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■ Guest commentary
Sullivan conference to drum
up First Amendment appreciation
As the U.S. Supreme Court stated
in the 1964 landmark case of New
York Times vs. Sullivan, the “central
meaning” of the First Amendment is
found in Americans’ right to criticize
the public officials they choose to
govern them.
The Supreme Court’s categorical
repudiation of seditious libel as in
consistent with the free speech rights
of Americans illustrates “a profound
national commitment to the principle
that debate on public issues should
be uninhibited, robust and wide
open, and that it may well include ve
hement, caustic and sometimes un
pleasantly sharp attacks on
government and public officials.”
Thus, a public official, the Sullivan
Court held, cannot recover damages
for a defamatory falsehood unless he
proves that the statement was made
with ‘“actual malice’—that is, with
knowledge that it was false or with
reckless disregard of whether it was
false or not.”
To the advocates of Sullivan it was
“a great liberating force of American
law and life,” according to former
New York Times columnist Anthony
Lewis, who wrote “Make No Law,”
the definitive study of the case.
To its detractors, however, Sulli
van’s “actual malice” rule is counter
productive to news reporting and
public service in the United States.
They assert that the libel rule results
in shoddy journalism while encour
aging unreasonable attacks on the
“best men” in public life. In a nut
shell, freer journalism is not neces
sarily better journalism.
Amid the continuing debate about
Sullivan’s actual or perceived impact
on freedom of expression in the Unit
ed States and abroad, the School of
Journalism and Communication and
the School of Law at the University of
Oregon are sponsoring a major First
Amendment conference on the semi
nal case. The conference, titled “New
York Times Co. v. Sullivan: Forty
Years After,” will be held at the Uni
versity Knight Law Center on Friday.
At the Sullivan conference, U.S.
Circuit Judge Gilbert S. Merritt will
deliver the keynote address on the
government’s efforts to control free
speech in the post-Sept. 11 America.
He’ll be joined by a dozen other
speakers in the day-long conference.
Among the invited panelists are Jus
tice Rives Kistler of the Oregon
Supreme Court, Judge Robert Sharpe
of the Canadian Court of Appeals,
First Amendment lawyer Bruce John
son, Washington Post columnist
David Ignatius and professor Freder
ick Schauer of Harvard University’s
Kennedy School of Government.
The speakers at the Sullivan con
ference will assess the social, cultural
and political influence of the founda
tional case in connection with the ex
traordinarily volatile situations con
fronting us these days.
“In this time of war and terrorism
and certain risks to civil liberties, we
should take those rights and respon
sibilities to heart,” said David Bod
ney, a leading media law attorney
who’ll speak at the Sullivan confer
ence. “And we should use New York
Times v. Sullivan as a battle cry to
view ourselves in the media as part of
this experiment in self-government
responsibility. ”
No doubt the Sullivan conference
at the University of Oregon on Friday
will be a valuable opportunity for all
of us to more critically (re) appreciate
what defines the United States as a
functioning democracy. To the en
gaged, discerning members of the
University community the opportuni
ty is too good to be missed.
Kyu Ho Youm, who holds the
Jonathan Marshall First Amendment
Chair at the University School of
Journalism and Communication and
is a courtesy professor at the School
of Law, is co-organizing the Sullivan
conference on Friday.
INBOX
Kerry will save struggling
after-school programs
Head Start needs more funds. Cur
rently in Lane County, Head Start is
only serving 50 percent of those chil
dren eligible due to a lack of funding.
Research has shown early education
programs like Head Start can prevent
school failure and crime. John Kerry
has a plan to save Head Start. The No
Child Left Behind Act created new re
quirements for educators but did not
give them the funding they needed to
complete them. The No Child Left Be
hind Act was underfunded by $27 bil
lion. John Kerry has a plan to fully
fund education programs that teach
kids, not just test them.
John Kerry is a strong supporter of
after-school programs. I am in high
school, and I have witnessed how af
ter-school programs can save lives. I
know two different people who were
considering suicide and did not go
through with it because they made
friends in an after-school program. I
know other students who did not drop
out of high school because of an after
school program they were in.
