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Tuesday, March 2, 1976
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN Comment
Opinions on this page reflect only the view of the writer
LBJ led astray again
So it seems Lyndon Johnson got the wool pulled over his eyes during the Vietnam war.
Not that it should come as a surprise to many of us, but Johnson was so willing to believe his generals that he often was led (or went) astray. But rarely, perhaps, in as ludicrous a manner as was reported last week.
Johnson was a very emotional as well as explosive personality. When he made a hasty decision in 1968 to see off a group of Vietnam-bound soldiers from Ft. Bragg, N.C., Brig. Gen. Donald Blackburn couldn't let him down.
THEERE WERE just a few snags in the general's plans. The next battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division to leave was having a beer-blast and barbecue, and taking part in a parade of half-soused soldiers give Johnson their real views of heading off to the war.
So the army did what it knows best—it staged a camouflaged operation. Blackburn rounded up a battalion from the division's other infantry unit, and the departing troops. As the bewildered troops stood at attention, Johnson bade them farewell.
MANY OF THE men had just returned from Vietnam and many others had never had to suffer that hell. But Johnson shook their hands "like an evangelist welcoming newly baptised men into the group to another as though he were trying to pump every hand in Austin only 15 minutes before the election."
The con game had been set up so quickly that some of the soldiers hadn't been let in on the secret. Some of the men weren't so sure that Johnson's heart-wringing speech about heading off to Vietnam wasn't really meant for
them. And when Johnson boarded the rear ramp of one of the planes, Blackburn ran aboard through the front door and warned "Men, not a Goddamned word except, Thank you, Mr. President!"
JOHNSON WENT to his grave never knowing that he shook the hands of a group of impostors. And perhaps many of the soldiers in that real 28nd Airborne Brigade went to their graves never knowing that they were to have shook Johnson's hand, and probably never caring.
Johnson had plenty of other problems with Vietnam and many of them can be traced to this same basic fault: the unwillingness to face the truth—to play it straight with either the Americans or the Vietnamese. Blackburn was so busy saving face that he allowed a whole battalion of soldiers to be camouflaged and "sent off" to a holding pattern until Air Force One had gone. By God, the President would get what he expected from the 82nd Airborne.
SO THE PRESIDENT and the people got what they expected for many years: false casualty reports, exaggerated victory predictions, and hidden massacres. Vietnam became a glorious battle for "the best and the brightest." There, as at Ft. Bragg, the real war was to save face—not people.
Of course, Blackburn's decision was the best all the way around. He didn't have to account for his rowdy troops, the impostors weren't inexorably damaged and they were very close to him, the knowledge that he had done his part to send the troops off to war.
And the troops? Well, many of them simply died. By Betty Hagelin
The times are certainly changing.
NONE OF THIS is very surprising. After all, Massachusetts Gov. George McGovern managed to carry in 1972. The surprising thing is that none of these liberal Democrats are leading in Massachusetts. He is leading in George C. Wallace of Alabam.
take massachusetts, for example; good old liberal Massachusetts of the Kennedy and Harvard. Massachusetts is having its presidential primary day, period, the spotlight is on the Democrats. Both Republican candidates pretty much called Massachusetts a draw and rolled their bandwagons elsewhere. The state has been the site of heavy campaigning across the country who are trying to get their campers off the ground.
Wallace rolls on busing
Last week's polls indicated that nearly 20 per cent of the state's voters were leaning towards Wallace. Some politicians there are predicting he will end up losing 25 percent, Conyers notes. Converting the number of candidates on the ballot in the Democratic primary, 25 per cent could very easily mean a plurality.
On the Primary Trail
MASSACHUSETTS IS an ideal primary state for Wallace because he has everything to offer. He only ends up with 10 per cent of the vote, it won't really hurt him. Massachusetts has a well-deserved liberal reputation and people expect Wallace to do well.
But if Wallace does get 25 per cent and a plurality, there are going to be a lot of very sur-
WASHINGTON — Forty-four federal judges recently filed an ingenious lawsuit, seeking to collect back pay. If a first-year law student had dreamed up this inspired petition, his professors would have hurled the smart aleck into the
Judges file ingenious suit
paid under protest on his $6,000 salary.
Massachusetts is also the ideal primary state for Wallace because of its rather high unemployment, its frustrated middle class and, of course, busing.
prised and very impressed politicians in this country. There are also going to be a lot of very worried people.
And if he goes into the convention this summer with one quarter of the delegates, and the affair starts turning into a multi-ballot marathon, he may have even more influence.
Most of the other Democrats are campaigning hard in Massachusetts. They are doing this because for them, unlike Wallace, a bad massachusetts showing could be fatal.
FOR CARTER, the semifront runner, the only directions he can go are straight across or down. People are expecting more things from him now and what would have been a good percentage a couple of weeks earlier is not. To maintain his momentum, he has to finish first or, at worst, a close second.
