Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Suite 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
Email: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Monday, November 18,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editors:
Salena De La Cruz, Pat Payne
UO should
not censor
embattled
KUGNshows
Guest commentary
A recent editorial, (“Ducks should
find their voice, demand an end to
KUGN contract,” ODE, Nov. 12) argued
that the University should “break its
contract” with the station because sev
eral of KUGN’s syndicated talk show
hosts engage in “hate-filled diatribes”
and “don’t promote a culture that re
jects bigotry, discrimination, violence
and intimidation of any kind.”
The statements attributed to the talk
show hosts identified in the editorial are
deeply offensive. If they are accurate —
and my limited exposure to the pro
grams suggests that they are — it is crit
ical that members of our community
voice their outrage.
We should send protest letters to
KUGN expressing our differing views. In
addition, we as individuals should
change the channel. If no one is listen
ing, these talk show hosts will disappear
quickly from the airwaves. But the Uni
versity is not and should not be in the
business of using our sports broadcast
ing contract to drive speakers off the air
because we disagree with their views or
the way they express those views.
The University is a public agency and
cannot use its authority to directly or in
directly censor speech. Any effort to do
so would be in conflict with Oregon Uni
versity System policy, state and federal
free speech provisions and with the fun
damental values of this University.
The principle that the government
may not censor a speaker because it dis
agrees with the speaker’s viewpoint is
central to our understanding of free
speech. It protects professors and stu
dents in the classroom, editorial writers,
itinerant preachers in the EMU free
speech plaza, protesters marching in
front of Johnson Hall and conservative
radio talk show hosts. And any effort on
the part of the University to engage in
such censorship strikes at the founda
tion of free exchange that the Emerald
has defended for generations.
On numerous occasions when faced
with angry readers calling for the Uni
versity to exercise control over the con
tent of the paper, the Emerald has right
ly argued that the First Amendment
protects the publication of controversial
speech. Emerald journalists have under
stood that protecting free speech means
defending speech that we find offensive
from government censorship.
Given this history, it is surprising and
disappointing to see the Emerald edito
rial board call for the University to use
its contractual relation with KUGN-AM
as leverage to silence speakers. If the
University administration were to follow
this course of action, it would be on very
shaky legal ground and it would be mak
ing free speech victims out of the talk
show hosts.
Voice your opinion, reject the ideas,
change the channel, but do not ask a
state institution to join in censorship.
Tim Gleason is a professor and the
Edwin L. Artzt dean of the School of
journalism and Communication.
Boycotting objedifiiaOoii
Apparently, the T & A show must go on.
Although some beauty queens threatened to
boycott the 2002 Miss World contest in Nigeria
with gpod reason, organizers say the show will con
tinue and have simply pushed the event back one
week. Contestants already have started arriving in
Abuja to prepare for the Dec. 7 broadcast.
The traditional skinfest was marred when
some contestants objected to the rulings of
Nigerian Islamic courts that sentenced four peo
ple to death by stoning for
extramarital sex and rape.
Most notably, 30-year-old
Amina Lawal bore a child
out of wedlock and was sen
tenced to the same dastard
ly fate by a northern Niger
ian court practicing Sharia
law last March.
Finalists from Denmark,
Spain, France, Austria, Ice
land, Kenya, South Africa
and Costa Rica announced
they would boycott the
country to protest Lawal’s fate. The Miss World
Web site lists the United States as a participant
in the contest, but there was no American con
testant indicated for the 2002 event.
Miss South Africa, Vanessa Carreira, branded
the contest an abomination and said the Lawal
case was “a shame to the continent of Africa.”
Prince Edward, who pulled out of attending a
Miss World gala dinner last week, agreed with
her sentiments.
Although beauty contests inherendy objectify
women as prizes and Barbie dolls with Vaseline on
their teeth, the pageant’s worldwide broadcast
only contributes to body image genocide that is
snuffing out young girls’ self esteem across oceans.
But by some stroke of luck, participants seem to
have some degree of symbolic political clout; if
only because they look great in bikinis.
Since the controversy began, CNN has report
ed that Nigerian officials insisted they will not
permit the stoning sentences to be carried out,
but they refused to intervene direcdy. When 82
contestants arrived last week, Dubem Oniya,
Nigeria’s minister of state for foreign affairs, said
the stoning issues had been resolved.
“You have no fears in this country,” Oniya
told contestants who arrived last week. “Your
safety is guaranteed. And I assure you, no
Nigerian has been stoned or will be stoned.”
Julie
Lauderbaugh
Judge Julie
Illllf
! 5T0F
STUKlMfeS
If I III
tf I&ERIA I
/Hill
Sure ... nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
The Nigerian government has been guilty of
double-speak on death sentences for months.
