KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2010 / NEWS
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CAMPUS
Pulitzer Prize winner receives KU journalism award
BY ALISON CUMBOW alisonc@kansan.com
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Miami Herald. He is visiting the University today to receive
the William Allen White Foundation's National Citation at 1:30 p.m. in the Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
Pitts
The William Allen White Foundation trustees nominate
individuals yearly. Nominated individuals are professional journalists who have made a notable contribution to an informed public and who have won broad acclaim and respect at a national level
from their peers over a significant period of time, according to the press release. Ann Brill, dean of journalism, is the president of the foundation.
The Kansan spoke with Pitts about receiving the award.
What do you think the future of journalism is?
There will always be a need for gathering and reporting and disseminating news and what's going on. The question is what form it will take. I think that print media are in a decline, and I don't know if we're going to see a reversal of that. I'd frankly be happy if it stays the way it is. The fear is that if and when print media go away, then who is going to be performing the watchdog function on local and state government? National news, broadcast news and cable news don't do that. Local news covers local
murders, sports teams and weather. They don't really get into originating reporting on what's going on in the statehouse, on what's going on in the government mansion. I think there's a real danger if we lose newspapers, we lose something that's not replaceable.
What are your thoughts on the relief efforts in Haiti?
I am glad that they've been so mas
sive. I know that they've probably been a little bit confused at times, but I think that is going to be part and partial of any large effort like this. I'm glad that help seems to be getting to people who are in desperate need of it.
What kind of impression do you want to have left on journalism?
The only thing that I hope to do as a writer is to inspire people to think, and maybe change some minds, but at the very least, to think, which I don't think we do nearly often enough. If I encouraged thought, I'd be perfectly satisfied with that.
What does receiving this award mean to you?
Receiving an award is validation. It means that somebody thinks you've done a good job. And for a lot of us as
writers, we are very self-critical. And we don't always realize when we've done good work, so it's kind of nice to have someone to pull you out of gazing at your own navel, and pat you on the back, and say that's a good piece of work you did. That's always very welcome and very gratifying and very much appreciated.
What do you read?
I read Miami Herald, The Washington Post, The LA Times, CNN.com. I don't watch too many of the news broadcasts, I read The Atlantic monthly, Entertainment Weekly, Kathleen Parker, David Border, George Will, Stephen King, Larry McMurtry, James McBride, novels, history, biography, non-fiction. I read a lot of stuff.
Edited by Cory Bunting
ENTERTAINMENT
Campus project lets students be the movie critics
BY ELLIOT METZ
emetz@kansan.com
With the Oscars coming up next month, a lot of experts are offering their opinions on what makes movies great. Now a project by the Lewis and Templin residence halls is putting that decision into the hands of University students.
The project, "Lewis and Templin Presents: The Greatest American Movie," kicked off its first round of voting. Wednesday and Thursday at Wesco Beach and the Kansas Union.
The project began with a list of 100 movies loosely based on a similar list from the American
Film Institute. This week's round of voting pared the list down from 100 to 50 movies. Over the next three weeks, the list will be whittled down to a list of 10, said Cody Charles, complex director for Lewis and Templin in an e-mail.
At that point, the voting will head to a "Greatest American Movie" website, which will host the voting along with a forum and discussion board on which students can debate the possible winners.
On March 4, the winning movie will be shown at the Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union at 8 p.m.
VOTING SCHEDULE:
Edited by Kirsten Hudson
100 movies down to 50:
■ February 3 and 4
50 movies down to 25:
■ February 10 at Mrs. E's from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
■ February 11 at Oliver Hall from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
25 movies down to 10:
■ February 17 at Wescoe Beach from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and
■ February 18 at the Kansas Union 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
What's your favorite movie?
Top 25 List of the American Film Institute's top 100 movies
9. Vertigo (1958)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968)
16. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
17. The Graduate (1967)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954*
1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
6. Gone with the Wind (1939)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler's List (1993)
20. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some like it Hot (1959)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
To see a full list of AFI's top 100 movies, see www.jfkldsjafkdl-jal.com
AMANDA PETERS Wamego freshman "Step Brothers' because it's frickin' hilarious"
TAYLAR DEERE
Lansing freshman
"Dumb and Dumber, because it's the perfect amount of stupid and funny."
ERIKA STATZEL
ERIKA STATZEL Fort Worth, Texas, freshman "The Lion King,because it describes people's lives."
ERIC HAYES
Wichita freshman
"Dazed and Confused, because it's a classic."
AUSTIN MOHS
Omaha, Neb., freshman
"The Dark Knight, because the Joker is great and the action is great."
KIERSTEN HANCOCK Salina sophomore "Tommy Boy, because it's hilarious."
CRIME
Officers face penalty for destroying records linked to racial profiling
BY JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press
Associated Press
PHOENIX — A federal judge will decide whether to impose sanctions against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office for its acknowledged destruction of police records in a lawsuit that accuses deputies of racially profiling countless Hispanics in immigration sweeps.
U. S. District Judge Murray Snow heard arguments Thursday over whether the law enforcement agency should be punished for throw
Since early 2008, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has run 13 immigration and crimes sweeps consisting of deputies and posse volunteers who flood an area of a city — in some cases heavily Latino areas — to seek out traffic violators and arrest other violators.
ing away and shredding officers' records of traffic stops and for not handing over all its e-mails about the sweeps.
The lawsuit alleged that officers based some traffic stops on the race of Hispanics who were in vehicles.
Arpaio is known for tough jail policies, including housing inmates in tents in the desert, and pushing the bounds for how local law enforcement agencies can confront illegal immigration.
had no probable cause to pull them over and made the stops so they could inquire about their immigration status.
He has repeatedly denied the racial profiling allegations, saying people pulled over in the sweeps were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they
had committed crimes and that it was only afterward that deputies found many of them were illegal immigrant.
them were illegal immigrants.
Peter Kozinets, an attorney for the handful of Latinos who filed the lawsuit, said the traffic-stop records would have helped show that the agency used the stops to
Latinos and that the e-mails would have provided details of how the
The lawsuit alleged that officers based some traffic stops on the race of Hispanics who were in the vehicles.
immigration patrols were planned and carried out.
used the stops to racially profile that depositions be reopened for
Kozinets asked the judge to draw an unspecified "adverse inference" about the actions of the sheriff's office.
sheriff's officials who have already given testimony and that the agency pay for the costs associated with reopening depositions and litigating the records dispute.
Timothy Casey, an attorney representing the sheriff's office, rejected that argument.
"My clients acted in good faith," he said.
Casey said the traffic-stop records were discarded, but that it was an honest error and that the sheriff's office has handed over some e-mails about the sweeps.