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Tuesday, March 5,2002
Editor in Chief:
Jessica Blanchard
Managing Editor:
Jeremy Lang
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
Editorial
Newspapers
fight for their
right to pair
up with TV
(U-WIRE) MINNEAPOLIS —
The Federal Communications Commission,
in a disturbing reversal of its previous
stance, has been trying since Sept. 13 to
overturn the 25-year-old ban of newspaper/
broadcast media cross-ownership. Lawmakers
enacted the ban, which bars one person or corpo
ration from owning a television station and a
newspaper in the same area, ostensibly to ensure
a diversity of viewpoints within media markets.
Though the actual motive behind the ban can be
called into question — some speculate then-Pres
ident Richard Nixon initiated it as part of a di
vide-and-conquer strategy against the press — it
has served its purpose during the last quarter
century and should not be repealed.
Spurred by the FCC’s recommendation, Rep.
Scott Klug, R-Wis., recently introduced the
Newspaper Ownership Act to the U.S. House
of Representatives as Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., sent an identical bill to the U.S. Sen
ate. The Newspaper Association of America
and the National Association of Broadcasters,
along with several media watchdog groups, in
cluding Editor & Publisher magazine’s editori
al board, have since lent their support to re
pealing the ban.
But doing so would pose a serious and un
necessary risk to journalists across the nation
and to the public they serve. We find the FCC’s
reasoning flawed in that it groundlessly put
the burden of proof on those who see the need
to keep the cross-ownership ban in place.
Since the ban has served its function for more
than two decades and has been upheld several
times by the U.S. Supreme Court, those who
wish to repeal it should have to give reason —
beyond the superfluous benefit of increased
profits — why a proven system is suddenly no
longer viable.
Any argument the act’s supporters could de
liver would be outweighed by the potential and
probable pitfalls the act would allow. The cur
rent recession hit newspapers particularly
hard. We recognize that allowing newspaper
companies to merge or be bought out by gigan
tic corporations like AOL-Time Warner would
shore up their finances. But journalism and the
democracy it enables are about more than profit
margins, and the people a free press serves are
above the financial bottom line.
The newspaper industry is in trouble. Histor
ically, papers have almost always been finan
cially shaky because the nature of the business
is not — and cannot become — increased capi
tal. Yet they have always found a way to sur
vive while remaining viable servants and
watchdogs of the public interest. Lawmakers
must not jeopardize this by passing the News
paper Ownership Act.
This guest editorial is courtesy of the Minnesota Daily,
the campus newspaper of the University of Minnesota.
Letters to the Editor and
Guest Commentaries Policy
Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are
encouraged. Letters are limited to 250 words and
guest commentaries to 550 words. Please include
contact information. The Emerald reserves the right
to edit for space, grammar and style.
Farewell, Chuck—you wascally wabbit
“Animation isn’t the illusion of life,
it is life. ”■— Chuck Jones
It’s been a sad 11 days for fans of ani
mation. Although people may not
have noticed it, the animation com
munity has lost one of its leading figures.
Charles M. Jones, who for 25 years di
rected some of the most famous cartoon
shorts for Warner
Bros., died of con
gestive heart failure
Feb. 22. Along with
others who know of
his work, I’m
mourning his
death. Although I
never met him,
through his work I
and millions of oth- *
ers felt that we got
to know him.
Jones was one
of the more lik- /
able types in the ^
field. Unlike the
sometimes bitter and temperamental
Hayao Miyazaki, who professes to
despise the industry he works in, or
Walt Disney, whose gentle, fatherly
facade concealed a cold, ruthless and
controlling side, Jones was instead a
buoyant sort whose spirit and sense of
fun was reflected in his films.
In private life, he was known to enjoy
jokes and wordplay, and even cultivated
a friendship with Ted Geisel (better
known to the world as Dr. Seuss) while
the two worked on the “Private SNAFU”
edu-tainment cartoons for the Army dur
ing World War II. In these little-seen
works, Jones had free reign on humor:
“Spies,” for instance, had our “hero,”
SNAFU, inadvertently telling the entire
Axis Powers about his troopship’s sail
ing. Among the hilarious sight gags in
the short is the ending. SNAFU ends up
in a burning cauldron in hell. “Now who
the hell do you suppose let my secret
out?” asks SNAFU. Hitler, as the devil,
gives him the answer: In a mirror, we see
oicvc Ddgys cmtudiu
SNAFU’s face turn into a horse’s ass.
It is said that a man can be measured
by the body of his work. In that case,
Jones belongs in whatever pantheon
exists for animation. One can almost
rattle off his most famous efforts:
“Duck Amuck,” “What’s Opera, Doc?”
