KU
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan
A student newspaper serving KU
WEATHER WARM
78th Year, No.123
See Weather Below
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Tuesday, April 30, 1968
CARL ROWAN
Carl Rowan, syndicated columnist and former director of the U.S. Information Agency, spoke on "The Mass Media in an Era of Explosive Social Change" Monday night at the University Theatre. The talk was given in conjunction with the William Allen White Centennial Seminar. See related story at right and on page 16.
Heart transplant hurts man's brain
A three-man team headed by Dr. Christian Cabrol gave Clovis Roblain, a retired truckdriver,
PARIS—(UPI)—A 66-year-old French grandfather, whose faltering heart was replaced by one from a 23-year-old metal-worker Sunday in Europe's first heart transplant, suffered brain damage during the nine-hour operation, doctors said Monday.
Clovis Roblain, the world's seventh heart transplant patient died today, 51 hours after he received the heart of a 23-year-old auto accident victim.
the heart of Michel Gyppaz, who died Saturday night of brain injuries suffered in an auto accident.
More than 25 hours later, surgeon's said Roblain's blood circulation was "perfect," his heart beat "normal," but the condition of his brain was causing concern. The operation, carried out in
BULLETIN
New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller today announced he will actively seek the Republican nomination for President. See page 7 for a related story.
WEATHER
The U.S. Weather Bureau predicts fair weather today and Wednesday with unseasonably warm daytime temperatures. The high today will be near 80 and the low tonight from 45 to 50. Precipitation probabilities will be near zero today through Wednesday.
L'Hospital de la Pitie on the left bank of Paris, was the world's seventh heart transplant. There have been three in the United States, two in South Africa and one in India.
The only other heart recipient still alive is Dr. Philip Blaiberg, a retired dentist of Cape Town, South Africa. Pioneer heart surgeon Christian Barnard gave Blaiberg a new heart Jan. 2. The 58-year-old Blaiberg is at home and doing better than anticipated.
Press needs to accept major social change role
By Monte Mace Kansan Staff Reporter
The press must play a large role in sustaining reasons and erasing contradictions in "an era of explosive social change." Carl T. Rowan, columnist and former director of the United States Information Agency (USIA), said at the University Theatre in Murphy Hall Monday night.
"We live in a time when men are more inclined to rely on force and oppression than ever before," Rowan said. "If reason is not to fail men in our time, we of the press must give men the information, the knowledge, to sustain reason."
Rowan worked as a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune nearly 13 years and then became deputy assistant secretary of state, and Ambassador to Finland during the Kennedy administration. After serving as USIA director, Rowan became a nationally-syndicated commentator whose column is carried in 100 newspapers.
"I do not mean a journalism that offers only the pre-sweetened pap of empty optimism," the columnist said. "We can still tell our readers the hard truths, the grim realities, and still have it add up to constructive journalism."
Rowan, participating in the William Allen White Centennial Seminar on "The Role of the Mass Media in a Free Society," especially criticized the press for ignoring the race problem in America "for too many decades."
Rowan called for a journalism of hope, in a time of a "lack of communications across international lines and across ethnic boundaries in this country."
The failure of communication between the press, the public and government, and between Negroes and whites can be blamed on fear of one kind or another, Rowan said.
"Much that is wrong with the mass media today can be attributed to some kind of fear. Fear of controversy. Fear of advertisers. And most of all, fear of disapproval by the publisher's or editor's peer group—by the boys down at the club."
Communications problems at the USIA arose, the Tennessee-born Negro said, because many Americans don't appreciate the potency of words.
Rowan expressed puzzlement as to why the press does not instruct the public that ideas may have more impact than the nuclear bomb.
He outlined what he considers failings of the American press:
Many newspapers hire virtual experts to report science, business, and politics but "most editors assume that anybody strong enough to carry a pencil and bright enough to string one word after another" is capable of covering civil rights and racial rioting, campus demonstrations, and other news of a social science nature.
Some reporters display "an appalling amount" of ignorance and prejudice and are the source of
information and "enlightenment" for scores of American communities.
Nobodies who have a "facility for making inflammatory statements and good copy," such as H. Rap Brown, the black power advocate, are sometimes made spokesmen for groups.
