TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2003
Critics want bro
OPINION
4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2003
TALK TO US
Kristi Henderson
864-4864 or khenderson@kansan.com
Jenna Goepfert and Justin Henning
managing editors
864-4854 or jgoepfert@kansu.com and
jhenning@kansu.com
Leah Shaffer readers' representative 864-4610 or ishaffer@kansan.com
Amanda Sears and Lindsay Hanson opinion editors 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
Eric Kelting business manager 864-4358 or adsales@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
general manager and news adviser
864.7667 or mgibison@kansan.com
Sarah Jantz
retail sales manager
864-4358 or adsale@kansan.com
Matt Fisher
Matt Fisher
sales and marketing adviser
864 7066 or mfisher@kansan.com
EDITORIAL BOARD
INS policy maintains security
In response to the events of Sept. 11, Immigration and Naturalization Services sanctioned mandatory registration for nonimmigrants from Middle Eastern, African and Asian nations such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen, North Korea, Egypt and Morocco.
This policy requires non-immigrants in the country temporarily to report to INS ports of entry to undergo background checks, finger-printing, and interviews aimed at preventing terrorists from roaming freely in the United States as the Sept. 11 hijackers did.
Seventeen of the 19 hijackers were in the country on expired student visas.
The United States will benefit from registering non-immigrants.
From Lincoln's 1864 suspension of the writ of *habeas corpus* during the Civil War to today's airport security measures, the government has revoked certain freedoms in the interests of public safety. Terrorism should be no exception.
Opponents of INS measures argue that terrorists will not register at INS ports of entry. However, registration will enable the government to monitor who deserves to enter the country on a temporary basis.
While today's tensions pertaining to terrorism and civil liberties may flare up because of procedures such as INS registration, they will produce more benefits than harm if conducted respectfully.
Students should show their fellow international students affected by the policy deserved acceptance for contributing their unique character to our open university and civic life.
Sean Paauzauske for the editorial board
SUBMITTING LETTERS AND GUEST COLUMNS
The Karsan welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by readers.
The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Amanda Sears or Lindsay Hanson at 864-4924 or e-mail at opinion@kansan.com. If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the readers' representative at reader-srep@kansan.com.
The Kansas will run as many subnus sions as possible that conform to these guidelines.
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EXQUISITE RELIEF
WHAT ABOUT THE TERRORISTS?
Lance Menzley for The University, Daily Kansan
MLK protest didn't merit coverage
Editor's note: The Readers' Representative writes a bi-weekly column that will critique the Kansan's performance on serving the student body.
Last Tuesday, The University Daily Kansan ran a front page story that shouldn't have been
presented as news. Judging an event's newsworthiness is never an easy call for journalists, and Tuesday's paper is an example of how the wrong type of story can slip by.
The story, headlined "Phelpses protest MLK speech," was about how Fred Phelps' daughters and about 15 others held an anti-gay rights protest during the Martin Luther King Jr. ceremony at the Lied Center. This article was featured above the story covering the MLK ceremony.
A protest may sound like news, but this event should not have been a separate article, let alone an article featured above the speech story.
By doing so, the Kansan gave free publicity to a tiny, petty hate group that has already gotten plenty of coverage in
READERS' REPRESENTATIVE
Leah Shaffer
lshaffer@ransan.com
the past.
Their MLK protest was not news. The Phelpses seem to protest almost anything at the Lied Center event, regardless of whether it has anything to do with their cause.
In hindsight, Kansan editor-in-chief Kristi Henderson said she would not have run the story separate from the coverage of the MLK ceremony.
At the time, she said, it seemed like an interesting news story because it was so absurd that the group would protest a MLK ceremony. But the protest should have been mentioned within the ceremony story and not separate, she said.
Often, it's difficult for reporters and editors to discern the fine line between
what is interesting and what is inappropriate. Running stories about such groups as the Phelpses clan can encourage every crackpot to seek the limelight for the front-page story.
Certainly, the Kansan aims to keep its readers informed, but some seemingly "newsworthy" events can have no substance behind them.
When is it good news, and when is it sensationalism? Journalists will struggle with that question for their entire careers.
Each semester, the kansan gets a new crop of reporters and editors who are just beginning to tackle this question. And because they are new, each semester, some of the same mistakes get made. It takes time and experience to develop an eye for what warrants coverage. Whether it's deciding to run a rape story on page one or cover a hate-spewing protest, the answers are never easy.
The question now is, how quickly will they learn?
Shaffer is a Hays senior in journalism and environmental studies.
THE KANSAN ON-LINI
Go to kansas.com and click on the opinion section to check out the weekly online poll. Click on forums to post to the discussion
kansan.com
Opinion Forum
Give us your reaction to President Bush's State of the Union address, which will be broadcast nationwide at 8 p.m.
Opinion Poll: Should women be included in the draft?
Feminists have fought for equality, and part of being equal to men means fighting alongside them during wartime.
- Women should not be required to go to war but should not be barred from fighting if they so choose.
Women have no business being on the battlefield.
