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Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald Wednesday, January 26, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 JEN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR JARED PABEN AY1SHA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS MEGHANN CUN1FF PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORIAH RAIJNGIT AMANDA BOISINGER ADAM CHERRY KARA HANSEN ANTHONY LUCERO SHELDON rRAVER NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROLTMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURC, PULSE EDITOR NATASHA CHILINGERIAN SENIOR PULSE REPORTER AMY LICHTY RYAN MURPHEY PULSE REPORTERS CAT BALDWIN PULSE CARTOONIST DAVID JACERNAUTH EDITORIAL EDITOR GABE BRADLEY JENNIFER MCBRIDE AII.EE SLATER TRAVIS WILLSE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER ERIK BISHOFF FART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHERS BRET FURTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST KIRA PARK DESIGN EDITOR DUSTIN REESE SENIOR DESIGNER WENDY KIEFFER AMANDA LEE BR1ANNE SHOLLAN DESIGNERS SI1ADRA BEES LEY I FANNIE 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 SIADE LEESON WEBMASTER BUSINESS (541)346-5511 JUDY RIEDi. GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER REBECCA CRITCHETT RECEPTIONIST NATHAN FOSTER A1B1NG GUO ANDREW LEAHY JOHN LONG HOLLY M1STELL HOLLY STEIN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MEUSSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HERON CAUSCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE HIRONAKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE MIA LEIDELMEYER EMILY PHILBIN SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES KELLEE KAUFTHEIl. AD ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED (541) 3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KAIY GAGNON SABRINA COWETTE LESUE STRAIGHT KER1 SPANGLER KAnE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA <11 HAW PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JEN CRAM LET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT JONAH SCHROGIN 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 Memorial Union. The Emerald Is private property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. Item! WILLIAMS Starting Bid• $0.02 Current Bid! $240,000 r\ n)RTWAN6LfR Brfx Furtwangler | Graphic artist ■ In my opinion A legacy of censorship Speech is at the heart of being hu man. Language, free and open, allows us to express ideals, communicate with one another and work together in our search for the path to ultimate truth. However, speech becomes useless un less somebody is allowed to listen. Michael Powell leaves the Federal Communications Commission with a nauseating legacy behind him. Under him, detested deregulation the process of allowing media conglomerates to gobble up ever-larger shares of the mar ketplace of ideas — reached new ago nizing heights, enough that his own Re publican colleagues broke ranks to protest. While his lax leadership may have been good for business, it was bad for the rest of us. We would like to think that our information comes from unbi ased sources, but too many corpora tions have given into politicization for us to be quite so naive. Clear Channel, the company behind 60 percent of the nation’s rock radio stations, showed how quickly it was willing to support censorship when, af ter the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it sent out a list of 150 songs that might be called “offensive,” including Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” and Cat Stevens’ “Peace Train.” During the election, Sinclair Broadcast Group, a company with the power to reach a quarter of the televisions in U.S. households, refused to air Tbd Koppel’s speech on Nightline in which he listed off the names of all the U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq. Both companies are tied to the Bush family. The more consolidated the media are, the fewer opportunities view points have to flourish and the easier it is to pull one over on the nation. Without separate and distinct voic es, there are no checks on politicians or on the smiling people feeding us what is laughingly labeled “news.” __ IENNIFER MCBRIDE QUASHING DISSENT Powell has supported more obvious, but no less insidious, censorship in the form of vague and restrictive guidelines that are selectively enforced. “Nipple gate,” served a la Janet Jackson, cost Viacom over a half million dollars in fines and still apparendy reverberates in the hearts and minds of the people who are too afraid to show “Saving Private Ryan,” lest they invite the Gods of Si lencing’s wrath. The Public Broadcast ing Service had to bleep words from documentaries on Puerto Rican poets and Masterpiece Theatre in order to keep from treading an almost invisible line, resulting in broadcasts that sound ed less like television and more like an inebriated gorilla playing Operation. Even the British comedies are consid ered worth cutting for their use of im proper language. The music group Bono also narrowly escaped being burned at the stake for daring to utter an on-air expletive. The shame! The agony! Think of the children! Think of the First Amendment. Think of impervious committees that use the rules as an excuse to poison programs they disagree with. I wonder if Powell would show the same concern if anti-abortion groups ran advertise ments with graphic