Oregon Daily Emerald
Thursday, February 10, 2005
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The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub
lished daily Monday through Frn
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 dr use of
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■ In my opinion
Bridging the Atlantic
During his tenure as secretary of
state, Colin Powell ranked as the most
immediately likable visible member
of the first-term Bush administration.
After receiving wide bipartisan sup
port at his confirmation, Powell
worked both as the president’s
spokesman and, for a while, as a
steady, audible foil to the administra
tion’s swelling hawkishness. As the
term wore on and the war on terror
demanded increasingly tight devotion
to the administration’s ideology, his
credentials remained impressive, but
his reputation as a thoughtful, inde
pendent counterpoint waned.
It is in part for this reason that in
coming Secretary of State Condoleeza
Rice’s first weeks at the post seem,
well, refreshing, if not cheery. Her
first-term hawkishness has given
way, at least so far, to a more amica
ble public demeanor: Her latest trip
took her to Paris, where she told an
audience of diplomats and students at
Institute d’etudes politiques, the elite
French politics school, that America
and Europe ought to move beyond a
“partnership of common threats” to
one of “common opportunities, be
yond the transatlantic community.”
While setting Rice’s first major
keynote speech in Paris underscores
that Franco-American (and, largely,
Euro-American) relations have been
defined since 2002 more by disagree
ments over presumptively common
TRAVIS WILLSE
RIVALLESS WIT
threats than partnerships, European
diplomats seem largely pleased with
Rice’s recent, more dovish overtures.
French Foreign Minister Michel
Barnier proffered at a joint press con
ference “a new phase, a new sheet” in
Euro-American affairs. Using — oddly
appropriately — family therapy lan
guage, his program for revitalizing the
relationship called on both “to speak
and listen more to each other, and re
spect each other’s convictions.”
Right-of-center former French Pres
ident Valery Giscard d’Estaing offered
measured praise, hailing her talk the
“affirmation of a new line of Ameri
can foreign policy,” but pointed out
the difficulty of America’s ostensible
goal: “The main aim of America is to
see the spread of freedom, but that is
not enough to organize the world.”
Whether Rice’s visit guarantees a
new foreign policy more palatable to
Old Europe has yet to be seen: After
the (relative) unilateralism of the in
vasion of Iraq (and France’s and Ger
many’s disapproval), even paranoid
cynicism might be due. Europe and
the American public alike will get a
better taste of what international
(mis)adventures Bush’s second term
will hold when the president visits
Brussels this month.
If parliaments are as welcoming to fu
ture U.S. foreign policy efforts as diplo
mats have been to Rice’s overture, the
present appears to be a remarkable op
portunity to realign interests between
the world’s two most important eco
nomic powers, and one that the Bush
administration ought to embrace legiti
mately. (Much of Old Europe’s press re
mained more skeptical: In a BBC trans
lation, the French daily Liberation asked
whether the Bush administration has
“really undergone a strategic conversion
to the virtues of multilateralism and dia
logue [or if Rice’s speech is] a mere tac
tical adjustment resulting from his diffi
culties in Iraq.”)
A steadier Euro-American foreign
policy relationship might presage
more danger in the Middle East:
While the United States has busied it
self in Iraq, the European Union has
been the primary player in Iran’s nu
clear energy debacle. At best, the com
bined international pressure might el
bow the rogue state into dropping its
nuclear ambitions outright. But such
optimism, too, is best counterweight
ed by a healthy dose of cynicism.
traviswillse@dailyemerald.com
■ Guest commentary
Media cuts threaten independence
For more than a century, the Oregon
Daily Emerald and other student pub
lications have served students and the
University community well, both as vi
brant contributors to the campus and
by providing important learning expe
riences for student journalists. It is my
general policy to stay out of public de
bates about funding student publica
tions on campus, in order to protect
the independence of the publications
and of student government. However,
as both a journalism educator and as
a member of this community, I am
deeply concerned about recent ac
tions of the Programs Finance Com
mittee toward the Emerald and the
Oregon Commentator.
Independent student publications
make it possible for student journalists
to serve the campus community by act
ing as watchdogs for the public inter
est. At the same time, independent
student media are all to some degree
dependent on the financial support of
the organizations and individuals
whom they must aggressively investi
gate. This ambiguous position — true
of independent student media on every
campus — requires that funding
sources take special care to avoid
even the appearance of censorship.
Even when we do not approve of the
content of their speech, we must con
tinue to uphold and protect students’
right to speak.
The cutting of the Emerald’s budget
and the continued challenging of the
Commentator’s mission statement ap
pear to be based on disagreements
over the content of the publications.
