OPINION
THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2005
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CORPORATOCRACY
Media overblows Churchill, Stewart; ignores real issues
"I've seen the future, brother. It is murder."
Leonard Cohen
STEPHEN SHUPE
sshupe@kansan.com
I was content to stand on the sidelines as the controversy surrounding Ward Churchill unfurled. After all, there's been sufficient commentary from across the political spectrum on this
very page, including an excellent editorial by Kyle Koch ("Politicians nix free speech rights," The University Daily Kansan, Feb. 15, 2005).
Then Martha Stewart got out of the slammer.
Then Martha Stewart got out of the slammer. It was the "lead story" on CNN all day Friday. America's leading homemaker came out in the snow holding lemons and waxed poetic on her favorite fruit. This was serious news. Later, she served hot chocolate to frigid reporters stationed outside her Westchester County estate in New York.
But wait, it gets even more adorable. In a CNN-Gallup poll, Americans were asked if they "feel sympathetic toward Martha Stewart." The results reflected that they do.
All the ugly truths of Churchill's infamous essay, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," hit home as CNN's cheerleading news anchors wrapped Martha Stewart in ribbons and bows.
As the Colorado professor said in a Feb. 10 interview, "I want the whole goddamned process to stop, you know?"
Churchill was talking about mass murder. I'm talking about the mainstream media's lies of omission, deflected by celebrity hooey and the friendly packaging of news used to sell consumers to advertisers.
Churchill's views have been called "radical," "repugnant" and "pro-terrorist" — by "objective" reporters working for major American news outlets, not just by right-wing attack dogs asking for the American Indian scholar's head on a plate. The Denver Post has published more than 50 articles on Churchill since Jan. 27. Here's a quote from his esset about Sept. 11 that you won't find in the Post;
"...vast legions of brown-skinned five-year-olds sat shivering in the dark, wide-eyed in horror, whimpering as they expired in the most agonizing ways imaginable."
Churchill is describing Iraq under United States sanctions, where 500,000 sick and hungry children perished from 1991 onward. The coverage
nationally follows the same framework: No substantive discussion of Churchill's critical analysis of U.S. foreign policy, his inflammatory statements taken for the most part out of context.
There was no CNN-Gallup poll asking Americans if they "feel sympathetic toward the
Iraqi children we starved to death."
In his letter to the College Republicans of the University of Colorado on Feb.1, Gov. Bill Owens stated that Churchill's writings are not only "outrageous and insupportable, they are at odds with the facts of history."
It's a revealing statement. Owens is essentially correct: Churchill's writings are at odds with the facts of history. The only question is, whose version of history?
Where were the media when the United States invaded South Vietnam in 1962? Noam Chomsky has been looking for a reference to this in mainstream American journalism for 40 years, to no avail.
The chemical weapons we used there in the war still kill thousands of Vietnamese every year. Children are born with birth defects, cancers, tumors and deformities — more lies of omission.
Where were they when President Reagan funneled money, weapons and supplies to right-wing death squads in Latin America in the 1980s?
Where are they now? They're outside Martha Stewart's estate, sipping hot chocolate.
The funny thing is, Ward Churchill has gotten real coverage. Sure, the media have brought him out to hang him from the highest tree, and any attempt to discuss his specific arguments is quickly shouted down.
But still, millions of viewers have seen him on "Paula Zahn Now" and "Real Time with Bill Maher."
Who knew?
Perhaps Churchill's inflammatory approach is the only way to get the message across. And the message is this: When the president of the United States goes on national television and says this is a peaceful nation, he's not being entirely truthful.
♦ Shupe is an Augusta graduate student in journalism
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
'Kansan' should honor its promise to cover club and intramural sports.
The University of Kansas women's lacrosse team finished the first half of its season this past weekend. This may have come as a surprise to some in the KU community, as none of the results from the team's first six games have appeared in the Kansan. Some years this lack of coverage is to be expected as staff sizes can shrink during the academic year.
This January however, the Kansan wrote that "one of the largest, most talented sports staffs in the newspaper's 100 years of production" would be giving attention to club sports. To be fair, the examples given were bowling and ice hockey, both of whom have gotten coverage.
But what about KU rugby's performance in the Big XII Championship down in Norman, Okla., in late February, or the Kansas men's lacrosse victory over K-State last Friday, Lindsey Johnson's 100th goal for the women's lacrosse team, results of the Mardi Gras Tournament for the Ultimate Frisbee team? All of these teams are not just getting together here and there to play catch.
They are traveling all over the midwest, competing against other universities — in some cases against varsity squads — representing the University of Kansas as true student-athletes. They deserve better.
Dave Wiley Head coach KU women's lacrosse
REPORT CARD
Gardening. Grounds maintenance crews on campus have gone out of their way to lay down some new plots of beautiful land.
Fail:
- Manure smell. The gardening on campus didn't help it smell any better. The pleasant look of new foliage in and around campus was met with a horrifying whiff of manure to passerbys. Life's just a huge game of give and take, isn't it? You bet it is.