(the only cartoon short inducted into
the National Film Registry), “How the
Grinch Stole Christmas,” and “The Dot
and the Line” are probably all some
where in the top-20 list of any discrim
inating animation fan. And who can
forget the brilliant characters he creat
ed? Yosemite Sam, the pint-sized gun
slinger; Pepe le Pew, the Charles Boy
er-esque lover (but who could love a
skunk?); and the rebuild of Daffy Duck,
turning a chaotic black duck into the
greedy, scheming, egotistical mallard
we all know and love. Disney may
have had the upper hand in marketing
his characters, but Jones always
seemed to have a heart and soul that
transcended the acetone plastic, ink
and paint of the cel.
Personally, of all the cartoons that I
watched as a normal TV-addicted child
of the ’80s, some of the most memo
rable ones, and the ones that I still
watch frequently today, were directed
by Jones. My favorites were the trio of
cartoons that pitted Bugs and Daffy
against the eternal hunter, Elmer Fudd.
I defy anyone reading this article to go
home, watch “Duck! Rabbit! Duck!”
and not laugh as poor Daffy is out
smarted at every turn by Bugs. “Shoot
me, go on! It’s elk season! I’m a fiddler
crab! Why don't you shoot me? It’s fid
dler crab season!”
The rabbit hole lays silent now, the
hunter’s gun still. Farewell, Chuck. You
have left us all with wonderful memories.
E-mail columnist Pat Payne
at patpayne@dailyemerald.com. His opinions
do not necessarily reflect those of the Emerald.
We must improve health care quality
It is a national disgrace that 43 million
Americans do not have health insur
ance. Sadly, 11 million are children.
Since President Clinton’s universal for
profit health insurance proposal was de
feated in 1994, in large part because of the
trillion-dollar health insurance industry
having spent $100 million on the infa
mous misleading ‘Harry and Louise’ TV
ads, the number of uninsured has in
creased by 5 million. Insurance rates have
increased at several times the rate of infla
tion; HMO clerks are telling doctors how
to practice medicine; and choice of health
care providers is being limited even more.
Millions of the uninsured, including chil
dren, are bypassing getting preventative
health care at the emergency sections of
public hospitals, because of inconven
ience, loss of pay, etc. This results in more
expensive health care later on in life. Mil
lions are doing without food to purchase
their pain-killing and sometimes life -sav
ing prescription drugs; at least 31 million
are dangerously underinsured. Many
small businesses cannot hire qualified
employees because they cannot get the
same favorable health insurance rates that
corporations can.
Every other advanced country adopt
ed a universal government-assured
health insurance system, commonly
called “single payer,” recognizing that
health care should be a right for all citi
zens and not merely a privilege for
some. Nobody should be entitled to
Guest Commentary
MtttonA.
Braun
make any money off citizens’ health
miseries, except those who directly pro
vide health care services, such as doc
tors and hospitals.
Enough money would be saved un
der a single-payer system to provide
health insurance for the 43 million
uninsured. In fact, Rep. Jim McDermott,
D-Wash., has stated that under his single
payer plan the nation would save $100
billion per year in health care costs. The
reason is that while the overhead for a
single payer system like Medicare is
only 2 to 4 percent, the profit and over
head for for-profit health insurance is at
least 20 percent.
The trend in America has been to get
rid of middlemen, except in the case of
health insurance companies. Why
should they be sacred cows?
So why doesn’t America have a uni
versal health insurance system? Well, as
sad as it is, America’s politicians have
accepted so much money from the
health and prescription drug industries
that they are literally incapable of acting
in the best health and financial interests
of the American people. In short, they
have been bought off.
Here is another little-known fact that
is bothersome: All representatives have
72 percent taxpayer-subsidized health
insurance that includes a generous pre
scription drug benefit. And these folks
are supposed to be employees, represen
tatives and agents of the people?
The 108th Congress can fix our health
insurance non-system that is becoming
more complex, more costly and more un
fair by simply placing everybody under
Medicare, a time-tested program that
everybody understands and likes. If we
can afford to help rebuild Afghanistan,
we should be able to “rebuild” the health
of America’s uninsured.
Students, if you believe every Ameri
can should, as a fundamental right, be
entitled to have permanent, quality and
affordable health insurance, you should
let your feelings be known now to Presi
dent George W. Bush, your senators and
your representatives.
Milton A. Braun is a retired CPA
and a Southern Methodist University graduate.
CORRECTION
Monday's story about the “Law and Politics
of the Death Penalty” conference (“Nun’s talk
concludes conference,” ODE, March 4)
should have said the daughter of Cnme
Victims United president Steve Doell was
killed by a hit-and-run driver.
The Emerald regrets the error.