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Tuesday, March 19, 1974
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Foreboding Libel Laws
The Nixon Administration's recent proposal of a national libel law once again indicates its aversion for the principle that the free flow of information is essential to a republic.
In his campaign reform message to Congress, Nixon suggested the study of "legislation to reaffirm certain private rights of public figures so that people interested in running for office can ensure an assurance of recourse against slanderous attacks on them or their families.
"Landmark Supreme Court decisions have severely restricted a public figure's ability to gain redress against such grievances," he said. He did hope that finally defined limits can be legislated by the Congress to prevent unscrupulous attacks on public figures."
THE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS he mentioned are the series of libel rulings that stemmed from the 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan case.
There, the principle was established that a public official can't recover damages for libel unless he proves actual malice, which is determined according to the law. But the judge was published with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false.
The effect of the "New York Times rule," as the principle is known, has been to free the press to report the news regardless of whether it happens to be defamatory. As the court said in the original decision, "debate on public and wide-open, should be uninhibited, and wide-open, and... it may include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials."
UNDERSTANDABLY, THE PRESS has jealously guarded this liberal application of the libel laws. And, understandably, the press was a bit apprehensive after Nixon's decision in the Sullivan decision.
So Bryce Harlow, counselor to the President, was quick to assure reporters that the administration must at an attempt "to shaft the press."
The idea, he said, is simply to spell out the method of proving
reckless disregard so that public figures can more easily recover damages in civil libel actions. Then he added this disclaimer:
"Our focus is not the press, but those who mount and promote slander campaigns, with virtual communication from legal accountability.
In the light of recent press law history, however, that disclaimer sounds rather hollow. It comes, after all, from an audacity to distract the public's primary source of information: the press.
THE LIST OF ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS in this area is getting longer and longer. it starts with prior restraint of publication in the Pentagon Papers case and includes the play of using reporters as law enforcement spies by forcing them to turn over confidential information to Agnew's search for news leaks and the recently uncovered efforts to track down other leaks by using telephone records.
So a proposed tightening of the libel laws appears simply another effort to stem the flow of information and criticism. It's especially suspect coming from a President who no doubt believes he's been defamed in the Watergate case.
And the disclaimer that the focus of the revision is not the press but those who promote slander campaigns is absurd. The requirement of proving reckless disregard allows newspapers to report attacks that can't be verified but are relevant and important news.
REMOVING THAT PROTECTION would make newspapers responsible for the truth of allegations made by news figure who had, when reporting, simply stifle reporting of debate on public issues.
This administration would be happy with that result. The trouble is that taking the heat off public officials would leave the public open to the kind of abuses that have been the administration under criticism.
So reviwing the Sullivan decision on grounds that doing so would strengthen the political system by eliminating a grip of the public on government.
Bob Simison
Leavenworth Riot a Political Cause
"They Wanted to Turn All Those Mad Dogs Loose"
By WILLIAM CLAIBORNE
The Washington Post
LEAVENWORTH-Behind the gleaming, white facade of the enormous U.S. pentenary building, here No. 63 sits like a statue outbuilding of a statusque stone palace.
FROM OUTSIDE THE PRISON gates, he has been made the object of more revolutionary rhetoric than any prison chief since the furor over the soledad brothers of California and the tragedy of Attica State Prison in New York.
rue prison has its own legacy from the July 31 riot. It has been beset by a rash of inmates by other inmates, hunger strikes and work strikes and other expressions of unrest by a minority of inmates who have been sentenced to correctional institutions normally are.
Red-bricked and grimy, it could go unrestricted by anyone walking across the prison yard, with its cavernous dungeh hall and prison factory, where row upon row of inmates are attracted by expressionless inmates turn out push bushes and institutional shoes.
For Loren E. Duggett, the crusty, out-spoken warden, the Leavenworth brothers have become an albatross near the end of a 36-year career in penology.
But building 63 is a special place for the 2,300 prisoners here. It is “the hole,” the gloomy solitary confinement pit where men go for breaking the rules—for having liquor or narcotics, for homosexual adventures, for drug abstinence, for intimidation and other challenges to authority.
For seven months, building 63 has been the home of "the Leavenworth brothers," 20 men who took part in a riot last summer and who were sentenced to serve a variety of national organizations—The Lawyers Guild, The American Civil Liberties Union and the Vietnam Veterans Organization.
As seen by these groups and others, the Leavenworth brothers are an embattled collection of political prisoners and a symbol of what they claim to be the oppression of a backward federal prison system.