+ Chris Kaufman, Richard Littrell and Andrew Wymore. Their friendly stunt at Sunday's basketball game with a sign proclaiming that Mizzou Arena was "Allen Fieldhouse East" was met with typical Mizzou-fan ugliiness. But one must respect the three guys who made signs and traveled to road games on their own coin.
Pass:
Fail:
Men's basketball. The Jayhawks' defeat to the Tigers showed that maybe Mizzou Arena isn't quite Allen Fieldhouse East after all. It especially didn't help Kaufman and Co.'s cause.
MCKERNAN'S PERSPECTIVE
A RIGHT TURN
Intelligent design reasonable, but doesn't resemble science
On Feb.23, the final public debate was held in Topeka over the proposed science standards for the public schools in Kansas.I was fortunate enough to find a front row seat and hear the sometimes interesting, sometimes ludicrous arguments presented by both sides
VINCE MYERS
vmyers@kansan.com
Strangely, by the night's end, the only thing I'd decided was that I didn't like either side.
First, some background information: The debate over the science standards is between two factions. The first faction holds the position that evolution is the untouchable truth of biology.
It should not be taught alongside anything else and it should not be questioned in science classrooms.
The second faction supports the teaching of a theory known as intelligent design alongside the teaching of evolution in science classes. ID claims that evolution does not sufficiently explain the creation of life on earth.
The only reasonable explanation, then, is that an intelligent creator was behind the origin of life.
This faction maintains that evolution is an unproven theory and should not be disguised as truth for science classes. Therefore, ID should be taught as well, because it is just as reputable theory as evolution.
Intelligent design is a compelling theory. There are a lot of logical and scientific arguments that support it. I find it very convincing, but ID is simply not science.
Science deals with only the natural laws and assumes that those laws run the world with no outside help.
Intelligent design, regardless of how convincing its claims may be, claims that natural laws work with outside help. That claim takes ID out of the realm of science, and as such, it should not be taught in science classrooms.
On the other hand, I do understand the concerns of parents who don't want public schools to teach their children theories that don't conform to their faith. A lot of Darwinian thinkers use the theory to discredit religion.
Highly regarded British biologist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins has compared religion to a "mind virus" passed down through generations and
has marveled at religion's ability to make gullible believers question science. Such talk is not something religious people want their children hearing in a public school.
Here at the University of Kansas, we get to read chalkings by the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, featuring
the "Darwin fish" that state the society's noble goal of "combating creationism."
The existence of God cannot be proven or disproven by science.
Again, this use of Darwinism in an attempt to disprove religion is insulting to religious people, and it's just incorrect.
Many Christian religions believe that God works within the natural laws to create life. The idea that evolution crept along with God as a supervisor was even accepted by Pope John Paul II in a 1996 speech.
Indeed, to many people the idea that a divine hand guided evolution makes much more sense than the idea that blind luck and random chance guided it.
I think intelligent design supporters are less concerned with making the public school system teach ID than they are in making sure that schools aren't turning students into Darwinian atheists.
The Kansas Board of Education needs to reject the teaching of intelligent design in science classrooms.
Science education should be limited to science only, not theistic beliefs that extend outside the realm of the natural world.
At the same time, the Board needs to find a way to make sure that students understand that evolution is a very well supported scientific theory, much like the theory of gravity.
It is not classified as fact because, as biology professor Edward Wiley said, "No one has ever experienced evolution directly." But evolution is not perfect and there is still much about the origin of life that science cannot answer. Students who understand the ideas and limitations of evolution will be better equipped to fit the theory into their personal religious beliefs.
If they can't do that, they'll likely ignore evolution altogether. That would defeat the purpose of science education.
- Myers is an Olathe freshman in political science.
TALK TO US
Andrew Vaupel, editor
864-4810 or avaupel@kansan.com
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864-4358 or advertising@kansan.com
Steve Vockrodt
Laura Francoviglia
opinion editors
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EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
David Archer, Viva Bolova,
John Byerley, Cheddar Edgerton,
Wheaton Elkins, Ryan Good,
Peige Higgins, Matt Hoge, John Jordan,
Kyle Koch, Doug Lang, Kevin McKernan,
Mike Mostafa, Erica Prather,
Erick Schmidt, Devin Sikes, Gaby Souze,
Sarah Sacry and Anne Weltner.
▶ SUBMISSIONS
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+
At 18th and Indiana, they have a four-way stop sign and a roundabout. Only in Lawrence.
I just found out my roommate was breast-feeded until he was 13, and that's why he keeps me up crying at night.
So here begins the top five things KU fans say to Mizzou fans:
Have fun in the NCAA Tournament...oh wait, you're not going.
Businessmen in bike helmets... ahh, they make my day.
Can you tell me how to get St. Louis? No? Yeah, you wouldn't know how to get to a Final Four town.
Can you spot me 20 bucks? Oh wait, I forgot, you gave it all to your players.
Can I borrow some hair gel, man? Oh wait, Quin used up all of it in the state of Missouri.
Remember that time Mizzou was good in basketball? We don't either.
The Spanish department is desperately in need of regime change.
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