If this is the case, the PFC is acting in
clear conflict with established
legal principals.
These publications do not have for
mal ties to the School of Journalism
and Communication, yet the opportu
nity to work on publications that are
truly student run is for many of our
students a defining part of their experi
ence at the University. Taking full re
sponsibility for the content of inde
pendent student publications is an
important lesson for student journal
ists. They must understand journalists’
legal and ethical obligations and expect
to be held to high standards.
When student journalists fall short
of our expectations, readers and ad
vertisers must hold them accountable
by means other than content-based
funding cuts that have the real poten
tial to chill all student speech on cam
pus. To do otherwise threatens the ex
istence of independent student media
at the University.
Tim Gleason is dean of the School of
Journalism and Communication
INBOX
Emerald blows Sunriver
'scandal' out of proportion
Am I the only one who thinks this
ASUO Sunriver “scandal” is complete
ly overblown? Normally, the pages of
the Emerald merely serve as a diver
sion on my way to the crossword puz
zle in the back, but I couldn’t help but
notice how much controversy was de
veloping around this completely nor
mal (and equally irrelevant) incident.
So a few University students drank
a few beers and took a few hits. Big
deal. I know they are elected officials
and should be role models and every
thing, but honestly, I’m glad that our
student senators are normal human
beings who partake in a few normal
human vices. The students elected
them, after all. Is it any surprise that
they behave the same way as those
who put them in office? You can retort
with all the idealistic rhetoric that you
want, but honestly, the events at Sun
river affected nobody except the
people who were there.
This relentless news coverage is
simply making things worse. The real
villain here is the uptight student who
has decided that this issue is his busi
ness. If the Emerald is looking for
something interesting to write about,
write an investigative article about the
repressed emotional trauma that
might drive a person to petition for
the ruination of his peers.
Evan Stewart
Undergraduate
OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY
Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to tettefs@daityemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office EMU Suite 300 Electronic
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■ Editorial
PFC hiatus
hints at
structural
revamping
It is a damn shame that a branch of our
student government needs to be disman
tled in order to ensure a fair budget hear
ing for campus publications, but here we
are. This delay is exactly what the doctor
ordered. The ASUO Constitution Court did
what needed to be done and they should
be commended for temporarily suspend
ing Programs Finance Committee mem
bers Eden Cortez, Dan Kieffer and Mason
Quiroz, leaving the PFC unable to contin
ue its monkey-business-as-usual.
The fact remains that these three mem
bers have admitted in public they are un
willing to maintain viewpoint neutrality.
They might as well have said, “We are un
fit to be in student government.” Their
performance during the Feb. 1 Oregon
Commentator budget hearing throws into
doubt every budgetary decision that has
been made by the PFC this year.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending
on how you look at it, the PFC will have to
revisit all of its funding decisions and
make some cuts, in order to meet their
benchmark. Hopefully they will analyze
the role their personal biases, either for or
against certain programs, played in their
decisions and attempt to apply a more fair
standard. This process should, of course,
be undertaken without the services of
Cortez, Kieffer and Quiroz.
In fact, Quiroz should never have been
let back to his post after denouncing the
PFC during the Feb. 1 hearing: “I don't
support this part of the branch of student
government anymore. ... I resign from my
position right now. You guys are sleeping
with the devil.” But it was he who brought
the fight for gender-identity sensitivity to
a budget process and warped it into a fight
for free speech. He has nobody to blame
but himself.
Recent comments by ASUO president
Adam Petkun has reassured us that the Com
mentator will survive this brouhaha one way
or another. We should now turn our attention
to creating structural change within student
government to ensure that we don’t have to
deal with this year after year.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Jennifer Sudick Steven R. Neuman
Editor in Chief Managing Editor
David Jagernauth Shadra Beesley
Commentary Editor Copy Chief
Adrienne Nelson
Online Editor
■ ’Security for toe Future' misstated
Rep, Peter DeFazio’s plan for Social Security reform,
DeFazio's plan would lift the cap on wages subject to
the payroll tax and would also offer an exemption
from the tax on the first $4,000 of wagas.
in Brian Smith's column on Wednesday, Smith used
quotes from a Feb. 8 column by ESPN’s David
Schoenfield that were attributed to an advance copy
of Jose Canseco's upcoming book, “Juiced ”
The quotes were later revealed to be falsified by
Schoenfield. in an initial version of his column,
Schoenfield made no reference to the quotes as a
hoax. The Feb. Sedition of the story included
mention that “’secured an advance copy,* was also
to be known as ‘makingtt up.’"
The Emerald regrets toe errors,