Oregon daily emerald., July 15, 1997, Page 2, Image 2

▼ EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
Sarah Kickler
MANAGING EDITORS:
Ryan Frank & Carl Ych
NIGHT EDITOR:
Sarah Kickler
EDITORIAL EDITOR:
Mike Schmierbach
editorials, letters, commentary and perspective
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The
Drawn*
Board
JER_ fiT LEAST
WE’RE NOT
>N COURT///
L A
rg&XaK?
Media made topless carnival out of fair
■ uUR OPINION: Local coverage of the
Country Fair focused too much on the
goodness of beefed up security practices
lelujah.’ They’re the ones who should be
squawking.” Police Capt. Tom Brett, quoted in
the Sunday Register Guard.
Sometimes, if you look hard enough, you can
actually find news in a newspaper. The real sto
ry behind the Guard’s extensive coverage of the
fair, now in its 28th year, is not that a bunch of
people got together to play in the sun. It’s not
even that police exerted serious pressure
against the counterculture forces involved in
the fair by threatening to revoke their use of 285
acres near Veneta. No, the real story is the way
in which the Guard and other media outlets
swallowed the ideas of people like Brett, some
thing which showed in their coverage.
Brett’s fundamental premise is that situations
like the Country Fair controversy represent a
clash between two groups: good, law-abiding
citizens who would never complain about po
lice action, and some sort of subversive crimi
nal element who complain about the slightest
police interference.
With their coverage, the media played right
along. This may seem an unfair statement, con
sidering the rosy light the fair was portrayed in.
But it is important to remember that a story’s
slant lies in more than its conclusion.
Remember, first, what it took for the media to
he people who come [to the Country
Fair] to profit from and engage in
criminal activity are the ones who
are squawking, and to that I say, ‘Hal
put a positive spin on the fair. Not until fair or
ganizers buckled to government pressure and
expressed strong and repeated concerns about
drugs, alcohol and community safety was the
Country Fair designated a fun time for all.
Now, if reports that fairgoers had a less ad
verse impact upon the environment in Veneta
are true, efforts to that end are admirable. How
ever, the media’s concern was not with tram
pled grass or heavy traffic. It was with drugs,
bare feet and exposed breasts.
Not only did the media accept the standards
of police about what would constitute a suc
cessful fair, but they also bought into Brett’s no
tion of who would complain about police au
thority. In its coverage Saturday, the Guard
assembled an interesting cast of anti-police
spokespeople.
One man was described as “secretly
cuppjing] a marijuana cigarette in his hand.”
Another girl, who felt the cops “just need to
chill out,” was “strolling the grounds topless.”
What she was or wasn’t wearing may seem irrel
evant, until you consider the ideological intent
of the article.
Undoubtedly it was not intentional, but in
their coverage of the fair the media have suc
ceeded at marginalizing the “alternative” cul
ture heavily represented at the fair. In addition,
they have managed to cast the debate over
drugs, alcohol and fairgoer behavior in terms
presented by the police.
Either fairgoers were presented as a signifi
cant community problem, breaking the law and
contributing to unfortunate tensions between
the fair and the surrounding area, or they were
trivialized as children having fun.
Admittedly, events like the Country Fair are
largely about people having fun. However, de
spite the positive coverage the Guard and others
gave to the event, they didn’t present it as an op
portunity for people to escape the constraints of
dominant culture. Instead, the fair was reduced
to a freak show.
For reasons that escape us, the Guard re
porters seemed particularly interested in the
way women at the fair dress. I suppose describ
ing the fair as featuring “bevies of semi-clad
women” could be seen as free advertising. It
could also be seen as demeaning to those
women, most of whom shunned shirts and oth
er garments for personal reasons having little to
do with making the fair fun for other attendees.
Apparently, the reporter who wrote “there
must be something in the air that turns people
giddy before they even get inside [the fair]” was
affected by that something. So long as fairgoers
were fun-loving hippies content to sway about
in bright clothing and face paint, the media felt
content to laugh quietly at them.
Once people associated with the fair began to
seriously threaten the legal and social norms of
society, the media felt the need to echo police
presentations of such people as socially de
viant, threatening and devoid of serious politi
cal thought.
