Page 2 University Daily Kansan Thursday, April 4, 1963 Two Views on News The Kennedy administration has been coming under increasing pressure to explain and to modify its news management policies. Hallelujah. Maybe we'll finally see some changes. REPORTERS have leveled their criticisms at lies told by the government and at the barring of reporters from covering news events—all supposedly in the interests of "national security." The reporters say, and rightly, that administrative lies told to the press and attempts by the administration to use the press to further its ends are never justifiable. They destroy the faith of the press in government reports and they destroy the faith of the public in both the newspapers and the government. The second point—barring reporters from covering stories—has not been satisfactorily explained. IT WAS reported by UPI that White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger was asked at a meeting of the Women's National Press Club why the administration barred reporters from covering the U.S. fleet in its quarantine of Cuba when such bans on the press had not been imposed during actual war. "This was a very difficult decision," Salinger replied. "It was taken because we felt that the only chance for real success was to keep the Russians guessing on how we would react should they attempt to run the blockade. We had to keep the element of surprise." RUBBISH. President Kennedy explained over national television what he planned to do. How would the presence of reporters on the scene have changed what did happen? The danger in the administration's attitude is that the public will never have more than the administration's word on what has been going on. And the administration has proved that its word is none too reliable. Some facets of the United States' connection with the Cuban invasion in 1961 have only recently come to light. It makes us wonder what else happened that we were never told about. We're not saying that the Kennedy administration isn't trying to do its best to improve conditions in and concerning the United States. We are saying the administration doesn't have the right to act in secret without an outside source—the press—on hand to let the public know at least eventually what has taken place. Minnesota Daily We are indebted to James Reston, chief of the Washington Bureau of The New York Times, for bringing sanity into the congressional hearings on "managed" news. Broadcasters and newspaper executives have been accusing the government of deceiving the people in times of crisis and engaging in policies that restrict or distort the news. Unfortunately, there is a basis for these accusations. The Defense Department still is inhibiting the flow of news by its rule that anyone who talks with a reporter must have an information officer present or report the conversation to the information office the same day. That is a bad rule and should be revoked. BUT TO SAY, as did a vice-president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, that there is "a really serious crisis in the credibility of Government pronouncements," is stretching a good point a long way. As part of his documentation the speaker cited an incident in the Eisenhower Administration, but by and large the critics of "managed news" were rather quiet during the time the great master of "managed" news, James Hagerty, was President Eisenhower's press secretary. Mr. Reston told the Congressmen: "I think a good reporter can dig out of this town (Washington) a great deal more information than when I came here 25 years ago." That is the reaction of one of the best newspapermen in the business, and it points to something that a good many editors, reporters and publishers seem unaccountably to overlook. That is that a major function of the newspaper is to unearth facts that someone wants to cover up. This, indeed, is the responsibility of the press, and the price it must pay for its constitutional guarantee of freedom. If it does not do this it is not doing its job and it is not, in fact, and is not worthy to be, free. THIS IS in no way to condone any effort by Government to suppress or "manage" news to its own advantage. But it is a mistake to become so involved in blaming the Government that one forgets his own obligation to dig out the facts, break down the barriers, and print the truth no matter what is said or done. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch THE RESCUE, by Joseph Conrad (Doubleday Anchor, $1.45). Perhaps the most exotic of all Conrad's novels of the sea is "The Rescue." Yet it is more than a romantic work; it also has in its central character one of literature's most overpowering figures. The story itself seems only a step beyond the Dorothy Lamour-Jon Hall epics of two decades ago—a yacht that wrecks on a southeast Asian island shore, where a group of island chiefs are committed to restoring a young prince to his throne. Simple as it sounds, the development is more than exciting; it is suspenseful and profound. The chief character is the English sea captain Linguard, who is torn by circumstances between his loyalty to the native prince and his love for an Englishwoman who is the wife of the yacht's owner. Conrad effectively describes the disintegration of Linguard. * * THE SCARLET FEATHER, by Dale Van Every (Bantam, 50 cents). Dale Van Every not only is a novelist whose theme is the American frontier he also is a historian of some note. "The Scarlet Feather" is about Indiana in 1779, about settlers who came up the Ohio by keel boat, led by a Virginia aristocrat. Their encounters with a white renegade, who wants the daughter of one of the men, form much of the excitement. LORDS OF THE PSYCHON, by Daniel F. Galouye (Bantam, 40 cents). Here is a new science fiction volume, telling about life after the Third Nuclear War, when squatters lived in the ruins and the U.S. armed forces had to fight off the "Spheres," who could select any living human being. $$ $$ READ, WRITE, SPEAK