THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2008
NEWS
3A
MEDIA
Renowned journalist accepts award
Seymour Hersi visits campus today to accept the William Allen White award for excellence in journalism. Hersis is known for breaking the Abu Grab story in The New Yorker in 2004.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
BY FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
fchambers@kansan.com
Seymour Hersh, the journalist who exposed the torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, visits campus today to accept the William Allen White award for excellence in journalism. Hersh will receive the award at 1:30 p.m. this afternoon in Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
Hersh, who broke the Abu Ghraib story in The New Yorker in 2004, said he was not surprised by the scandal. He also said he was not the only reporter who knew about Abu Ghraib, though he was the first to report it.
"There was no moral leadership at all from the president. In 2001 he said we're going to invite them out of their snake holes," Hersh said. "Reporters limit themselves. I can guarantee I was not the first person to hear about Abu Ghraib. Any reporter had to know. It was so bad that the woman was sending messages home telling her family to come to the prison and kill them."
Ann Brill, dean of journalism, said Hersh was not receiving the award for exposing Abu Ghraib, but for his lifetime achievements. Abu Ghraib was not the first controversy that Hersh exposed. Hersh earned the Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for his article on the My Lai massacre and cover-up that took place during the Vietnam War. Hersh said other reporters knew about My Lai but they chose to censor themselves.
Sureva Towler, a Lawrence resident who was neighbors with Hersh in Washington D.C., said Hersh was incredibly opinionated, but that he was usually right.
"Sy is a class act. Sy calls him like he sees him." Towler said. "He is one of the most honest people I have ever met. He serves the profession well, better than most reporters these days. He couldn't not be controversial if he tried."
Towler, who is a columnist for the Denver Post and commutes between Colorado and Kansas, said one her favorite Hersh memories occurred when her daughter was about 10 years old. Towler said her daughter had just come home from school and was holding a history book. She said Hersh grabbed it, turned to the page about the Vietnam War, swore and threw the
book into the sewer.
"That makes a big impression on kids," Towler said. "I think it made a thinker out of her."
Towler said Hersh was a good friend of hers and they talked regularly but that she had not seen him in 10 years. She said she was looking forward to asking Hersh what he thought Karl Rove was doing lately.
"I don't trust him. I haven't heard from him lately and that makes me very nervous because he operates behind the scenes, and I don't know what scenes he's operating behind," Towler said.
Brill said a board of 72 trustees decided who would win the William Allen White Award for the following year each spring. She said Hersh has been on the ballot several times before.
Brill said she asked Hersh in August, on a visit to Washington D.C., if he would come to the University of Kansas and accept the award. Brill said Hersh told her he has had a lot of invitations to speak this year and that he was focusing on college campuses.
Hersh's visit to the University is not his first to the area. In 1962 Hersch worked on Fort Riley's base newspaper while he was in the Army. Hersch said the Army was not for him, and so he pursued a career in journalism instead. Before he began regularly contributing to The New Yorker, Hersch worked at The New York Times. Hersh left the Times in 1979. He also published eight books, including his most recent book, "Chain of Command," which is about his role in exposing Abu Ghraib.
Next week, Hersh's latest article,
"A Strike in the Dark: Why did
Israel bomb Syria?" will appear in
The New Yorker. The article, which
is already available online, criticizes
newspapers' reports of an Israeli raid on Syria in September 2007.
Hersh's article claimed there was no solid evidence of an ongoing nuclear-weapons program in Syria and thus the attack was unwarranted. Hersh said reports by the United States government and other major newspapers, like the Washington Post, incorrectly described the incident.
"The whole principle of a nation bombing another nation and we say what they did was an act of
war, that's an outrage," Hersh said.
"Who are we to help the Israelis do that? I don't like that in the first place."
Hersh said other news outlets printed the information they were given without further investigating the matter. He said these newspapers were used to spread the incorrect account. Hersh said journalists needed to think about who was using them, and why, before they print an article. He said he knew the article was complicated, and that it would be several days before most people read it, but that he preferred this form of journalism more than writing for a daily newspaper.
"The nice thing about the New Yorker is that it has over a million readers," Hersh said. "It does have
juice and it doesn't matter when you do a story. It's much harder than writing a story and saying George Bush is a dumbie."
Hersh said he was unsure what he would speak about at the ceremony, but that he generally talked about what is on his mind. He said he has done speeches where he teaches people how to read that day's newspaper.
"Just because it's in the newspaper does not make it right," Hersh said. "We're probably in the biggest danger we have been in as a nation. I'm not sure if Bush lied, but what he did was knowingly wrong. Unraveling that is a really important message."
— Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird
》 STUDENT SENATE
Finance committee votes on several bills
BY BRENNA HAWLEY
bhawley@kansan.com
Student Senate committees met last night after rescheduling because of the snow day. Legislation moves through committees before being presented at full Senate, which will meet next Wednesday.
GROUPS MAY BE GIVEN FREE ADVERTISING
The finance committee passed a bill that, if passed in Senate, will allow student organizations that have selective membership to advertise events open to all students in Senate's space in the University Daily
Kansan.
Senate's Student Advertising Program purchases advertising space three times a week. Currently, only groups that allow membership of all students can advertise in this space. Groups that require an application process, auditions or have selective admissions - like performing arts organizations, scholarship halls and Greek organizations - would be allowed to advertise events they are hosting that are open to all students.
Adam McGonigle, the bill's author and Wichita sophomore, said the advertising space was being underutilized. He said some groups are running multiple ads to fill the space.
should be using it," McGonigle said.
"If we're paying for the space, we
Finance committee members voted to attach an amendment to the bill that would give student organizations that are open to all students priority over selective membership groups, if the advertising space is full. There are 16 available spots in the ad.
