1988_05 The Daily Collegian May 1988

              Page 2  Monday, May 2,1988
Opinion
McCub's View
For the benefit of his biographers, President
Reagan demonstrates the management tech¬
nique he pioneered.
Reader
Response
to The Daily Collegian is welcome. Please
send letters of no more than 250 words to
The Daily Collegian, Keats Campus Build¬
ing California State University Fresno, Fres¬
no, California 93740-0042. Letters must be
signed and have the authur'y name, tele¬
phone number, and address.
■tC
No ethics?
Dear Editor,
Don't have a casual conversation with
Cael Weston or you, too, may find
yourself unwittingly quoted and mis¬
quoted in his editorial column. In his re¬
actionary, often misleading piece of AIDS
misinformation Weston includes quotes
lifted out of the context of an informal
conversation I had with him many weeks
ago. It was not an interview; he took no
notes, he said he was not looking for
quotes, he said he was only trying to ac¬
quire background knowledge about AIDS.
He lied.
There are those on this campus who
hold a low opinion of the Collegian. This
is not to say (hat all writers and editors
are bad, the good ones just get their repu¬
tations shot by irresponsible, unethical
writers like Weston. What he did goes
beyond the ethical practices of the jour¬
nalism profession. His actions are a re¬
flection on the Journalism Department,
the Media Council and editor and staff of
the paper, as well as on the university as
a whole, whose funding gives Weston the
privilege to voice his opinions. With
privilege comes responsibility, he did not
meet his.
Another responsibility of those privi¬
leged with a voice in media is to do their
homework so as to provide accurate in¬
formation. Weston did not do his. If he
had, he would have known that the federal
BLOOM COUNTY
government has stringent guidelines
which severely limit discussion of homo¬
sexuality in AIDS literature. The fault
does not lie with the people of CVAT,
who are bound by those regulations for
pobucal reasons, bui not, as Weston pur¬
ports, to protect the image of gay people.
It is lo protect the sensibilities of the Rea¬
gan Administration's right-wing constitu¬
ency and to promote their moral agenda.
I could attack every point of Weston's
reasoning, but there isn't space. Suffice il
to say that it as erroneous as his ethics
and his research.
\
Angela Welton
President GLSA
Get some spirit
Dear Editor,
Where I come from, spirit is a good-
natured attitude. Where 1 learned about
spirit, rudeness toward our competitors
was not tolerated—EVER. I do not be¬
lieve that throwing water balloons into a
crowd of people on an overcast day can be
construed as spirit To the residents of the
highly "spirited" South Commons, I
wish to make it clear that their conduct at
the Vintage Days Opening Ceremonies
was not spirited. Rather it was rude, in¬
considerate and immature. That's not
spirit, folks, that's poor s^wrtsmanship. .
Please set- LETTERS, page 3
by Berke Breathed
Proof that things
will never change
In a storage cabinet at the back of The
Daily Collegian office, among the
computer manuals, printer paper,
reporter's notebooks and photo supplies
are four or five years of bound Col¬
legians.
The newspapers date back to the Late
60s and early 70s. You can tell when they
were published by the peace signs in the
'o' of Collegian, the people in pictures
wearing knee-high boots with shorts and
shirts with wide collars and, of course,
the date at the comer of every page.
I am fascinated by old newspapers. I
can hear several journalism professors
chanting something to the effect, "There
is nothing older than yesterday's news."
It's true; news has a shelf-life of about
one day.
But old news is interesting news. Il
gives you a little bit of history without
the history book. There is a superior
feeling that comes with the benefit of
hindsight.
I was reading the editorial pages of
1971. They used to have ads on the
opinion page, something that isn't
commonly done.
My favorite ad had the names Spiro
Agnew, Martha Mitchell. Hubert
Humphrey and Ronald Reagan in bold
print above the words "None of the above
have ever lived in our apartments" and a
phone number. I'd live in an apartment
complex that had that to offer. The ad Is
probably funnier to me today than it
would have been to the reader toW?I. I
know some of what eventually happened
to these people.