For Henry Jackson, it's time to prove there are enough voters in the ideological gap between Wallace and Jimmy Carter to make him a viable candidate. Jackson long ago worked effectively with working with politicians, lobbyists and bills. He has yet to establish himself as a vote-getter.
Maybe busing isn't helping Wallace as much as some people might think, but it certainly isn't hurting him.
MOST MASSACHUSETTS voters deny busing will
The odds are still very much against Wallace ever getting the nomination. Too many of his friends for that to occur. The odds that
be's going to have quite a bit to say about who does get the nomination, however, are very good.
government and pointy-headed bureaucrats.
HE'S ALREADY influencing what the other politicians are saying. More and more of them are realizing what Wallace realized years ago; that the middle class is disillusioned and generally fed up. He is no longer the only one talking about big
Udall, like Carter, needs to maintain what slight
REGARDLESS OF WHETHER Wallace wins, Massachusetts is still going to be an important primary. It is certainly more important than New Hampshire. And Massachusetts have many more delegates (104 to New Hampshire's 17 for the Democrats, 43 to New Hampshire's 27 for the Republicans) in state in which almost all the Democrats have campaigned hard.
Udall for a second straight time could be a crippling blow. Florida and North Carolina are the next primary states and neither of them seems fertile ground for a Bayh comeback.
For Sargent Shriver, this is his one big shot. If his Kennedy connections don't work here, where they have been exploited to the fullest, they're not going to work anywhere. If he doesn't make a respectable shewing, it's all over.
Jackson said at the risk of cutting his own throat, "Everyone seems to be going for broke in Massachusetts and for good reason. This has led to a lot of primary- the one that separates the men from the boys."
At least one Democrat should give up the ghost in Massachusetts, and maybe as many as three will.
momentum he has. A slip would put him right back where he was before he managed to finish second in New Hampshire.
determine how they vote, but the issue is there nevertheless. It remains a political sore spot and a symbol of the whole state-carrying big government Wallace says he's against.
Jackson, like Bayh and Shriver and Carter and Udall, is just hoping he doesn't turn out to be one of the boys. Wallace just talks a lot about the Massachusetts liberal tradition and how it isn't really Wallace country. We'll see.
$40,000 to $40,000; this was further increased to $12,000 last fall. Judges pay nothing toward a retirement program that permits them to retire at 65 with full pay after only 15 years on the bench. The program reportedly is equal to an annuity of $200,000.
By Jim Bates Contributing Writer
suggest that the independence of the judiciary is impeded by inflation. If this novel theory had merit, any citizen might file a Fifth Amendment claim on the grounds that he had been deprived of property without the prosecution. The third murderer’s opinion, the complaining judges are “trivializing” a great clause.
FOR 19 YEARS, federal judges paid no income tax. Then in 1939, in a brief opinion by Justice Felix Frankforter, the Court summarily overturned Evans's ruling to judges a general tax, said Frankforter, "is merely to recognize that judges are also citizens, and that their particular function in government is to protect citizens from sharing with their fellow citizens the material burden of the government whose Constitution and laws they are charged with administering" The diminution clause, stated in Evans's ruling, implies diminution by Congress. It is absurd to
IT IS A pretty theory for an ancient clause. The quoted provision evokes the Declaration of Independence itself, which charged that King James II "dependent on his will allot the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries." The independence of the judiciary could be severely damaged if an ill-tempered Congress could threaten to whack the judges' salaries by half or two-thirds.
IT IS PROBABLY true that most of the 650 federal judges could earn higher incomes in private practice, but it is notable that only seven have been convicted of a serious reason. The bench has not been treated badly. The district judges got a raise in 1969 from
The issue has been litigated off and on for many years. The most important case, even though it later was overturned, arose in 1920, a few years after ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment. Then a federal judge in Kentucky, Walter Evans, sued the acting tax collector to recover the federal income tax he had
By James J. Kilpatrick
It is evident, as the suit insists, that between 1969 and 1975, their $40,000 salaries diminished in value. Every other person on a fixed income was in the same boat. The boat was used to cover it cruising, lies not with fellow judges and giddy constructions, but with the conscience of the Congress.
streets—but they might have given him an A for imagination first.
spread-eagle opinion, the Supreme Court voted 8-1 to uphold Judge Evans' claim
So they gave Judge Evans his $180 back.
Van Deventer was given to writing rich purple prose. He found it very plain "that the primary purpose of the prohibition against diminution is not to benefit the judges, but, like the clause in respect to the justice attached to competent men to the bench, and to promote that independence of action and judgment which is essential to the maintenance of the guaranes, limitations, and pervading principles of the Constitution, and to promote that freedom without regard to persons, and with equal concern for the poor and the rich."
