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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 2004)
Oregon Daily Emerald Monday, November 22, 2004 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 JEN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR JARED PABEN AYISJJA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTER MORIAH BALINGIT AMANDA BOLSINGER MEGHANN CUNIFF KARA HANSEN ANTHONY LUCERO NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR NATASHA CHILINGER1AN SENIOR PULSE REPORTER DAHVI FISCHER AMY LICHTY RYAN MURPHY PULSE REPORTERS DAVID JAGERNAUTH EDITORIAL EDITOR JENNIFER MCBRIDE AILEE SLATER CHUCK SLOTHOWER TRAVIS WILLSE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR GABE BRADLEY NEWS FREELANCE EDITOR/ DIRECTOR OF RECRUITMENT DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMF.R SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHER ERIK BISHOFF PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHER BRET FURTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST KIRA PARK DESIGN EDITOR ELLIOTT ASBURY CHARLIE CALDWELL DUSTIN REESE BR1ANNE SHOL1AN DESIGNERS SHADRA BEES LEY JEANNIE EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BLACKF1ELD PAUL THOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS AMANDA EVRARD AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS LINDSAY BURT PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR SLADE LEESON WEBMASTER BUSINESS (541)3465511 JUDY R1EDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER REBECCA CRITCHETT RECEPTIONIST NATHAN FOSTER AIBING GUO ANDREW LEAHY JOHN LONG MALLORY MAHONEY HOLLY MISTELL DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ IIERON CAUSCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE HIRONAKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE MIA LEIDELMEYER EMILY PHILBIN SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES KELLER KAUFTHEIL AD ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED (541)3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KATY GAGNON SABRINA GOWFTTE LESLIE STRAIGHT KERI SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541) 346-4381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA Kl DAKI PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JEN CRAMLET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT ANDY HOLLAND DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Fn day during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memwnl Union. The Emerald is private property Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law . .You see, General, the Fallujah battle was starting to show success, and quite frankly, we were running out of things to gripe about." Bret Furtwangler | Graphic artist ■ In my opinion Real sex happens A woman in a bath towel asks a football star to hold off on playing the game and take care of some of her de sires. He refuses, she drops the towel and jumps in to his arms; football will have to wait. This pre-game skit during an ABC Monday Night Football intro Nov. 15 has been deemed offensive by view ers and the Federal Communications Commission, as it made the grave mistake of alluding to the fact that people sometimes have sexual rela tions. In accordance with rules that also limit allusions toward women who have body parts, the FCC is ques tioning ABC’s judgment (read: moral integrity?) in airing the incident. Many upset audience members have called the commission to complain. Rest easy America: Thousands of your citizens are spending their energy pre tending that sex doesn’t exist, so now you don’t have to. There certainly does seem to be something wrong with the acute mo mentum against this situation, which is quickly becoming costume malfunc tion number two. Instead of a nude breast, this skit showed actress Nicol lette Sheridan’s bare back leaping into the embrace of football player Terrell Owens. Not that there aren’t serious problems with both of these television events: De-clothing women’s already sexually exploited bodies is no great step forward in the movement of sexu al progressives. Yet no one seems up set about those issues; instead, there is an uprising of furor over the simple idea that sex occurs. Sexuality on television is not a novel concept. According to a 1999 CNN article, 67 percent of network shows contain sexual content, and one can only assume that this count AILEE SLATER FURTHER FROM PERFECTION has most likely risen. Of course, the sexuality portrayed in most instances is ambiguous, and occurs outside the view of the camera. Still, condoning sexuality as long as it happens away from the lens can only leave citizens with the message that sex is okay, as long as we don’t see it. Instead of real sex, and the implications or responsibilities of this act being shown, we promote fake sex wherein everyone is white and heterosexual, always blond or muscular, and fears such as pregnancy, STDs or rape do not exist. Everybody orgasms at the same time, every time, as observed in the disembodied sighs from be yond the viewpoint of the audience. This fake form of sex is readily ac cepted. Wait, but, I thought every one has amazing orgasms when they wash their hair. ... Another important facet of this obscenity charge is race. With so many covert images of sex on televi sion, it seems more than mere coin cidence that this particular incident involving an interracial couple is causing conflict. Are we that back wards of a society that racial and sexual stereotypes would result in cries