8 40C
Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, September 16, 1981
A transplanted conflict
In Tehran, political intrigue leads fanatics bent on suicide to strap grenades to their waists and hurt themselves at their victims. In a fifth floor Union room Saturday, fists, plates and glassware were hurled instead.
One reaction to the incident, and to another last week when opposing Iranian student factions clashed in front of a table of literature, is to say thank God. Thank God the hatred hasn't escalated to real bloodshed, even though one Iranian from Pittsburg needed stitches to repair a back wound he suffered Saturday night.
And in fact, until last week, the battle between the anti-Khomeini Iranian Students Association and the pro-Khomeini Muslim Students Association—the same one that makes Iran red with blood of victims from both sides—had been fought peacefully. Leaflets and repeated marches
down Jayhawk Boulevard were commonplace, accepted as part of life at a university that encourages foreign student attendance and has a large population of Iranian students.
But such an optimistic reaction may unfortunately be unwise. The words of students involved indicate this conflict may continue erupting on campus.
"These people have power, if you measure power in guns and knives," one Iranian student told the Kansan, "and they will use them."
Talk of "guns and knives" on a college campus sounds out of place indeed, just as a conflict tearing at the heart of a nation half a world away seems out of place on sunny, breezy Mount Oread.
This transplanted conflict has been and should continue to be tolerated. But guns and knives and the violent will use them can never be.
Public, media must cooperate to battle inaccurate reporting
How many mistakes have you found in today's kansas? And, have you been misquoted by the kansas?
There are many misstakes in newspapers every day, not just in the Kansan, but also in the Kansas City Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post. Perhaps a name is misspeelled, different names are given to different stories or there is a headline that goes to a story not in the paper.
We journalists look are they there; we are the first to admit it. The problem though, is not the
BRIAN LEVINSON
mistakes as much as it is the public, which has put newspapers, and radio and television on the same level as God, and so will accept nothing in man perfection - an expectation which can't be met.
There are too many sources per story and too many people between a reporter and the printed version of a story for all of them to be perfect. Computers have not helped either, because they have made proofreaders obsolete at many times. Also, computers allow newspapers to get their editors out much faster, which gives reporters and editors less time to check for accuracy.
There are other problems, too. Recently, the trend in reporting has shifted away from the five w's and h to a more literary style of writing, which clutters the story and makes mistakes and interpretations more likely. There definitely is a need for more emphasis on straight reporting.
Too often, though, people only complain about the mistakes or react to them by refusing to be interviewed anymore, neither of which helps correct the problem. In fact, refusing to grant further interviews only compiles the problem because stories must be written without the benefit of available information. Instead, a joint effort by the media and the public is required.
The media are continually reviewing their methods, searching for problems and making
changes in the reporting system when those problems are spotted. True, it often takes a serious problem—like the Janet Cook incident—but not slow reaction is the exception, not the rule.
The public also needs to review its relationship with the press. Much of a newspaper's content is press releases and minor stories, where all of the information is gathered over the telephone. This reporter has been the victim, more than once, of inaccurate releases and inaccurate information provided by spokesmen who were unsure of the events they were speaking about. The public needs to make the same demands for accuracy on itself that it makes on the media.
Further, spokesmen, particularly those who speak for the federal government and other bureaucracies, need to start speaking English. Most of them refuse to do that for fear that someone might actually understand what it is they are trying to say. When they speak in jargon, reporters are forced to translate it for the readers. They then become easy prey for cries of "misquoted," because only the spokesmen really know what they said.
Often that is the biggest problem: People don't realize what they are saying to reporters until they see the stories, and then they don't want to be held accountable for it and the reporter becomes a scapegoat. A source is out of luck once a story runs.
True journalistic enterprises, unlike the National Enquirer, are not out to intentionally discredit anyone. When mistakes are made, more often than not they are honest ones. Now that the public has realized doctors are human, how about doing the same for journalists?
Inaccuracies never will be eliminated, but they can be reduced. Establishing better safeguards for accuracy, and a better understanding between the media and the public, is imperative. As the computer revolution hits the news industry, and news is disseminated more quickly, journalists will have even less time to check for accuracy. It will also be harder to determine who is responsible for errors, and to correct them.
