ignore it once it is
found. We are not yet free from the
influence of only a few men, and we
must all demand the right to know
what the companies we work for are
doing and the right to stop those ac
tions when they Eire unacceptable.
Laura Daniel, a junior majoring in bi
ology, is a columnist for the Emerald.
Her views do not necessarily reflect
those of the newspaper. E-mail:
moonpie@gladstone.uoregon.edu.
Tour of animal research center gives glimpse into injustice
The director of SETA relays her
experience inside the University’s
animal research center
Recently I went on a tour of the Uni
versity’s Animal Care Facility.
This “nothing to hide” tour was
definitely not that. I call it the
“white glove” tour due to the fact that it
took three months to plan, allowing a lot of
time for preparation.
Only four members of Students for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals were al
lowed on the tour, and no type of camera
was permitted. SETA even offered to ask
permission before taking a picture —
which, of course, was denied. A reporter
from The Register-Guard asked to join the
tour. At first he was granted permission,
but once the researchers found out, this ap
proval was quickly revoked.
The tour took two hours. One hour was
spent watching a slide show presentation.
Thirty minutes were spent looking at parts
of the facility that dealt with cleaning
cages, food and so forth. Only half an hour
was spent actually looking at the animals.
COMMENTARY
Chelsea Lincoln
The tour passed the display windows
quickly, and the zebrafish, newts and frogs
were not even shown. When asked about
them, Monte Mathews, the head of the Ani
mal Care Facility, said he felt that we want
ed to see the main animals and that those
weren’t too important. I asked where the fa
cility is located, and he refused to tell me.
Once SETA got to look through the small
windows into the rooms, the tour became
amazingly realistic and sad. The first room
was filled with mice. There were rows and
columns of them. All in their regulation
sized, crammed cage.
Mathews was very proud of the fact that
these mice and other prisoners have PVC
pipes. I didn’t see the mice care too much;
they were too busy scraping at the top of
their cages trying to get out or hiding.
Lizards were in the next room. These
poor creatures were being used for behav
ior experiments done by assistant biology
professor Emilia Martins. Interesting?
Maybe. Worthy of being caged up alive? No
way! Again, rows and columns of cages
with no respect for the lizards’ individual
lives.
In the next window were the owls. Asso
ciate biology professor Terry Takahashi
performs research on them. The room had
some type of netting around the critters
and there were hanging cages and sticks of
wood to perch on. There were at least ten
owls in that room and there was definitely
no space for any real attempt for flying.
We walked to the next window. I
stepped up to the window and saw the de
fenseless rhesus monkeys looking up at
me. The one to my left would look at me,
react in an aggressive manner and then
suddenly be normal again sitting in its
cage. The monkey to my right just kept
looking at me. You can tell a lot from an an
imal’s facial expressions and looks in their
eyes. It looked at me as if saying, “Please
help me. Get me out of here.”
As I watched these desperate beings peer
out at me in their homes of steel, Matthews
told us about how much the monkeys
loved the researchers and how they would
jump into the experimental chair and
couldn’t wait for the research to begin. I
was sickened.
These monkeys have a head post ce
mented vertically onto their skull with a
nylon cap covering it. This is so the re
searchers can basically connect the ani
mals into the experimental chair so they
can not move. I can still see that monkey
peering up at me, trapped and helpless, in
my memory. It is very sad.
As “higher beings,” we should have the
moral standing to say no to such cruel acts.
Captivity is not an option. These animals
are not our slaves, and we should not be
caging them up for any reason. Taking a
moral position against experimenters is
hard, since they seem to think it will kill
little blonde girls with teddy bears.
The truth is, it is not a choice between
human and non-human. It is a choice be
tween what is moral and scientifically just
and that which is evil and scientifically
fraudulent. It is a choice to back up the al
ternatives to animal research and find real
solutions.
Chelsea Lincoln, a guest columnist for the
Emerald, is the director of Students for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals. Her views
do not necessarily represent those of the
newspaper.