The case turns on a provision in Article III of the Constitution. This says that federal judges shall hold their offices during the term of office, stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office, and that by reason of inflation, which has diminished the purchasing power of every dollar, the judges' composition has effectively diminished. And this The Constitution forbids.
W $ \sqrt{5} $ DPHAL
'QUICK, HIDE THIS FOR ANOTHER FOUR YEARS!'
Happy talk news lifts ratings
You've had a hard day. You sit back with a can of beer and turn on your television for the local evening news. There's a huge scoreboard with a 67 haunted house and cheerleaders yelling, and reporters in the background throwing confetti.
The handsome, young anchorman smiles and says,
"Howdy folks, this is Ted
you have a new addition to the family. How about a cigar, Ted?"
This may seem exaggerated, but many local news shows aren't far from it.
Whether you call it happy talk news or eyewitness news, the shifting emphasis toward entertainment is running rampant in TV newsrooms across the country. The reason is simple.
By John Jobston Contributing Writer
Sullivan with the Channel Eight Happy Talk News. As you all can see, Kansas City chalked up its sixty-seven homicide of the year today, and that puts us head of last year's record pace."
"GEE, TEDDY, that's really
says, says the chubby little
weatherman." "By the way
the little woman, I hear
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and that reason is ratings. As everyone knows, ratings mean money.
The Kuwaitese university leaves the old, but interesting school of business, dressed sharply and with an academic pedigree. All Alibrars adhere to rote learning and condemnation. The school also adheres to the school's dress code. NC students must provide their name, address, phone number, and faculty provide their name and address, and provide their name and address.
Most important, the anchorman must be young and handsome. It's difficult to imagine Walter Clintonite giving a job with one of these people, but he got some talent, but he's over 40 and doesn't have a full head of dark, hairy hair.
In the past few years more and more alluring stations have called on the services of broadcast news consultants to help improve their ratings. In 2014, they called news doctors, conduct extensive audience research to find out just what the consumer wants. Then the doctors prescribe changes in such things as theme music, stage lighting, and content. More often than not, prescription seems to call for happy talk news.
more entertaining. The personalities of the reporters often seem to be more important than their skills. More and more stations try to fit the reporters into a formula.
THE WORK of a news doctor can often do wonders for a journalist. More concise, improving the film work and adding relevant consumer interest features, the program can be greatly improved.
Despite all of the criticism about wasting air time telling jokes and fooling around, statistics indicate that people talk format present just as much hard news as the conventional stations.
Many critics say the changes are generally cosmetic and serve only to make the show
Three researchers published a study in the Summer 1975 issue of Journalism Quarterly titled "Television Journalism v. WBC," an analysis of Eyewitness News." The research compared the content of WABC, WCBS, and WNBIC in New York. The ABC affiliate uses this happy talk use rogs traditional formats.
THE RESEARCHERS discovered that the happy talk more hard news than the other stations. The study also showed that WABC only averaged about 15 percent of talk interaction per talk interaction.
HOWEY, HE would have shot at a job as a weatherman. The eyewitness news stations seem to like "real people" These are the celebrities who the senior citizens learn to love.
to up this point the critics seem to be on shaky ground, but when the study gets to the subject of violence the
eyewitness teams tailed up to their billing. WABC spent one-third more time on violent crimes than twice as much as WNBC.
"This difference is best illustrated by the treatment the three stations gave to Sen. Walter Mondale's investigation into child abuse." write the researchers. "WABC spent 3:45 on the story and featured particularly gory photographs of battered children. WCBs spent half as long on the story and didn't use the pictures; WNBC ignored the story entirely."
THERE'S OBVIOUSLY a place for violence in the news. Violence is a part of society and can't be ignored for only "good
When you examine the content of eyewitness news you begin to wonder whether the audience is really being served. If blood and guts are what the detectives see, they need watching the detectives who rule prime time television.
news." But the news value of a fire or a murder has to be put into perspective. Did the fire simply provide more vivid film footage than the story in a movie? The judgement is being exercised when day after day shootings and fires are the lead stories?
IN A DISCUSSION of their findings the researchers write, "From its inception, TV journalism has been torn between being informative while entertaining at the same time. The problem with trying to fulfill both these goals at once is nowhere more apparent than in a situation where an emphasis on the violent, the humorous and the emotional represents a shift toward those elements more likely to create viewer interest rather than a distraction short, they signal a shift toward the entertainment aspect of news."
If the rise of happy talk news is to be blamed on anyone it should be the public. The consulting firms merely mirror the wants of the audience. So once again it's plain to see that the patient doesn't always know what's best for his own good.
I was NOT IMPRESSED with CHANGE LOGIC REBRAINING because the INVESTIGATIVE CHANGE OF THE WESTERN CUSTOMER AFFECTED by THE WAR DID YOU NOT INSURE that NO WOULD ON THE PROTECT THE TIMES?