'Cancer' takes a life; The WJT goes under
By RANDOLPH SEALEY
By RANDOLPH SEALEY
The New York Journal 1784-1967
The New York American 1819-1967
The New York Sun 1833-1967
The New York Herald 1835-1967
The New York Tribune 1841-1967
The New York World 1860-1967
The New York Telegram 1867-1967
Seven New York newspapers died Friday. It was sudden but not unexpected; they already were slowly dying of cancer.
They had lived well beyond their appointed three score and ten years in a city which arose from a village port to a choking metropolis. They had lived long, seen much and suffered hard. But the world will not long remember what they did in that strange and wonderful city.
GREAT NAMES GAVE BIRTH to these papers—James Bordon Bennett, Horace Greeley, Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst. But it was for lesser men to witness these papers' deaths. It was as though they were born in a Golden Age and ended in an Iron Age.
They died of cancer, but they didn't die of just one kind of cancer—they were afflicted with numerous cancers in numerous organs. There was the cancer of public apathy; there was the cancer of trade-union intrinsigence; there was the cancer of management ineptitude; and there were hundreds of little cancers of excessive production costs, distribution problems, and the petty grips of just about everybody.
Numerous physicians sought to save something of the rotting masses which already had been grafted into three distinct units, known as the World-Telegram and Sun, the Herald Tribune and the Journal-American. The eminent
surgeons who diagnosed the cases recommended massive inter-grafting into what became known as the World Journal Tribune.
But something went amiss in the surgery—some of the healthy parts were left out and many of the diseased parts remained in the resulting body. After emerging from the sustained anestheia of union strikes, the W-J-T came to life on September 12, 1966, seeming normal enough, although somewhat bland in appearance—but its internal organs were hopeless.
THE NEW CREATURE'S appearance was no worse than many others despite the prominence of gossip columnists and sports-writer cliches. The surgeons thought they could improve on the Herald Tribune by combining it with the World - Telegram and the Journal - Amerisan. One life had to be sacrificed so parts of all could live.
But deep down inside the cancer spread. The cancer of management ineptitude spread as it sought to fight the rival cancer, union intransigence, by letting a strike drag on to eventual capitulation to union demands. The body was corrupted still further by the cancers of slow-downs and harassment until the W-J-T could no longer bear its misery.
When the patient's death was pronounced, the eminent surgeons held a post-mortem. They listed the cause of death as "intrasigence of the unions." A rival clique of physicians claimed it was "self-serving management." Bewildered laymen, including the Mayor of New York, beamed the death and cried out for someone to resurrect the corpse.
But it was too late; seven of what were once New York's greatest newspapers are dead, never to rise again.
- 30
KANSAN TELEPHONE NUMBERS
Newsroom—UN 4-3646 — Business Office—UN 4-3198
The Daily Kansan, student newspaper at The University of Kansas, is represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York, N.Y. 16022 postage paid at Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised in the University are offered to all students without regard to color, creed or national origin.
The opinions expressed in the editorial column are those of the students whose names are signed to them. Guest editorial views are not necessarily the editor's. Any opinions expressed in the Daily Kansan are not necessarily those of The University of Kansas Administration or the State Board of Regents
Wrong stop
LONDON—(UPI)—For obeying the law, Abdula Butt and Mohammed Younas, both 30, get themselves arrested. They were being chased by police when a traffic light turned red, and, like good citizens, they stopped. The trailing cops nabbed them and jailed them on drug charges.
Daily Kansan Monday, May 8, 1967
My article called the number of CC students to oppose the program "surprising." That was not to say that the majority believes Centennial College has failed. I think it is highly possible that the University Daily Kansan would rather gather bits of opinion, however distorted, than to actually report to the actual opinion.
I COULD POSSIBLY understand such views when they appear in a dormitory newsletter; and the very nature of the SCREW discredited its labeling of the project as the "Mistake within a mistake." But I had somewhat haphazardly expected the Daily Kansan to use the tools of reporting and journalistic objectivity to paint an accurate picture of Centennial College for its readers. It did not.
2
The people say...
To the editors:
The author of the article in the Ellsword which blamed Centennial College for lowering grades added to the general misinformed atmosphere about the success of the College. Not only were his GPA figures distored (Director Jerry Lewis pointed this out in Northcutt's story), but the statements he made about the number of Centennial College students leaving dorms and the selective processes of the College were totally fictional.
In the May 1 edition of the Daily Kansan, Allan Northcutt used two articles from the Ellsworth Ellsword to exemplify the unpopularity of Centennial College. Since my article was the pro-CC article which was quoted, I think it is necessary that I clarify the image of Centennial College which the Daily Kansan has so laboriously advanced this year.
It was a lot easier, and less accurate, for Allan Northcutt to take the opinions of Lewis, the other author, and myself than to even randomly poll those in the College.
Earlier in the year, Emery Goad wrote in the Daily Kansan that he didn't like Centennial College because he didn't know what it was! Thank goodness nothing hinges on his knowledge, because there is nothing subversive or underground about Centennial College. It's function has been clearly stated, and can be generalized to this: To make efficient enrollment, record keeping, and student life for those in the program.
I BELIEVE it has fulfilled these goals with a minimum of inconveniences, and those inconveniences are excusable because of the newness of Centennial College.
Perhaps the Daily Kansan staff should dig into its log of back issues, back into its first year of publication. In infanthood, it couldn't possibly have the maturity that it today expects from Centennial College.
I believe the Daily Kansan has neglected its readers in putting so much opinion about Centennial College into a preconceived formula.
Although a skeptical watchfulness is to be nurtured in journalists on the college level, skepticism can blind a person, and has.
Mike Shearer
Topeka Freshman
FEIFFER
MR. HOOVER
THIS IS THE
SECRETARY
OF STATE.
I'VE JUST
HAD PRIVATE
DETECTIVES
CHECKING
OUT MY
TELEPHONE.
NO SIR, I AM UNABLE TO ACCEPT YOUR ASSURANCES THAT IT IS TAPPED BECAUSE IVE HAD YOUR PHONE TAPPED-
NO SIR, YOU CAN'T EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT ATTORNEY GENERAL KENNEDY IS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR MY PHONE NOT BEING TAPPED.
IN TERMS OF
SENIORITY THAT
OUGHT TO PUT ME
WAY UP THERE.
OH SURE NOW
YOU SAY YOU'RE
INTERESTED, BUT
HOW CAN I
CONTINUE IN
OFFICE WHEN I
HEARD ON MY
DREW PEARSON
TAP THAT HES
ABOUT TO
BREAK THE
STORY THAT
I'M NOT
TAPPED!