PERSPECTIVI
Israeli policy violates American rights
The international war on terror has gone too far. Part of being an American is valuing
an American is valuing inalienable freedoms. When our government removes those freedoms, even for our own protection, serious harm has been done to us all.
It is terrible to imagine our own government as a totalitarian state; it is unthinkable for our government to allow a foreign nation to strip away our freedoms.
The United Press International, a newswire service, reported this month that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has given the Mossad, the Israeli equivalent of the CIA, unlimited power to carry out assassinations of terrorists on the soil of Israeli allies.
Mossad agents could enter the U.S., track an American Israel (rightly or wrongly) deems to be a terrorist and kill that American within the borders of the U.S., all without any of the protections of the Constitution.
Sharon had forbidden Mossad to carry out assassinations, except in Gaza and the West Bank, because of embarrassing failures. Diplomatic constraints had prevented the Mossad from carrying out "preventative operations" on the soil of friendly countries until now. The war on terror has given Sharon the perfect opportunity to unleash Mossad agents.
That nightmare is a reality.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Matthew Dunavan opinion@kansan.com
Historically, Mossad agents haven't been very good at carrying out their killings. In 1974, agents attempted to assassinate Ali Hassan Salemeh, who planned the 1972 massacre at the Olympic games. A Mossad hit-squad went to Lillehammer, Norway, to kill Salemeh but mistakenly killed a Moroccan waiter instead.
It strains credulity to assume that no American shares a name or remote physical resemblance with a known terrorist.
Mossad's new director, Meir Dugan, isn't a careful man, and has been described as being "creative to the point
of recklessness," having a "real killer instinct," and being "not afraid to act on gut instinct."
I hope Dagan never intuits that an American citizen is a terrorist. I'd hate to see a "preventative operation" on U.S. soil.
The U.S. cannot do much about this policy without being hypocritical. America assassinated an al-Qaeda official in Yemen recently using an unmanned predator drone, operated by the CIA.
Ironically, our government is guilty of taking away freedoms in defense of them.
Americans were arrested and held without charges, and we did not stand up and fight. We were unconstitutionally searched, and our property seized. We did not stand up and fight. Our rights to a jury and lawyer were discarded, and our rights to free speech were infringed, and we did not stand up and fight. Now, foreign nations wish to take away our liberty.
We must object to this loss before it is too late for us all.
Dunavan is a Topaka senior in political science and philosophy.
Free for All
Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
路
It's 4:19. Do you know where your bong is?
Some hippies eat meat, some hippies don't protest war. Cut out the stereotypes, need I say more? Some hippies smoke pot, some hippies take showers. But listen here, brother — we've got the power.
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You've got your frat boys that are drunk, sorority girls that are loose, but I am a hippie. Can't we call it a truce? Peace.
if you dance for them, they will come. Shhh... don't talk. Just dance.
B
Did anybody else notice in the article about the steam whistle that it's been ending classes since 1912 but the design was from a 1939 German freight ship?
To Supergirl's brunette sidekick, you were grinding on the stage at The Granada. You better check yourself. That is all.
I just wanted to say that the sun in the drawing on the front page of the Kansan's Wednesday issue is a little frightening. You have a sick Jayhawk and a smiling smile. Who's doing acid?
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How clever that the song for the "Women of KU" commercial is "Free Your Mind (Don't Be So Shallow)." It's genius.
留
This is to the Tongue-In-Beak people: I realize you guys are a ripoff of *The Onion*, and that's cool because you guys are pretty funny. But the reason *The Onion* is so cool is because they take themselves seriously. Now you're doing these stupid editorials about how funny you guys are. Don't do that.
Hey, hey, Gatsby's back, taking KU by storm.
I just wanted to let everyone know that the radio station 97.3 is undergoing a change, but right now they're playing all Beatles, all the time. Very choice.
Why do Jon Ralston and Joe Pull think that they have the right to talk about the abortion debate. They're both guys, they're never going to have to deal with it, and I don't want to hear what they have to say.
Every time I watch The Simpsons, I have sex with my girlfriend. What's up with that?
面
If *Roe v. Wade* means a woman's right to choose, then why so often do you find men coercing their women to get abortions?
I just got cut off by a Saferide driver, isn't that funny?
Here's an idea. Let's go 21st century and get a digital whistle. Crisper sound, no cracking.
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I wish the reporter that did the story on the dean of the Fine Arts school leaving had interviewed an Arts & Design student, because they would have gotten a much different reaction on her leaving.
I'd just like to congratulate the Kansan on working anti-war sentiments into a story on knitting. Good job.
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To the girl whose friend left her phone at the bar on Thursday, I'm the one you talked to. Come back and see me this week. And keep your weekend open.
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We just called KU Info, and they knew how long it took for shroods to kick in. Now that's cool.
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I just wanted to say thank you to all the armed forces and reserves whose lives are being turned upside down to protect our freedom.
The older I get, the more I realize how worthless The Hawk and The Wheel are.
I look at the political world today,
and I just have to ask: WWGD? What
Would Gore Do?