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University Daily Kansan Monday, March 23, 1964
Supreme Court Decision:
A Freer Press
In the recent Supreme Court libel case ruling, the press was given license to make defamatory statements of fact about public officials.
Wrote Justice Brennan:
"The constitutional guarantees require, we think, a Federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a dafamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made without 'actual malice'—that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not."
The ruling was generally hailed by the press and civil libertarian groups as being a real step towards more open and meaningful discussion of public affairs.
PROBABLY it is, because newspapers will no
longer have to live in fear of being ruined financially by a libel suit brought against them for criticizing a public official.
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However, there could well be dangerous effect in the Supreme Court decision.
Before the ruling, able men avoided public life because of the stigma on politicians. It is an American cliche to say that politics is "dirty business."
It seems that giving the press license to say just about anything it pleases will only aggravate the attitude towards serving in public life. The air may well just get so full of mud that even more able men will stay at home.
Tom Coffman
Johnson's First 100 Days:
A Success Story
It is an amazing thing to behold the way this man has been showing himself in the four months he has been in the White House. There is about him an oversized quality that might even be greatness, although one cannot say that there has been greatness in any single act or speech or in their cumulative impact. Sometimes he is just right, mostly on the solemn occasions when he beseeched some of the advisers of the former administration not to leave him, not to break the continuity, as if he were not on his own now; at other times he seems to be pulling somebody's leg, as when he appealed to "men of ideas" to help him on a sometime, anytime basis, and without status.
IN FOREIGN POLICY, his speeches, and for all we know his actions, have undoubtedly been inspired by his desire to follow the line of the New Frontier, but with the dark, Wagnerian notes of drama, with the somber prophecy of endless stretches of toil ahead, all gone. Instead, there is more of a lullaby quality in his speeches; everything will turn out more or less all right; we had better stick to the troubles we have lost we make room for worse, and so forth. In his foreign-affairs pronouncements he is inclined to overplay the Texan provincial act in spite of the fact that he has completely reached national stature. But so far, he seems inclined to prefer exhibiting this national stature only for home consumption.
With all due respect, we fail to be convinced by his show of provincialism, and we would advise foreign leaders to go slow in reaching their conclusions and to keep their guard up. The same advice could be given to some of the domestic opponents in both parties. The man gives an enormous amount of himself to the job, but keeps at least an equal amount to himself, taking notes, storing up. There is, we feel, a sophisticated, deliberate quality in his folksy lack of sophistication. He keeps his energy in reserve for the right time. That time may come even before he is elected to a term of his own.
HE IS GREATLY CONCERNED with what is printed about him and reacts, so it is said, tirelessly and crudely. Frequently, authoritative reporters from Washington carry in their columns scarcely veiled hints of background news on imminent policy developments that sometimes sound as if they had been planted directly in the Oval Room or else near it. As is well known, he dislikes the traditional press conference for the excellent reason that he is not good at it. But why isn't he good? We are inclined to think he is the kind of person who wants to keep purposeful control over his Freudian slips.
Of course he is self-centered. But what man ever got to that position who was not? We have the feeling that he is centered on what he is going to do in living up to that position, rather than on his own image. Quite a man, we would say.
Max Ascoli The Reporter
Hopefully, a Better UDK:
Letters Policy
Because of the intense activity on campus in recent months, the UDK editorial department has been blessed with a deluge of letters to the editor for "The People Say" column.
In the past, it has been policy to reprint all letters which do not violate laws concerning the press, such as libel laws and invasion of privacy laws, and do not violate general standards of good taste.
BECAUSE of the length and number of the letters submitted, some of them have been printed so late as to be untimely.
To give UDK readers relevant and timely reading matter in the letters column, the blanket policy of reprinting all letters has been revised as follows:
1. When a letter is submitted longer than 300
3. Letters which address a subject of so limited interest that only a handful of readers will know to what the contributor is referring will not be printed.