The riot began at 11:30 a.m. in a corner of the institution's dining hall, the same room where Robert Stroud, the "birdman of Alcatraz," killed a guard.
There, according to prison officials, about 40 inmates went on a rampage, throwing food trays, overturning tables and rushing a guard who fled to safety behind locked doors.
Meanwhile, according to the authorities, two inmates rushed to the nearby laundry building and seized two guards and two inmates holding them hostage for several hours.
Simultaneously, a fire was set in the prison industries building. Guards in the 600+mm cellhouse. "A woman ordering weapons to them was placed in general lockup, but a group of prisoners pushed a trash container in front of a main doorway and stormed a glass-enclosed room."
"IT WAS A SMALL GROUP of very dangerous troublemakers," said Daggett. "Everyone else did what they did to help them, and we were belied by causing as much destruction as they could before being caught. They were two per cent of this place, but sometimes two per cent more."
Struggleful free, witnesses said. Selle ran to a dark starwell leading to a basement dorsitory and screamed frantically for guards to open a barred door. Before the door opened, the door an inmate repeatedly plunged a knife into Selle, mortally wounding him.
Witnesses told FBI investigators that Wayne G. Selle, a 40-year-old guard, was cornered on a third-level tier and repeatedly slashed with a knife.
AFTER THE INMATES CONTROLLING the laundry released their hostages unharmed, Daggett agreed to meet with a nine-member inmate grievance council. It is from that meeting that much of the bitterness at Leavenworth stems.
Jesse Lope, a 28-year-old convicted bank robber charged with assault and kidnapping in the July 31 mutilation, said in an interview that he was not responsible would be no reprisals against the inmates.
"They were going to take over this institution, and it didn't work. They were caught with their pants down, so they began taking them into parole and judges and medical care here."
"This did not occur because of grips. They wanted to take over segregation (solitary) and turn all those mad dogs and murderers loose. I wouldn't talk until the hostages were released, and after that I would have agreed that I agree to nothing under duress like that."
IN ANY CASE, a week after the mutiny about 30 suspects had been rounded up and tried to be interrogated in investigations, all but 26 were exonerated and returned to the general population and six of the remaining Leavenville brothers have since been transferred to other institutions.
In a basement apartment in Kansas City, Mo., where the Vietnam Veterans Against the War maintains a headquarters, Michael Mazetti explained why the Leavenworth brothers offense-defense committee was formed Jan. 20.
"They have been denied due process for seven months," he said. "They have been denied the same."
"That's a damned lie," said Daggett.
Daggett and the FBI can't find out who killed the guard."
Mazzetti and Randy Barnes, another VVAW leader, claimed that Selle's death was unrelated to the dining hall uprising or the siege of the laundry building.
"WHEN THE RIOT STARTED,
everybody went to his stash and got a weapon. Anybody could have killed the guard." Mazzetti said.
When word of the prisoners' plight in solitary sifted into, Mazzetti said, the VVAW's national steering committee voted in a meeting at Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, to make the Leavemouth brothers, a priority cause this year.
"What we want is to get the brothers out of the hole and see that they get a fair trial," Barres said. He said the group will also attempt to persuade Dugett to make a plea. Leavenworth based on a list of 13 grievances presented during the July 31 meeting.
The demands include an end to "racist policies" at the prison, hiring more minority group guards, improvement of medical care, higher wages in the factory, a liberalization of privacy privileges, better food and abolition of the "hole."
Readers Respond
To the Editor:
Chinese Names a Mind-Numbing Profusion
I read with considerable interest and amusement Tom Weishaar's article on women's surines (UDK, March 7) and I learned something sometimes of preserving their integrity.
Most amusing was the example of Chairman Mao's wife, Ching (surname) Ching (personal name), reversed somewhere in Weischaer's rendering, despite the explanation that "family names come first in Chinese." It is possible several possible denominations for any married Chinese woman, and in the example given she might be termed (1)
Madame Mao in deference to her status as wife of such an important leader (2) Mrs. Mao, as Mao Tse-tung's wife (3) Mao Chiang Chiao, as might be recorded on public records to show that she had married into the Mao family, but was herself a member of the Chiang family, personal name Chiang (4) Ms. Chiang.
The last time I was in the Republic of China (Taiwan), I observed that more and more married women now insist on being addressed by their husband's surnames arose. I noticed that many women own identities as Ms. Chang Wu and Ms. Li Lyou. It seems that, in so many other
things social and intellectual, the Chinese have been long ahead of us and are already switching to identifications we are preparing to abandon.