Despite the rhetoric by officials (who are coinci
dentally gearing up for presidential, general and
state elections next year), Lawal still does not
have a date for a hearing. Her death sentence ap
peal was denied three months ago. And Amnesty
International reports that punishments such as
flogging and amputation are being handed down
regularly in Sharia courts in northern Nigeria.
Even Lawal, likely pressured from her coun
try’s bad public relations, pleaded for the con
testants to participate. “Let them come,” she
said through a translator. “I have no dreams.
Only God can decide.”
Oh come on. It’s doubtful that a woman, who
is living in shame, has an infant to care for and
is facing imminent death, really, truly gives a
rat’s derriere about a superficial beauty pageant.
The only good that can come out of the Miss
World boycott is that some socially aware beauty
queens have succeeded in bringing the condition
of Muslim women worldwide to the front pages
(at least in Europe). Until the world stops toler
ating inhumane death penalty practices, at home
and abroad, innocent women like Lawal will con
tinue to play victim to barbaric paternalism.
Contact the columnist
at julielauderbaugh@dailyemerald.com. Her views
do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald.
Letters to the editor
University, KUGN
need to compromise
KUGN-AM is an independent radio station, and
is in no way controlled by the University. Because
of this, it is not our place to tell KUGN what they
can and cannot air on their station. However, be
cause they do air Duck sporting events, we do have
some, limited say in what the station says.
Like it or not, we have a contract with KUGN in ex
cess of$l million to air Duck football and basketball
games. It is our duty to keep our side of the contrac
tual obligations. Ending a contract before it’s com
plete over the language presented on the Savage and
Medved shows, however horrible, would be bad busi
ness and an infringement on free speech rights.
That being said, there is something we can do.
KUGN claims to be “the Voice of the Ducks,” where
it clearly is not. KUGN, in fact, is simply “the home
of Duck football and basketball.” I’m sure the re
cent concerns raised by students and faculty at our
school have raised fears among KUGN’s executives,
which gives us some leverage. I say we use that
leverage to force KUGN to stop calling themselves
“the Voice of the Ducks.”
This is a fair compromise. KUGN wins because
they get to keep broadcasting Duck games, and
the University wins because we get to keep the
money that KUGN is giving us while also making
the community know that what is aired on KUGN
doesn’t necessarily represent how the students or
faculty think.
Eric Bailey
ASUO student Senator
“Sin tax” column reeks
of recycled ideas
I was disappointed when I read M. Reilly Cos
grove’s column (“Smoke-Filled Logic,” ODE, Nov.
11). The first thing that put me off about this arti
cle was that is was a lackluster version of the
March 12 column, “Taxing a pound of flesh,” by
Aaron Rorick. Did you think that your readers
would not recognize a recycled argument from
last year? Cosgrove didn’t even bother to change
the offending food (good ol’ Twinkies) that, ac
cording to Cosgrove, should be taxed as heavily
as cigarettes.
The point of Cosgrove’s article was to say that
cigarettes (or anything that could be construed as
“bad” for one’s health) should not be taxed, but he
got to that point way too late in the article, and
only after he touted the preventative properties of
selenium, a dietary supplement.
And I’m not sure Cosgrove bothered to get his
facts straight. He cited the case of Jean Celman,
the “oldest human ever to live,” who died at 122
and was a lifelong smoker. That’s fine, but who is
this beef rancher in the Himalayas who lived to
141? Why isn’t he in the Guinness Book of World
Records as the oldest living human? And how in
the world did he get two packs of cigarettes a day
living way the hell out there?
Is this an article about “sin tax” reform, or is
Cosgrove using the Emerald as a platform to justify
a clearly dangerous “pursuit of happiness”?
KaraWestervelt
senior
English
1U -U4* i -• >< / > > »r • . i « h l
Online poll
Each Monday, the Emerald publishes
the previous week’s poll results and
the coming week’s poll question.
Visit www.dailyemeraid.com to vote.
Last week: Should the DEA seize
medical marijuana plants In Oregon?
Results: 127 total votes
No, legalize marijuana use! — 57.8
percent, or 73 votes
No, the feds should stay out of state
searches — 19.5 percent, or 25 votes
Yes, national law supersedes state
law — 10.2 percent, or 13 votes
Yes, drugs ruin lives — 10.2 percent,
or 13 votes
Don’t know — 1.6 percent, or 2 votes
Leave me alone! — 0.8 percent, or
1 vote
This week: How should the
University handle KUCN* promoting
itself as “the voice of the Ducks”?
Choices: Do nothing — it’s a
censorship issue; Make KUCN
change the slogan; Make KUCN drop
the Medved and Savage shows; End
affiliation with KUCN; Don’t know;
Leave me aione!