The Fourth Estate should not be restricted. Instead, we should allow it to operate like the federal government, subject to its own checks and balances. The press' accomplishments far exceed any damage done by its errors. Besides, you can always write a letter to the editor.
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Hate at home in heart of 'great Satan
Less than 24 hours after yet another Khomeini aide had been blown up, the ayatolah broadcast his verdict over Tehran radio; America, "the great Satan," was guilty.
No doubt Khomihein's message came from God, who must feel threatened by America's omnivorous nature.
In Khomeini's imagination, all Iran's problems can be traced to a laboratory in the bowels of the Pentagon where Simon Baröl and his colleagues and activates his Muslim-running rpg.
Khomeini's followers, merely along for the ride, obediently voice such medieval chants as Death to American!' Khomeini, after all, is when he imagines himself. He should know a devil if he imagines one.
when a group of MSA students ripped apart some anti-Khomeini literature being distributed from an ISA table in front of the Union. Details of the Kansan resource found both sides unwilling to take.
But in less superstitious corners of the world, America has been deemed innocent of intervention in Iran ever since the tragic attempt to free the hostages. Once America's limitations became embarrassingly known, Iran's true enemy stood unclothed. The world saw the Irians had nothing to fear but Iranians themselves.
Over the last year this has been especially apparent in Iran, where who knows how many Iranians have been killed.
But only recently has Iranian civil war broken out at KU. Two scuffs, apparently between the ant-Khomeini Iranian Student Association and the pro-Khomeini Moslem Student Association, the campus in the past week. Both fights, it would appear, were incited by the pro-Khoormiini faith.
The ISA members feared their names might be sent back to Iran. The MSA members, however,
The first incident occurred last Wednesday
KEVIN HELLIKER
seemed to believe that Iranian battles, fought wherever, were none of America's business.
"I don't think writing about a fight in front of the Union will educate the people of the United States about Iran," Cyrus Nasseri, an MSA spokesman, said.
Nasseri misunderstood the reporter's question concerning the fight. He should realize that the people in the United States generally are unconcerned about Iran. But when Iranians become violent and destructive in America, it becomes American business.
A violent and destructive drill did occur last Saturday night in the Union. Apparently a group mainly composed of MSA students broke into an ISA meeting. In the fight that followed, one student may have been stabbed, several were injured. Union property suffered considerable damage.
Nasseri first denied any knowledge of the incident but later claimed that the MSA was "completely falsely" reported.
To what extent Nasseri and other Iranian students respect truth is questionable. But Iranian lack of respect for American law and property is increasingly apparent.
Whatever the MSA's involvement in last Saturday's riot, members of this group never have hidden their lack of respect for America. As Khomeni followers, they view America as "the colonists," a cultural, "nom-political" group, they fund a "Satanic" university's Student Senate.
Perhaps the greatest inconsistency in MSA anti-Americanism was illustrated in an earlier American comic.
The student refused to give his name, saying he feared ISA members.
In the story, an MSA student echeed Khoemini by saying, "Most of the opposition to the (Iranian) government, the bombings and such, is linked to America."
When an Iranian stands on American soil and throws accusations at America, yet fears retribution from only his fellow Iranians, something is amiss.
Quite unintentional, this student confirmed American tolerance and, out of fear, revealed the truth.
Khomeini's followers, in Iran and America, will no doubt continue to denounce the great Sasanian plight.
But it would be a mistake for Iranians here in America to imagine that this country's tolerance
Letters to the Editor
To the Editor:
Henry points to the Saudis' keeping the price of their oil at $3 a barrel as an act that "makes saudis less vulnerable" to global economic shocks.
Saudi 'loyalty' to U.S. better labeled greed
For goodness sake, Dave, why don't you wipe up? The Saudis are no different than any other nation on this planet. They're looking after their own interests first, last and always. Not two days old, the column was published, Saudi oil minister Sheikh Abdulaziz urged the rest of OPEC to keep its oil prices down so demand for its oil would remain high, not out of concern for the West.