In the past three years, college tu
ition has risen 35 percent. About
220,000 people were priced out of col
lege and many more felt they had no
hope of affording college. John Kerry
has a plan to bring college education
to all Americans.
Send me to college. Vote for John
Kerry.
Peter Howland
Springfield
Leaving Nader off ballot -
no way to run a democracy
David Jagernauth makes good
points about keeping the progressive
faith (“Voted out with the garbage,”
Oct. 1). We need to know more about
why no Senators, including Kerry or
Edwards, would sign the election ob
jection of the Congressional Black
Caucus in 2000. That scene in
Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” is
heartbreaking.
The Democrats' fight against Ralph
Nader is disgraceful. This is no way to
run a democracy. We need to allow
more candidates back into the presi
dential debates and to reform our elec
toral process along the lines of “instant
runoff” systems like in San Francisco. 1
have spoken with conservative voters
with lukewarm support for Bush who
would vote for Nader instead if only he
were on the ballot.
A vote is only thrown away if it isn’t
cast or isn’t counted.
Robert Adams
Eugene
Monorities could use a lot
more than 'some help'
Tuesday’s commentary article on
affirmative action was an appreciat
ed, but misguided attempt to discuss
and understand the purpose of affir
mative action. First of all, affirmative
action can not only refer to increas
ing opportunities for black Ameri
cans, but also women, Hispanics,
Asians and Native Americans.
However, black Americans have
been prominent advocates of affirma
tive action, authoring numerous
books and articles in support of it
(such as Randall Robinson’s "The
Debt”). The author of Tuesday’s arti
cle suggests that economic-based af
firmative action would be a more
constructive approach to achieving
social (not racial) equality.
Undoubtedly, minorities and
black Americans specifically have
suffered the United States’ injustices
and discriminatory practices since
before Thomas Jefferson penned
the Declaration of Independence in
1776. Yet some Americans seem to
believe that racial discrimination
ended in the 1960s with white-only
water fountains.
The author of Tuesday’s article
says, “No student on campus today
won their freedom through the Eman
cipation Proclamation.” 1 completely
agree. I am sure there isn’t a teacher
or student on this campus who is at
least 140 years old. But, it is possible
that there is a student on this campus
who was a victim or is related to a
victim of the TUskegee Syphilis Exper
iment. According to a 1997 Seattle
Times article, the experiment was a
40-year long experiment that ended in
1973 done by the Public Health Ser
vice that denied treatment to 399
black men with the disease.
Along with that, the well-known
case of Mumia Abu Jamal, an incarcer
ated activist and journalist who was
arrested (from no substantial evi
dence) for the murder of a police offi
cer in 1978, displays how close to
home racial injustice indeed is. These
examples illustrate that racial oppres
sion is still alive today.
The author of Tuesday’s article says
that although he/she disagrees with
race-based affirmative action, “blacks
could still use some help from society.”
I commend the author for the sympa
thy, and also for raising some impor
tant issues like black teen pregnancy,
black low income levels and low levels
of black educational attainment.
Unfortunately, the author fails to
connect the 400 years of oppression as
a cause of these issues, the need for so
cial reform and the first step of that be
ing affirmative action. After all, there
must a reason why black men flood
America’s prisons and black children
continue to drop out of schools, right?
If we study our history, we will learn
that when blacks gained their freedom
through the Emancipation Proclama
tion, the reconstruction granted blacks
no compensation of land, giving them
no economic foundation to begin their
life as a free people. Hence ever since
1863, black Americans have been
playing the catch-up game.
It is useless to single out a black per
son and say,.“Hey- you weren’t a slave,
you and I are equal,” because slavery
and other forms of oppression tyran
nized a whole people, its culture and
its future generations.
Black Americans, along with all oth
er minorities, could not “use some
help.” Instead, they could use racial
equality, socio-economic equality and
the opportunity to lead and participate
in a government in which they are un
derrepresented. Increasing the number
of people of color in universities and
professional industries js a long over
due, but progressive initiative.
Jordan Thierry
Eugene
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