FRENCH, by Mendor Brunetti (Bantam, 95 cents). This is a handy guide for students studying French. It includes help in reading, writing and speaking, conjugations, idioms, vocabulary, and reading selections. Letters Editor: Apathy I'd like to commend Terry Murphy for his article on apathy and the ASC. Apathy, that pallid horror, has held this campus in its grip too long. We need more articles about apathy. But, what's the ASC? K. C. King Junction City senior * * * Campus Politics Editor: In looking at the campaigning tactics in the current student elections one thought comes to my mind. Are the so-called political parties on campus really interested in improving student government or tearing each other apart? It seems to me that real political organizations should concentrate on strengthening their own party platforms rather than attacking destructively another platform on issues of nebulous importance. If campus politics are to really mean something I think that the parties involved should assume a more professional appearance and cease making a force out of student government. Flaine McRobbie Leawood freshman Short Ones The works of great poets have never yet been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them. —Henry David Thoreau To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is perpetual morning. —henry David Thoreau Ponderables "False Prosperity" Feels Real What's all this jazz about false prosperity? Just when I thought that I had it pretty good, Barry Goldwater tells me that I really shouldn't enjoy what I have because it is a mirage. I'm not really prosperous, it is just a delusion created by fuzzy-thinking economists. He tells me that ours is a chrome-plated facade of prosperity ready to topple into a full-scale disaster from its putty-soft pedestal of federal spending. THIS IS indeed a terrible prospect. It would mean—in the full sense of the word—depression. Bread and soup lines, tin cups and pencils, and in general a situation that would dash my fondest dreams of someday owning the car that I drive plus a growing percentage of equity in a vine-covered cottage amidst the restful shade of a pin oak grove. I suppose that I could learn to stand in line, hustle pencils and live (unhappily) in a brownstone tenement; but there is one thing I couldn't stand: Sen. Goldwater saying, "I told you so." NOT THAT he wouldn't be right. It's just that while he was chirping the national anthem of the Predicators of Doom, he also would be sitting in his counting house. And there is another thing I can't stand: A rich I-Told-You-Soer. But even if, by some miracle, this false prosperity I am astride on my ride to economic perdition should prove durable enough to last through my life, a problem would persist. It would be double-edged. When I get up in the morning, I am putting on a shirt, sox, trousers, shoes and undies that are the fruit of a false prosperity. Now I ask you—how can I get anything done, if, as a conscientious, clear-thinking American, I continually have to wonder if it will all evaporate as Sen. Goldwater predicts? WHY, IT would be terrible. My wife would send me to the supermarket (another mirage created by false prosperity) to pick up a dozen eggs, a No.10 tin of chow mein and a package of frozen breast of turtle, and before I got there, I would forget. But it is natural I want to be a conscientious, clear-thinking, loyal American, and all conscientious, clear-thinking, loyal Americans spend 9 out of their 10 waking hours walking around in a snit looking for a tell-tale signal of the coming disaster. With that load on my mind, how can my wife possibly expect me to remember something as trivial as food? But then again, it's understandable. My wife is one of those fuzzy-thinkers who doesn't realize that our car, clothing and food are just a mirage. She is just silly enough to believe that her appetite is satisfied by a plate of this imaginary food, our transportation needs filled by an imaginary car and that we are kept warm by clothes produced in a false economy. BUT IT'S understandable; our car drives much like a car produced in a true economy, the food tastes much like food grown and marketed in a true economy, and our clothes look and feel like clothes produced and marketed in a true economy. What makes it even more difficult to buy Sen. Goldwater's line is that I have no way of knowing how it feels to live in a true economy. But I've heard from the survivors of the Dirty '30s that those true economy deals aren't so very much fun. They tell me that no matter how hard I try I'd never learn to like unemployment and CCC camps and the other things that go along with true economies. THEN AGAIN, maybe that shows how right Sen. Goldwater is on another point: The youth of today have no sense of adventure. And we all know that's what made America great. Just the same I'll go along and hope against hope that our economy doesn't fold into depression. It's a whole lot better than a guaranteed depression. Thanks anyway, Senator. — Terry Murphy Daily Hansan University of Kansas student newspaper Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912 Telephone Vlking 3-2700 Extension 376. business office Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas. NEWS DEPARTMENT Fred Zimmerman ... Managing Editors Ben Marshall, Bill Sheldon, Mike Miller, Art Miller, Margaret Cathcart ... Assistant Managing Editors Scott Payne ... City Editor Trudy Meserve and Jackie Stern ... Co-Society Editors Steve Clark ... Sports Editor Murrel Bland ... Photograph Editor EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Dennis Branstiter Editorial Editor Terry Murphy Assistant Editorial Editor BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Jack Cannon, Business Manager; Jim Stevens, Assist. Business Mgr.; Mike Carson, Advertising Mgr.; Joanne Zabornik, Circulation Mgr.; Brooks Harrison, Classified Mgr.; Bob Brooks, National Adv. Mgr.; Charles Hayward, Promotion Mgr.; Bill Finley, Merchandising Mgr.