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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1996)
2 The Clackamas Print Wednesday, January Letters to the Editor Campaign ads become childish as race nears end Letters to the Editor need to be turned in by 1 p.m. on the Friday before publica tion. All letters need to be signed. Letters should be 500 words or less. Send to the Print at: e-mail: CCCprint@clackamas.cc.or.us phone: 657-6958 ext. 2309 Fax Number: 655-5153 Our address is: Clackamas Community College, 19600 S. Molalla Avenue, Oregon City, Oregon, 97045; Barlow 104; (503) 657-6958, ext. 2309. The Print reserves the right to not print Letters to the Editor. Media shies away from unpopular candidates Karin Redston Staff Writer With all of the negative cam paigning in the senate race by Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith, can didates from other parties have had little, if any, media coverage. According to the State of Oregon’s voting pamphlet, there are six parties providing candi dates for former Senator Packwood’s seat. They are the American Party, the Democratic Party, the Libertarian Party, the Pacific Party, the Republican Party, and the Socialist Party. All but two parties are, for the most part, excluded from media cover age. In a country whose constitu tion guarantees a multi-party sys tem, the Democrats and the Re publicans have maneuvered to eliminate any chance of partici pation by other parties. The closest anyone has come to establishing a successful third party has been Ross Perot. The disturbing part about this situation is that the media has strongly supported this estab lished system. Mass media has always claimed to be speaking for the people but, in reality, it tends to represent the views of the few. They represent the views of the wealthy few who own the various newspapers, radio and television stations. Media coverage or lack of it has made or broken candi dates running for office. Ideally, journalists are objec tive and non-biased. In reality, this is not the case. Lack of re porting of smaller political par ties, not allowing all candidates to debate the issues and endorse ments of candidates have put the media in a very powerful position. Major corporations have bought out major networks and radio stations and have systemati cally terminated those who do not agree with their corporate point of view. The last few years have seen many radio announcers, newspa per reporters and television news casters out of work because they did not follow the corporate line. Any party, no matter what the size deserves the right to be heard. This includes fair debates and equal news time and coverage. Journalists have a responsibility to report as fairly and as accu rately as possible. To exclude any party is bias and this Oregon senate election has been anything but fair to the candidates and to the United States electoral process. The Clackamas Print Staff Editor-in-Chief: Chad Patteson (Ext. 2576) Managing Editor: Amy K. Hanson (Ext. 2576) Feature Editor: Jon Roberts (Ext. 2578) Sports Editor: Jesse Sowa (Ext. 2578) Photography Editor: Josh Kehler (Ext. 2578) Copy Editor: Vicki Welch (Ext. 2578) Opinion Editor: Brendon Neal (Ext. 2576) Business Manager: Cori Kargel (Ext. 2578) Assistant Opinion Editor: Ryan Humphris (Ext. 2309) Assistant Feature Editor: Brad Zimmerman (Ext. 2309) Assistant Photo Editor: Lora Wahrgren (Ext. 2578) News Editor: Pamela Sirianni (Ext. 2309) ♦ ♦♦♦ Staff Writers/Photographers: Eric Eatherton, Megan Friedow, Andrew Beck, Laney Fouse, Damon Fouts, Tarah Nimz, Karin Redston, Joel Shempert Cartoonist: Joel Gunderson Secretary: Joanne Gale (Ext. 2309) Advisor : Linda Vogt (Ext. 2310) The Clackamas Print aims to report the news in an honest, unbiased, professional manner. The opinions expressed in The Clackamas Print do not necessarily reflect those of the student body, college administration, its faculty or The Clackamas Print's advertisers. Products and services adver tised in The Clackamas Print are not necessarily endorsed by anyone associ ated with The Clackamas Print. The Clackamas Print is a weekly publica tion distributed every Wednesday except for finals week. The advertising rate is $4.50 per column inch. . Clackamas Community College, 19600 S. Molalla Avenue, Oregon City, brègbh,^704f,-Bàrtò*3104; (50316^7-6958,‘éxt. 2309.1,111 7 * * * ? c » E-mail: cccprint@dackanuin^d«>r4ik '>‘-11 • !