imagery. Perhaps I am being overly cynical, but the vicious and the vindictive actions of a single committee have had a chilling effect on speech that I find singularly repulsive. Powell may be retiring, but the alter natives hardly seem better. Though not ed for their independence and less radi cal views than Powell, both of the lead ing candidates for chairman of the FCC have previously had their pockets lined with telecommunication conglomer ates’ contributions or endorsements. It is doubtful that their autonomy stretch es any further than their integrity. This is the price we pay for democ racy: electorates choosing foolish ad ministrations that use their ignorance and arrogance to shut out independ ent voices. Government officials should be a little more invested in civil liberties than in furthering their own dynasties. It might be worthwhile for the power-hungry to remember that arbitrary laws will someday be in the hands of the enemy. It would be better if everyone could agree that some things, such as freedom of informa tion, should be held inviolate, but blood-thirsty bureaucracies intoxicat ed with their own power will only be come more and more abusive unless a truly neutral party comes to stop it, and no court is completely above par tisan interests. Perhaps Powell’s most frightening move was the tyranny he inflicted, not on the American public, but on his own allies. The New York Times reported that one member of the FCC voted against the chairman only to have his travel budget slashed to nothing. He paid a price for his choice to dissent. When any governing body tries to suppress opinion by cutting the funds of those who disagree with it, democra cy is undermined to an intolerable de gree. Justice Anthony Kennedy reminds us that “inconvenience does not ab solve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.” Let us listen to these words before we lose the freedom so preciously hoarded. jennifermcbride@dailyemerald. 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 Dally 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 verification The Emerald reserves the right to edit tor space, gammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald ■ Editorial Yellow ribbon complaint — code red free speech threat The Emerald editorial board would like to take a moment’s break from our weeklong dissertation on the wrongdoings of the PFC to discuss a related, but slightly tangential, ex ample of the depressing state of free speech at the University. A campus employee was ordered to remove a “Support the ’IYoops” yellow ribbon decal from his maintenance truck after a second employee complained about it Friday. State law forbids public vehicles from being used to further political messages. In fact, state law forbids any personal messages on state vehicles. In a statement released by Uni versity President Dave Frohnmayer, he says: “Whether the message is Support Our lYoops, Fund Cancer Research or Support Tsunami Relief, employees may not place personal stickers or magnets on state-owned vehicles.” Nice job throwing those obscure bureau cratic rules back in the face of that patriotic sucker. Congratulations. You are on firm legal ground. But, Dave, if ever there was a time when the rules were meant to be broken, this was the time. Sometimes common sense and decency must trump the letter of the law. The decision itself isn’t half as infuriating as the fact that somebody actually com plained about a yellow ribbon. Is that how we do things now? One anonymous person com plains, and the yellow ribbons are quickly re moved; one anonymous person complains, and the Oregon Commentator’s mission is quickly rejected. This is the senseless crap that is killing the University. This is the kind of behavior that makes communities unbearable environ ments for the truly open-minded people. How can anyone who gives a lick about freedom and art and the community of ideas keep his or her sanity when our leaders are telling us that supporting the troops is against the rules and that the Commentator engages in hate speech? There is always somebody who says the Emerald is overreacting every time we use the C-word: censorship. “Nobody cares about an $8,000 fee, one campus magazine or one sticker. That’s not censorship — that’s barely news,” they are probably saying to them selves right now. These people are wrong. If we wait until books are being burned out side the EMU before we can discuss the issue of censorship, then it is already too late. The apathetic attitude that many people have about these issues is proof positive of censor ship’s insidious effect on culture. Listening to how some on this campus have justified de funding the Commentator or the Emerald is truly scary. When partisanship becomes an acceptable excuse for denying speech, then we have re ally lost the battle. When a campus does not explode with outrage the instant anyone threatens his or her outlets for free expres sion, whether it be publications, radio, televi sion, stage or elsewhere, then censorship has won. Where are the those on this campus who can stomach supporting our troops? Where are the those on this campus who can still take a joke? Where are the those on this cam pus who revel in a difference of opinion? Where are the those on this campus who care about free speech? It is now up to you to show the rest of your brethren the way, before they permanently alienate you from the majority of Americans.