In his Sept. 9 column, "U.S. and Sadais Benefit from Sale of AWACS," David Henry displays an ignorance and naïve worthy of Little Orphan Annie.
The Saudis don't give a damn about being loyal to the United States. They simply recognize the economic fact that until the oil glut in the West disappears, and Western oil consumption begins rising once again, it would not be in their best interests to keep jacking up the price of their oil. And you can bet that once demand rises some more, prices will too.
Of course the Saudis have a strong fear of communism. Most rich monarchies do. But it's a gross error to assume loyalty to the United States because that basis. If the Saudias are so loyal, why have they complied with U.S. wishes and withdrawn their long standing pledge to annihilate Israel?
The answer, of course, is because they are about as loyal to the United States as Crazy Hunt.
Bill Menezes Overland Park senior
Bill Menezes
Critic answered
To the Editor:
David Cooper's letter in the Sept. 9 issue of the Kansan deserves a response. I refer to his lack of success in enrolling in a section of Math 118 after he was graduated from high school, 136 in which Cooper was enrolled was canceled.
I cannot understand Cooper's inability to add a
section of Math 116 at almost any time he desired.
(including one at the same time as the canceled Math 138 section). The department had decided that students from the canceled Math 138 class should be allowed to choose any section they wished of Math 116 that we scheduled this semester. All that any Math 138 student had to do was attend the office staff working the Drops, Adds and Changed policy was communicated to the office staff by the associate chairman and office manager of the department.
If by some chance Cooper was denied his choice of a section of Math 116 (the mathematics department processed approximately 2,000 enrollment changes and it is conceivable that some office worker was temporarily relieved by someone uninformed of the situation), he had only to complain to any mathematics department administrator; e.g., the chairman, associate chairman, scheduling officer, office manager or practically anyone else within earshot.
I am sorry that Cooper was inconvenienced by an obvious miscommunication with a over-worked office staff. I am even sorrier that the State of Kansas can't provide us with enough room for our needs, and 7:30 p.m.) to make the desire for changes of enrolment less commonplace.
Charles J. Himmelberg
Chairman, department of mathematics
Air show okay
To the Editor:
Beach wrote that American middle class morality and mentality were alive and well the afternoon of the air show. What exactly are the middle class morality and mentality? I fail to see the connection between thousands of heads turning to watch an F-14 flying demonstration
Coral Beach's Sept. 4 column attacked the middle class merely for being middle class, the military for being concerned with public relations and thousands of other people for enjoying a military air show. I saw nothing wrong in the 19th annual Operation Handsake Air Show.
and being middle class, nor do I see anything wrong with being impressed by such a demon-mentation perhaps Beach can do something more impressive, juggle electric typewriter? Three at a time?
The air show was undeniably a public relations event. Aside from calling it propaganda, however, even Beach could not decide what to call her. In one paragraph she called it "subtle psychologicalilation." In another she called it "psychological warfare." I never knew that warfare was subtle.
When an ambulance drove onto the field after the parachute drop, I was hardly convinced that the life of a serviceman was "fun and glamorous."
To write that this air show outdid past attempts at mass brainwishings is simply wrong. The newspapers and broadcast stations have not yet been seized, and pamphlets have not started to be published. It was very fact that Beach was able to write her commentary and have it published in proof of that.
Doug Cunningham
Doug chingham
Pipestone, Minn... sonhomore
KU bike race exciting
To the Editor:
Thank you for the article about the KU Criterium bicycle race coming up on Sept. 20 (Sent, 9 Kansan).
There is one misconception in the story I feel I need to clear up. I did not say, nor did I mean to impatient spectators would be lucky to see a crash. I had conversations with the reporter I criticized those who attend bike races hoping to see accidents, although I recognize that such people exist.
Racers crashing into one another or falling from bicycles at high speed is nothing to be hoped for. The organizers of the Criterium are taking all precautions to insure a safe race, including sweeping the corners and closing the entire course to traffic.
Mickey Imber
Assistant professor of education and director of KU Criterium