of obscenity? The diversity present in this scene, sadly unique to network television, should be laud ed rather than regarded with disgust. Much of the argument against the sexual innuendoes present in this sports broadcast is that it was shown during a time when families weren’t expecting a sex scene. True, which is why we should also eradicate every beer commercial ever made, as well as Herbal Essences ads, from sports broadcasts. When families don’t ac knowledge, and indeed campaign against, the image of real sex, children come to believe that the act is some thing to be hidden and not discussed. Further down the road they are less likely to talk with their parents or oth er adult figure about birth control, dis ease prevention, or, heck, even tech nique. If the message is that two consenting adults having sex is bad, but oiled up women in bikinis swoon ing over liquor is fine, kids receive a seriously skewed version of sexuality. It may be cliche, but when it comes to issues of sex, the European model is still the best. According to a 2001 Advo cates for Youth document, France has 550,000 fewer teen pregnancies per year and 160,000 fewer abortions. The average age of first sexual intercourse is 18. Yet, commercials and television in this and other European countries com monly feature explicit references to sex, as well as bare body parts. Interesting that the opposite of U.S. indecency guidelines gamers the societal results that we are still searching for with our hopelessly puritan ideals. So, what does this say about our nation’s policy? If the definition of in sanity is repeating an action over and over and expecting different results, then U.S. policies of obscenity on tele vision as related to healthy sexuality and family morality are clearly insane. aileeslater@ daily emerald, com OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office EMU Suite 300 Electronic submissions are preferred Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month Submissions should include phone number and address for venfication. The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, grammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald ■ Editorial For better or worse, U.S. bureaucrats are changing For better or for worse, bureaucratic reshuf fling is a post-election reality for every admin istration. There is nothing unusual about this year’s exodus of officials from Bush’s Cabinet, the CIA, the State Department and other levels of government. But some second-term replace ments are better than others. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.): BETTER A shoo-in to head the Senate Judiciary Com mittee, Sen. Arlen Specter’s appointment hit a bit of a snafu last week after he said in public that the Senate was unlikely to confirm a justice to the Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Oops. Cue the Christian Right. Radicals always save their best venom for the moderates in their own party. And from this side of the aisle, it is kind of fun to watch. Will the pro-life “pray-ins” bury Specter? Only God knows. Alberto Gonzales: BETTER Sure, he called some Geneva Convention pro visions “quaint,” and he supports the USA PA TRIOT Act. But let’s look on the bright side: The man picked by President Bush to fill John Ashcroft’s crazy shoes disagrees with his prede cessor on numerous points. For example, Gon zales doesn’t think that dancing is a sin, so we’re already moving in the right direction. Fur thermore, he has anti-abortion groups up in arms, a la Arlen Specter. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2001, Gonzales said, “There are no litmus tests for judicial candi dates. ... My own personal feelings about (abor tion) don't matter. ... The question is, what is • the law?” Such reasonableness has the presi dent of the American Life League, Judie Brown, foaming at the mouth. In a letter, she wrote, “Why is President Bush betraying the babies?” Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada): WORSE With the loss of Sen. Tom Daschle, the Democ rats have elected Sen. Harry Reid as their new Senate minority leader. Calling this four-term, red-state donkey a moderate is a significant un derstatement: He is a pro-life Mormon who often breaks party ranks. For example, he voted for a ban on partial birth abortions. On Thesday, Reid spoke of uniting the two sides of the Senate and working with the President, not against him. The New York Times describes him as “close to Mr. Bush.” We describe him as a Bush ally. When will the Democrats become a true opposition par ty? Apparently not for the next four years. Stephen J. Hadley: WORSE The new national security adviser, replacing Condi Rice, is probably the last person who should be advising the president on national se curity matters. The Sept. 11 commission blamed Hadley for the lack of pre-terrorist at tack focus on al Qaeda. He has been connected to almost every bit of misinformation coming from the White House, including the lies in the president’s 2003 State of the Union address, the lies leading to the war in Iraq and the lies about an Iraq/al Qaeda connection. Most significant ly, he led the planning for postwar Iraq, accord ing to the Washington Post, and we all know how that turned out. I guess we get four more years of not believing a word that the adminis tration is saying about anything. EDITORIAL BOARD Jennifer Sudick Editor in Chief David Jagemauth Editorial Editor Steven R. Neuman Managing Editor Gabe Bradley Freelance Editor