But then the Chinese have a great deal more experience with names than we do; rectification of names is a matter of great concern to Confucius just a short 2,000 years ago. And all through Chinese history inculcated names in mind-numbing profusion.
By CHUCK POTTER
Doing the Tulsa Basketball Boogie
Kansas Staff Reporter
TULSA-Boogie or walk or whatever it was, the dance being performed by the elderly woman in the pink dress obviously was a lot of fun.
The huge Haya jaychak insignia that dangled from her string of pearls shook when she did, which was often. There were still two other mid-moors, a moves and a shaker.
Mrs. Nadene W. Slater, a 1921 graduate of the University of Kansas, was having the time of her life.
"These young people are precious to me," Ms. Slater said with a sweep of colorful pins. "I'll talk about 520 alumn and alumnae who were gathered last Friday night at the Camelot inn for a party celebrating the NCAA Midwest Regional here."
Mrs. Slater, who has lived in Tulsa for the past eight years, had beenn't invited to play against a game between KU and Crested Butterfly which KU won, 55-41. But she said she hoped to attend Saturday's charm game between KU and Oral Roberts University.
Asked if she thought KU would win that game, Mrs. Slater grinned and clutched the questioner's left arm.
OTHER KU FANS at the Friday night party were equally confident. The
"You damn right," she said.
razor-zat, blazer-clad alumni cheerfully swallowed stiff drinks and predicted a KU victory. The KU cheerleaders smiled sniles as quick and bright as a neon Budweiser sign. No sweat.
Winning the championship game didn't look like it was going to be easy, though. ORU had a quick run-and-gun team and it would be playing before a sellout crowd in its own arena. AND ORU fans were expecting a miracle.
KU HAD ALREADY NEEDED a miracle or two to defeat Creighton on Thursday. The Bluejays frequently used slick backdoor plays and almost won with them, KU had simply looked nervous.
The KU fans were confident that their team would beat ORU anyway. The 600 people or from KU who went to Tulsa were typical KU fans—noisy, loyal followers. They had to be loyal followers day after day, while the hoopla and Tulsa irritations for the sake of seeing KU play in the championship game.
THE JAYHAWK FANS were scattered. Some were at the Carnelot Inn, some were at the Ramada Inn, some were at Trade Winds East. Some were unfortunate enough to have made reservations for one model that suited their guaging equipment in its bar and a baskful of Crown fans in its rooms.
"Then, McCants (Sam) erupted from a fridgid beginning and the awesomeness talented Titan machine went into high spirits. "I did not despite a string of McCants spectacles in all departments—dribbling, shooting, defense, rebounding and passing—the Titans needed heroic afterthoughts to nail moments to nail the verdict."
Could the awesomely talented Titan machine do it again on Saturday? The Jayhawkers didn't think so Friday. "I just want to work," he said Saturday afternoon. Enthusiasm prevailed, especially from the personage of ex-Jayhawk player Bob
Kivisto arrived Saturday at ORU's $1 million Mabe Center with a double handfull of Jayhawk stickers on the rear lapel of his blazer. A sign on his
Shooowee.
Strange. Stranger yet, however, was the Tulsa World's cover of Thursday's semi-final games. The World's troupe of golf-wish sportswriters, bursting with homer enthusiasm, buried its readers in adjectives A. The paper's account of the OKU-Louisville game, which OKU won,
That same motel bad to bath towels in its rooms imprinted, "property of Robert S. Mitchell," who turned out to be the owner of the motel.
The game itself began nicely. KU jumped off to a 20-5 lead and appeared ready to salt the game away before halftime. But ORU didn't fold, and with two and a half minutes left to play in the game. ORU led. 81-74.
The KU fans slumped in their seats. Oh ye of little faith. KU produced a couple of quick miracles and tied the game, 81-41, in regulation time. Then the poised KU players won, 93-90, in overtime.
And it was. A Tulsa radio announcer, apparently rattled by the outcome of the game, announced that Roger Merriman had shot at his inputs in the game.
KU'S DELIETED FANS stormed out onto Mabee Center's parking lot, popped open cold beers and screamed "Get back to the drive home by a nice drive home after all."
Morningscore wasn't high starrer,
though. David Knight was the an-
nounceer said, with 19 points.
The announcer couldn't be blamed for his mistakes. He had been expecting a miracle.
