ediforia
A
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ASUN
gerrymandering
Talk of UNL student government being mickey
mouse is perennial, but those comments need not be
quite so critical. ASUN can perform a valuable
service, but it seems that this particular form of
government in many instances gets caught up in petty
politics too soon and too often, often resembling
other forms of larger governments we live with in this
country.
This week before the ASUN Senate is a proposed
set of guidelines intended to govern the structure of
the ASUN elections to be held in March. The report
originally called for the polling places for the election
to be located in several campus classroom buildings
and the Unions on the City and East Campuses.
When the report was first presented to ASUN last
week it then contained a list specifying these
Darticuiar locations. When it met with bitter
opposition from some senators the report was tabled.
It is expected to come up again Wednesday only
slightly modified.
The central issue raised by certain senators
regarded the report's not naming residence hall
locations as polling places. Those presenting the
Electoral Commission report contended that dorm
polling places would tend to bias the overall vote in
favor of dormitory residents.
Now it is said that the report to be presented this
week provides no mention of polling places. It is also
said that the Electorial Commission plans to continue
to avoid use of residence halls as places for students
to cast their ballots.
The initial recommendation of the Electoral
Commission is to be considered as an attempt at poor
political gerrymandering at best. The arguments
against having polling places in residence hall
locations are equally feeble.
ASUN senators should at this point be vividly
concerned about involving as many students as
possible in the spring elections. Residence hall
locations would certainly serve as a vehicle for
increasing student participation in the elections.
The Electoral Commission and the ASUN Senate
should seek as many polling locations as possible. The
addition of residence hall locations is the best way.
Right on Masters
AH things must pass.
Masters Week has indeed passed, but not without
considerable exposure to this community. The list of
graduates of UNL who were invited back to the
community to share their successes on Monday and
Tuesday of this week was indeed impressive. They
visited classrooms, students, faculty members and
served in a variety of capacities beneficial to many.
The Mortar Board chapter and Innocents society,
with the tremendous cooperation of several
administrators are to be complemented on the fine
program that availed some of this institution's finest
products to the entire University.
Barry Pilger
J
jonet
white
collido-
0SCCS3
"Profits Soar 160 Al Merrill Lynch"
""Merrill Lynch Indicates Profit
Plunged in June""
These are two headline that were
published the same day. the first an the
New York Timet, and the second in the
Wall Strcei Journal 1 he firs emphasized
six-month figures, the second emphasized
quarterly figures, Both headlines are
credible, but they leave readers with
entirely different conceptions.
Such discrepancies are unavoidable;
they result from perception, selection and
emphasis on the ""newsworthy." They are
common enough that many readers give
guarded acceptance to newspaper
objectivity. An Associated Press Managing
Editors (APME) study showed that 49
per cent of respondents believed their
newpaper's stand on politics affected
news stories in the paper.
Distrust of the newt media is
unmistakable in popular allusions to the
""credibility gap." Like most overused
phrases, however, "the credibility gap"
has become nondescript and
misunderstood. It casts a slur on the news
media -whose shortcoming are largely
unavoidable. Failings in newspaper
production, by themselves, do not
account for the difference between what
is real and what is reported.
The great est distortion of news today
is done by those who manufacture
news-individuals, groups, businesses or
officials who synthesize events in order to
direct desirable public attention to
specific information. Several writers have
termed such planned news
""pseud o-event s ."
Pseudo-events include news
conferences, recognition banquets,
interviews and deliberate government
"leaks." Ira a recent issue ol a Lincoln
paper, four of seven front page st ories fell
into this category.
A pseudo-event may also be a
demonstration or a sitnin, instruments
through which minority groups gain
public sympathy.
Maneuvering into the news spotlight
is not objectionable if it is done in the
public interest-in the context of
legitimate public controversy. But it is
questionable when it is done by the
government in an effort to project a
favorable, but inaccurate, image. In this
setting, it does not add information, but
subtracts or selectively discloses it.
The recent government injunction
against two newspapers for publishing the
("Pentagon Papers") caused Max Frankel
Washington bureau chief of the New
York Times, to reflect, "The uses of
top-secret information by our
government in deliberate leaks to the
press for the purposes of influencing
public opinion are recorded, cited and
commented upon in several places of the
"Pentagon Papers") study. Alao cited and
analyzed are numerous examples of how
the government Hied to control the
release of such secret information so as to
have it appear at a desired time, or in a
desired publication, or in a deliberately
loud or soft manner for maximum or
minimum impact."
He noted there werr fcuroerous records
of classified information that was
""leaked" without officially being
declassified.
The government classification of
information is undefined and arbitrary.
Tom Wicker, associate editor of the New
York Times, reports that one high
government official said he routinely
classifies any thing that goes through his
office "top-secret" because "nobody has
given him really rational reasons for
classifying a document or not." Wicker
reports that several hundred other people
have similar power.
A certain degree of news manipulation
by public officials can be expected. But
arbitrary classification and selective
disclosure of government operations
allows the public to be deceived and
misled.
More rigorous criteria for classification
are necessary not only for greater news
credibility, but for effective
policy-making itself. Both the public and
Congress arc hampered by limited access
to information about executive
functions.
A classification system that is
maneuvered according to the political
whim of administrators is intolerable.
Only when meaningful information is
widely disseminated are policy decisions
responsible and public officials
accountable.
4
. 4 THE pAlLY JNJEBRASKAN
. WEDNESDA Y.FEBRUARY 16. 1972