The finance committee tabled a bill written by transportation coordinator May Davis, Clay Center sophomore, that would reallocate campus transportation fees to help with KU on Wheels' budget deficit.
BILLWOULD HELP EASE KU ON WHEELS DEBT
Currently, students pay $20 in bus acquisition fees and $18.70 in bus operations fees yearly. The bill would lower the bus acquisition fee to $17 and raise the bus operations fee to $21.70. This fee adjustment would only be for this fiscal year.
The shift in fees would slow down the bus acquisition process by one year, but the current rate of purchasing buses would continue until the final year. Repositioning $3 to the bus operations fee would allow KU on Wheels to pay off $135,000 of its debt.
The bill was tabled until the next finance committee meeting on Feb. 20, when more information regarding the budget would be available.
What big teeth you have!
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Warrensburg-Latham Elementary School student Briana Chambers jumps as she sees a T-Rex skull at the Dino Discovery program at her school Thursday. The traveling program gives school children an up close look at the lives of the pre-historic beasts that once roamed the planet.
EVENTS
InDecision 2008 tours campuses
fchambers@kansan.com
BY FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
Comedian Greg Giraldo will perform at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Lied Center as part of Comedy Central's InDecision 2008 tour. James Adomian, who is best known for his impressions of President George W. Bush, will also perform.
Shawn Bowers, director of public relations for Student Union Activities, said SUA purposefully
scheduled the event during the week of Kansas' caucuses.
"We figure this way we can serve everyone." Bowers said. "For the people who have been caucusing hard
Giraldo
this week, they can use this as a bit of political catharsis. For the people who are weary of political everything, here's a chance to take it a hell of a lot less seriously for an evening."
Bowers said SUA had looked at bringing the Comedy Central tour, which is always changing, to campus last semester, but that it was unable to do so. He said SUAs previous attempt to bring a Comedy Central tour to campus influenced SUAs decision to pursue the InDecision tour, but the tour's popularity on college campuses was a factor as well.
In 2006, Giraldo hosted his own stand-up comedy show on Comedy Central. In the past he also appeared on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and Comedy Central Roasts, Giraldo also contributes regularly to Carson Daly's Last Call. Giraldo is best known for his stand-up comedy, but Giraldo also released a popular comedic song "Underwear Goes Inside the Pants" in 2004. Giraldo said he had a CD coming out this
fall.
Giraldo said in the future he hopes to extend his career into film.
Giraldo said he had performed in Lawrence one time before about two years ago. He said he enjoyed his visit and he especially enjoyed staying at the Elderidge Hotel.
"What I am hoping to do long term is kind of more what I'm doing right now. Telling comedic stories and hopefully doing that in film," Galrado said. "Woody Allen really appeals to me. Steve Martin really appeals to me."
Andrew Berry, Topeka junior said he is looking forward to the InDecision tour more than he has looked forward to previous Comedy Central tours that have performed at the University because of Giraldo's intelligence.
FUNDS MAY
AID CONFERENCE
"Over the years I've gotten many many bookings in the Midwest during the winter," Giraldo said. "I try not to make people feel much worse about it sucking, but I try not to hit the Midwest in the winter. I love the fall and spring Midwest the most."
The finance committee voted to fund the Blueprints Leadership Conference. If passed in full Senate, the bill would fund the conference's speaker with $1,325.
"I think its pretty cool that they got a smart guy like him instead of someone like Carlos Mencia," Berry said. "The guy is a Harvard Law grad, I'm sure he'll have some interesting stuff to say."
Tickets to the performance can be obtained at the SUA Box Office on Level 4 of the Kansas Union, the Lied Center box office, the Murphy Hall box office and at the Alied Center's Web site. Tickets are free for Preferred Student Card holders and are $5 for students. Non-students can purchase tickets for $7.
Molly Bloedel, Winfield freshman, said she was glad SUA was bringing the InDecision tour to campus because she hoped Giraldo would be able to interest students in the upcoming presidential election.
Peter Curzon, ExCEL winner and Phoenix, Ariz., senior, said this would be the 23rd annual leadership conference.
Edited by Samuel Lamb
"We will be developing skills for emerging leaders and honing the
skills of existing ones," Curzon said.
skills of existing clients, Curzon said.
The conference is expected to have 70 to 100 attendees. Dr. Amy Schmisseur will be the opening speaker who will set the theme of the conference. Different leadership activities will follow her speech.
The conference is 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 23 in the Kansas Union. Applications are due by Feb. 15.
Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird
NATION Obama and Clinton debate for delegates, money
NEW ORLEANS — Battling for every dollar and delegate, Barack Obama raised $7.2 million in Super Tuesday's wake and Hillary Rodham Clinton pulled in $6.4 million, stunning totals reflecting the intensity of their neck-and-neck
for delegates, money
Keenly aware of Obama's growing strength, Clinton challenged him to five debates in the next month. Obama put her off.
"We'll have some debates," Obama promised. But first, he said, "I've got to spend time with voters." Clinton, he argued, is better-known to voters in states coming up.
race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton, who loaned her campaign $5 million in the run-up to Super Tuesday, brushed aside the notion she has money problems. She pointed to the roughly even split of delegates still being allocated from Tuesday's primaries and caucuses as evidence her campaign has the financial muscle to compete.
Associated Press
WATERWAY
CARWASH
MANAGEMENT CAREERS AND INTERNSHIPS
ALL JUNIORS AND SENIORS
ON CAMPUS INTERVIEWS FOR MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
MANAGEMENT INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
Come meet Waterway Representatives at the KU Spring Career Fair – February 12th and 13th
Waterway of Kansas City will be conducting on campus interviews Thursday, March 4th in the Business Career Services Center