«>( «1»« Brendon Neal, Opinion Editor and Brad Zimmerman, Assistant Feature Editor The current senate race be tween Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith has broken down into a mudslinging contest. Almost all political cam paigning eventually degrades into candidates insulting their opponents, with complaints be coming more frivolous as elec tion time arrives. However, this is one of the worst state cam paigns in many years. Claims include wasting tax dollars on cleaning up pollution caused by his company (Smith); untrustworthy (Wyden), being a career politician (Wyden) and many other insults, with more sure to come. An unusually severe case of mudslinging came into the me dia spotlight on Jan. 9. The Teamsters Union put out a ra dio ad against Gorden Smith. It indicated that several deaths and injuries at his business were caused by bad working condi tions. Wyden wouldn’t even condone it. He has asked the Teamsters to remove it, but they said no for now, saying that they would take his complaint into consideration. Do these commercials work to the voters’ advantage? Does knowing all the distorted truths about the politicians’ past give us If voters keep listening to and accepting these commer cials politicians won’t ever change their ways. ------------------- 95 a better idea as to what they will or won’t do for Oregon if they are elected? If the information was backed by fact and published by someone other than their oppo sition, it might help, but not the answer to the above questions is no, as is. The information is un substantiated and appears to be name calling. They raise anger and confusion in the viewers by taking subjects such as environ ment, use of taxes, without giv ing the hard facts on politicians. We would like to see fewer commercials overall. And those that would run should have “pure” fact, with sources cited, dealing with their past politi cal activities. People do things that they shouldn’t, but it doesn’t necessarily make them bad politicians. More often the claims against them hurt their effectiveness rather than what they actually did. What we need to know about, is what they have stood for in their last term in office, or at least no more than six years. A real danger of current po litical advertising is the loss of potential candidates. People with skeletons in their closets, even minor ones, are often afraid to run. Voters need to convince candidates that their mud sling ing doesn’t work. This is espe cially true in a Senate race like this one where the two major candidates are tied in the polls. If voters keep listening to and accepting these commer cials, politicians won’t ever change their ways. We need to encourage candidates to give us what we want before they are elected as well as after. Voters need to take a hand in nation’s future Ryan Humphris Assistant Opinion Editor Leave it up to our govern ment to screw up again. The Christmas present our country re ceived was, yes, another Federal shutdown. Why this surprises me, I do not know. The Republicans and Democrats are up to their old tricks again, never seeming to -agree on anything. But, in fact, they have agreed to become egg heads. Clinton should realize that Dole and Gingrich are not mak ing any tremendous effort to con form to his wishes; the same goes for Dole and Gingrich when it comes to Clinton. Clinton basi cally has his head so full of bu reaucratic bullsh** that it has clouded his judgment. In our last senate election, Clinton lost his backing in Con gress to a majority of freshman Republicans. Knowing this, Clinton needs to make the deci sion to agree to disagree. If our people voted in more Republicans than Democrats, then this must mean they would rather have the Republicans’ way of thinking representing us in decisions concerning our country. The thought of having right wing conservatives running our country makes me sick. How can so many people be so anal-reten tive as to think that our country doesn’t need any help? ' I see plenty of people walk ing the streets, kids dropping out of school, and have experienced enough drive-by shootings to re alize that we need to help our selves before we can help others. The President sending our troops to Bosnia may have been a good idea to some; but in my opinion, for us to honestly think hate that began hundreds of years ago can be stopped in just under a year is ludicrous. I n - stead of using money to deploy our troops in Bosnia, we should use it to educate our citizens. If Clinton and Congress would like to make our country better, then they should start by taking care of us. Granted, everything usually does get blown out of proportion through media and “he-said, she- said” information. But, come on, this is our country we are talking about here. | know, the one our forefathers gave their lives to create. I honestly do not think this is what they had in mind when writing our Declaration of Inde pendence. As students of CCC, and the next generation to run our coun try, we need to take it upon our selves to rekindle the drive that once made our country great. Get involved in what is going on in our Oval Office and Senate steam rooms. Don’t let our country go to waste. Vote in our Senate election by Jan. 30 and also let your voices be heard in the presidential cam paign. Do not just vote for who your parents or friends tell you to vote for. At least give each candidate ^seeondglance; find out what they are really about before you decide.