Perhaps next time, the Guard will save itself
the trouble of paying a reporter to gawk at top
less women and simply reprint the police press
report.
This editorial represents the opinion of the
Emerald editorial board. Responses may be sent
to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Numbers |
No book is more packed j
with information than the |
phone book. Most people
use the book for finding the I
phone numbers of friends j
and businesses, but a more {
thorough search can reveal 1
interesting facts.
■ Among the useful en
tries in the Eugene city gov- j
ernment section are num- j
bers for: the compost
hotline, flooded streets
ditches, grass and weed
control, meter repairs, ro
dent control, streetlight
problems, dead animal re
moval and RV waste dis
posal.
■ The first entry in the
White Pages is for A Aac
cent Escort Service. This
would make A Aaccent the
first of the 12 escort ser
vices listed in the Yellow
Pages, but the company is
not listed there.
■ The last business listed
in the White Pages is Zygar
and Associates Insurance
Agency, Inc. It's conceiv
able people looking for in
surance companies don’t
feel quite the same “ur
gency" to call the first num- J
ber listed that escort ser
vice customers feel.
■ The White Pages lists
215 entries under the last
name White but only 79
households with the name
Black. Notably, the book
lists no families named
Purple.
■ Not only does the Yellow
Pages mention 12 escort
services, but listings also
include one lubricant com
pany. The section begins
by listing six abortion
providers and ends with
the inclusion of one “zip
pers and repair" company.
■ If you’re in a hurry to call
one of these important ser
vices and discover noise on
your line, the book also in
cludes this advice: “It may
be caused by the weather
...or other conditions that
are only temporary. Wait
until the weather condi
tions change.”
Contact
is
■ BY MAIL
P.0. Box 3159,
Eugene, OR
97403
■ BY PHONE:
(541)346-5511
■ BY E-MAIL:
ode@oregon.
uoregon. edu
■ IN PERSON:
Suite 300, EMU
LETTERS
University wrong
I am writing because I want to leave no stone un
turned in my quest to right a wrong that has been
done to my son and probably many others by the
University of Oregon.
My son, David, is a resident of Oregon. He served
four years in the Marine Corps. Upon his discharge
in 1994, he moved to Oregon where his sister lives.
He began working, and several months later, en
rolled at Portland Community College. After two
years there, he applied and was accepted at the Uni
versity of Oregon.
Only upon registering was he told he was not eli
gible for resident tuition. He has appealed twice.
What he had never been told was that in order to be
a resident AND be eligible for resident tuition, he
needed to stay out of school for a full year. He had
no reason to know this since he was getting resident
tuition at PCC.
I do not understand why the state can collect tax
es from my son, as it has now for four years, and say
he is a resident, except for he isn’t a resident at the
University of Oregon. He is not a resident of any
other state and in fact is not eligible for resident tu
ition in any one state. This is a travesty.
My son has heard from someone considering a
class action law suit. I am pleased that we are not
alone in this, and I think that this preposterous
treatment of your residents needs to be challenged.
I am writing in hopes that this issue might be of
some interest to your readers and that your involve
ment might cause someone who can help to sit up
and take notice.
Carol Lewis
Anchorage, Ak.
Money speaks
I have worked at the University since April
1965. I used to feel I was a valuable resource at the
University of Oregon. I felt I was considered a part
of this proud community. I find it so sad when an
article is run in the paper regarding hundreds of
University personnel retiring, many with over 15
years service each and some with 40 years and
have the vice chancellor of academic affairs say
“this will not negatively affect the University.
Rather, this is an opportunity for departments to
reorganize, and it could save the University mon
ey because new employees can be hired at a lower
pay.”
It used to be people mattered more than money
here at the University of Oregon. Today we can
have over 1,000 years knowledge and experience
and loyalty leave the University and “it will not
negatively affect the University”!
Only because now the University can get some
cheaper employees? Well, I would like to say to
each of those retirees, it matters to me, and I will
miss your wisdom, your dedication and your ex
perience. I hope you all have a great retirement
and good luck.
Shirley Trimble
Biology Department