A philosophy of provincialism interest in affairs that affects only those in our own community or country—has governed many newspapers.
For all his criticisms, Rowan said he does not believe the press needs a code governing coverage of riots and racial disturbances because of all the "variables of human behavior" in reporting.
One obstacle to a newsman is the contradictions of "reporting and interpreting for a great, complex society the events and acts that are of real meaning," Rowan said.
He became "acutely aware" of the communications problem as
See Press, page 16
Reactions vary on letter to Wescoe
The first signature was obtained at 9 a.m. and four hours
Some read it with delighted chuckles while others were thoughtful or bewildered by the mimeographed letter to Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe which was passed out in front of Dyche Auditorium Monday.
The letter, drawn up by a group of discontented KU graduate students, demands that students "be allotted 50 per cent representation on all faculty and administrative committees dealing with student affairs," and that Wescoe publicly announce a removal of "external veto" on decisions reached by the All-Student Council (ASC).
Inability to communicate
Moyers notes credibility gap
Bill D. Moyers, former press secretary to President Johnson, said Monday that the President's apparent inability to communicate through the mass media—particularly television—was one factor in his decision to withdraw as a candidate for re-election to the presidency.
Moyers speech Monday in the University Theatre was made in conjunction with the William Allen White Centennial Seminar: "The Mass Media in a Free Society."
Near the end of a two-hour discussion dealing with the credibility gap and the relationship of the press to American government, Moyers said President Johnson had acquired an uncanny sense of speech-making "long ago, when he campaigned for the Senate in 1948."
At that time, Moyers said, Johnson had an ability to persuade small crowds—three or four thousand—in the old style of stump speech campaigning.
But now, the editor and publisher of Newsday, Long Island, N.Y., said, the president's ability at making the overstatement—a carry-over from former campaign days—has had a disreputable effect on his image.
In discussing the credibility gap, Moyers said the press is obligated to increase the public's understanding of it, because it has certainly increased the public's awareness of it.
"I have no question but that we in the government overreacted to the charges of incredibility, partly because any man smarts and grows defensive when his integrity is assaulted. But, if we have overreacted, the press has under-explained," he said.
The "crisis of confidence" does not concern only public officials, but also college and university students throughout the country, who have confronted Moyers with
The late President Kennedy, Moyers said, mastered the art of subtle understatement, and was able to project his point in this manner.
doubts concerning the truthfulness of both the government and the press.
Moyers wondered whether the press was justified in condemning deception and concealment by government officials if the press, however good its intentions, is itself a party to deception and concealment.
The group hopes to collect more than 1,000 signatures each day until Thursday, when the letter will be given to Wescoe.
Moyers said the "indiscriminate use of background" as the source of hard news stories afflicted the credibility of the press because government reporters seeking information on a background basis must frequently promise not to quote the man they are talking to in order to receive particular pieces of a story.
later more than 400 students had signed the letter. Stan Freberg, West Coast advertising executive and satirist lecturing at the journalism seminar Monday morning, signed his name in sprawling letters, after an abortive attempt to pass as Mario Savio.
The press and the government are not allies. They are adversaries, Moyers said in describing the relationship of the press to the government. In making efforts to alleviate skepticism, the press should beware of "tangling alliances with public officials."
Chancellor Wescool, who will be out of town until Tuesday night, was unavailable for comment. The letter demands that his response and "guarantees of an institutionalized student voice" be announced publicly in the Kansan by Thursday of this week.
See Credibility, page 6
"How can we expect people to
Openly asking for increased student voice in University affairs, the letter declares that last week's public forum with Francis Heller, acting provost and dean of faculties, was the basis for their stance. At this forum, the letter says, Heller asserted that the University does not exist for the students, and that because the students are "transients" it is difficult to give them a voice in administrative decisions.
Clif Conrad, Bismarck, N.D., junior and president of ASC, said he was "highly in favor" of a removal of administrative veto on ASC decisions. "But it's highly improbable the Chancellor will turn over the government of the University to the students. The letter shows some good thought, but it's not a very sophisticated effort," Conrad said Monday afternoon.
WHAT'S INSIDE
Stan Freberg has new plan for television. Page 3
Bill Moyers likes western economy. Page 6
Janitors are overworked. Page 13