In 1971 Ronald Reagan was governor,
Richard Nixon was president, CSUF was
still Fresno State College and most of us
were in the early years of grammar
school.
Now, Richard Nixon is suggesting that
John Poindexter and Oliver North should,
like him, be pardoned; Spiro Agnew
wrote a book and became an international
trade consultant; Hubert Humphrey is
dead; Martha Mitchell is still Martha
Mitchell, and Ronald Reagan is president
Ronald Reagan is president Kind of
gets you right there {clutch hean area),
doesn't it? There is an editorial (one of
many) against "Governor Ronnie" in the
October 13. 1971 issue of The Daily
Collegian. Apparently, Reagan, with his
usual eloquence, dropped a comment or
two while on lour of Southeast Asia.
Reagan said, according to the editorial.
"he felt that criticism of the recent one-
man election of [South Vietnam]
President Thieu had been overplayed.
After all, said Reagan, 'If you're going to
get worked up about South Vietnam
having a one-man election, I don't recall
any similar comment about the fact thai
the only election ever held in North
Vietnam was a one-man election for Ho
Chi Minn."'
The 1971 editorial went on to point
out the fact that North Vietnam was a
communist country and that it is typical
for the communists to have one-man
elections. A democratic election, one that
more than 50,000 Americans died for,
should not be a one-man show.
Ronnie, as he is affectionately referred
to throughout the editorial, mentioned
several other countries that had one-man
elections which the press did not cover
extensively. When a reporter said "thai
perhaps the reason for the lack of pub¬
licity was the fact that Americans were
not fighting in those countries, Ronnie
chuckled and said, 'No, and I doubt if we
will be in the foreseeable future."'
Yes, Reagan-speak was alive and well
in Lhe early 70s—answer that question,
but don't answer it
Our president never did like the press
and its annoying habit of pointing out
how the U.S. government's version of
democracy isn't quite what il should be.
Reagan's attitude that good news is the
only news that should be printed hasn't
changed since his days as governor. His
actions suggest that the press should
mind its own business, but he forgets
(among other things) what a newspaper's
business is.
The editorial ends with "We won't be
fooled again." This last line is directed ai
the supposed fight for democracy in
South Vietnam and at Ronald Reagan.
Unfortunately, we have been fooled
again. The U.S. has been involved with
countries or fractions within countries in
alleged fights for democracy.
Our government has lied to us, taken
the law into its own hands and
circumvented Congress. The Reagan era
has its heroes in an Ollie North and a
shredding machine. There has been a
parade of indictments for members of the
administration.
But the biggest bit of wool that has
been pulled over our eyes at election time
is Ronald Reagan, and he's done il twice.
JoAnn Baltau's column appears every
Monday in The Daily Collegian.
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The Daily Collegian
JoAnn Baltau - Editor in Chief
Lisa Kim Bach - Managing Editor
Tracy Correa - News Editor
Anna Daza - Copy Editor
Sharon Kuan - Ad Manager
Kenny Low - Business Manager
Jon Matsune - Sports Editor
Kurt Hegre - Photo Editor
Richard McCue - Staff Artist
Rob Evans - Graphics Editor
Susie Tombs - Ad Production Mpr.
Jeff Markarian - Asst. Business Mgr.
T. James Madison - Entertainment Editor
Staff Writers -  Jana Lee Briscoe, Christopher Dougan/Dina Douglass,
Barry Grove, Lois Henry, Kendall Kerr, Maryann Milligan, Linh Nguyen,
Diane Oleson, Angela Valdivia, Jennifer Whireley
Sports Writers - Steve Fountain, Lee Passmore, JimProulx, Brian Veneski
Photographers - Mark Mirko, Akemi Miyama, Lane Turner
Advertising Reps - Eric Anderson, Jeff Bauman, Roderick Chow, Tony
Martin, Dave Spencer
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