2. Letters which do no more than echo views already expressed in the column will not be printed.
words, the contributor will be asked to rewrite his comments in briefer form.
FOR A positive word about readers' contributions—the letters are stimulating to other readers and UDK writers alike. Often they express a significant view which the staff has overlooked.
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It is hoped that these policy revisions will further stimulate the interest in "The People Say" column.
- The Editors
Questions Picketing As Effective Method
(Editor's Note: The "Dialogue" column is open to informative opinion articles from readers and UDK staff writers other than the editorial page staff.)
The Civil Rights Coordinating Committee picketed the Sigma Nu fraternity Saturday and plans to picket the lighting of the Greek Week torch and the chariot races this weekend.
THIS WRITER is in deep sympathy with the aims and goals of the CRCC and the civil rights movement on the KU campus. But at the same time it seems necessary to question some of the methods that are being used to advance the movement.
After talking to a good many students one thing seems clear. The civil rights movement is losing much of the support and sympathy that it once had from the white students.
Why? Many students are tired of the picketing of almost any and everything. It has caused an attitude of "So what, they are always picketing something." It has also hurt a good many feelings.
THE CRCC HAS EXPLAINED time and again that they cannot stress enough that the demonstrations are not against the fraternity and sorority system."
But students, and not just fraternity and sorority members exclusively, still feel themselves threatened in some way by the protest demonstrations. The reasons for fear are many and are largely unjustified. White economic, political, and social status is seen as being usurped by the rising Negro.
The crux of the Negro problem in America is the attitudes of the whites towards the Negro. Because they lack the same economic, political, and social power that the white enjoy the Negro can make no significant advances until the whites can change their minds and their hearts.
"IF, FOR EXAMPLE, we assume that for some reason white prejudice could be decreased and discrimination mitigated, this is likely to cause a rise in Negro standards, which may decrease white prejudice still a little more, which would again allow Negro standards to rise, and so on through mutual interaction. If instead, discrimination should become intensified, we should see the vicious circle spiraling downward."
"White prejudice and discrimination keep the Negro low in standards of living, health, education, manners and morals. This, in its turn, gives support to white prejudice. White prejudice and Negro standards thus mutually 'cause' each other. If things remain about as they are and have been, this means that the two forces happen to balance each other. If either of the factors changes, this will cause a change in the other factor, too, and start a process of interaction where the change in one factor will continuously be supported by the reaction of the other factor.
GUNNAR MYRDAL, in his "An American Dilemma," a classic survey of the American Negro, outlines his "principle of cumulation," sometimes called the "vicious circle," in this way:
THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT discovered long ago that initial advances of the Negro position could be made by playing on the guilt feelings of the whites. Guilt can be a powerful force but it is doubtful whether it is effective in the long run. It would appear that feelings of guilt lead only to more prejudice. It is pretty hard to love someone who makes you feel guilty.
Moreover, white people are moved by the spirit of freedom and the American dream of equal opportunity for all as well as by the major economic, social and political forces. The discrepancy between what white people believe and what they do causes them to feel guilty.
While picketing by the CRCC probably does not increase discrimination it does tend to increase prejudice and one can apply Myrdal's concept of the "vicious circle" to the present campus situation. If the opinion sampled is any indication the circle is at a standstill or the spiral has already started downward.
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to love someone who makes you feel better. Myrdal suggests that more education, through academic training and sincere social contact, might eradicate some of the false beliefs among whites concerning the Negro.
Both black and white must dedicate themselves to a clear-sighted understanding of the problem and a practical and rational approach to the solution of the racial question. The whole issue must not be distorted by excessive emotionalism.
There is no easy solution to the*racial question in America. Panaceas are futile. We cannot afford to delude ourselves into believing that we can change everything overnight, in the next year or in the next twenty years.
— Rick Mabbutt
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Founded 1889, became Diweekly 1904, trieweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912,
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rence, Kansas.
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