Published at the University of Kansas daily examination periods. Mail subscription rate: $5 a semester, $16 a year. Second class payment package advertised for students attending the examination period: $13. A summer student in student activity fee. Advertiser offered to all students without regard to gender or residence. Procedures are not necessarily those of the University. Applicants must pay the admission费.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Griff and the Unicorn
Kansun Telephone Numbers
Newroom—UN 4-4810
Business Office—UN 4-4358
DOGGONE, THE KU FANS were ready to go. They jumped and screamed and yelled obscene phrases at the polite GUU fans. The KU people succeeded in seizing the successes of basketball before this year, and they wanted badly to win.
Editor Hal Ritter
left lapel read, "Ts (Tom Kivisto), brother and coach."
Business Manager David Hunkle
BUSINESS STAFF
Member Associated Collegiate Press
by Sokoloff
Besides a person's real name, something you can get a good grip on, nearly everyone has at least a few other monickers, such as a phone number, a fuzzy nickname, friendly nicknames and personal preference names. The great men of history, as one might expect by now, have lots of additional names, including office titles, felicitous cognomen, honorary titles, or special acknowledgments. People are even known by names that aren't names at all, as "Hermit of Craggy Mountain" and "Cool-Stream Recluce," which must have made addressee addresses trouble at all for their correspondents' name, address and zip code all in one label.
Despite all the confusion, female or male,
it seems obviously good to have at least one
name you can call your own. It gives you
something to identify with when officialdom
is called on you. You also have a security
number instead of "Ms. Empty
Pockets of Oread Avenue."
Carl Leban
Associate Professor of Oriental Languages and Literature
Fair Admissions
I object. I object to John Bender's editorial of March 7. In my opinion, Mr. Bender has misled his readers with his assuption that the preferential treatment he gave to "less qualified" minority group applicants is a reverse form of discrimination.
Such "preferential treatment" is in reality nothing more than the law schools' recommendation to students in traditional methods of selecting students were a de facto discrimination against the student.
To the Editor:
Those of us who are familiar with the nature and make up of the Law School Admission Test recognize that the examination is to a large extent a culturally diverse process. We must much the applicant's intellectual capacity and potential as his degree of Anglo cultural absorption. The collegiate grade point average reflects not only the minority student's past scholastic achievement, but also their participation 200 years of social and racial discrimination.
Therefore, when a law school gives weight to factors such as the applicant's work experience, extra-curricular activities, past service to the community and education, personal statements about himself and the profession he wishes to enter, such a law school is not enacting a reverse form of discrimination. It is, on the contrary, attempting to utilize a method of selection fair and non-discriminatory towards all.
Luis Mata Lawrence law student
Informed Students
To the Editor:
Each year, for the past few years, the Association of University Residence Halls has sponsored a dinner in honor of Kansas Legislators. The dinner this year was *man* legislators. The delicious—the hospitality was great and there was a large turnout of both students and legislators. The obvious excellent planning involved was greatly appreciated by all. The discussions were of interest to the students and we hope of interest to the students.
One thing that impressed the legislators was how well informed the students were in discussing legislative matters. We were also surprised to learn that our students' knowledge concerning legislative matters. The University Daily Kansan and KANU have done a tremendous job in keeping university students informed on the developments in legislation, concerned, good luck and congratulations.
State Rep., 43rd District
Lloyd Buzzi
State Rep., 45th District
John Vogel
State Rep. 43rd District
To the Editor:
Proud Jayhawk
Each year KU-y produces the Rock Chalk Review and every year the University Daily Kansas does its best to degrade this fine newspaper. It is a result of his head out of its journalistic cloud and began to look at its function as a campus newspaper. The KU-y is a non-professional independent organization which receives no student aid and which spends much of its budget on the adults.
I fail to see how a staff writer can criticize an amateur production for lack of professionalism. In an article appearing on the website of a well-known uninitiated goal to assert that Rock Chalk Lacked "professionalism". Tranbarger, the misbehave excuse for a journalist to whom the Kansas gave the face of a title to his work, said he never even claimed Rock Chalk to be professional.
traditions that KU students can be proud of: school spirit, I challenge anyone to find another non-student funded group that could gather 5,000 people to watch a 'non-native' game. We'd love to show that each of the casts deserve to be proud of -proud of the countless hours of work, proud of their individual accomplishments and proud to be Kansas
Perhaps a few words of wisdom from St. Francis can spur Marinier in her professional career: "I deem it no less important to know well to speak; and therefore methinketh that a man ought to have a long neck like a crane so that when a man wished to speak, his words would pass through joints before they reached his mouth."
Keep up the good work KU-Y and congratulations to all the people that made Rock Chalk the success it was, and will be for years to come.
Don C.Black
Don C. Black Shawnee Mission senior