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monday, novcmbcr 0, 1070
daily ncbrasksn
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D
efeai of propaganda plan reaffirms media's roles
"The role of the press vis-a-vis the government is
essentially that of eternal vigilance (John S.
Knight, Detroit Free Press)
Not the other way around.
It was encouraging to read that the world
reaffirmed this role Saturday when the U.N.
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiza
tion voted five to one against making states res
ponsible for the international activities of all mass
media "under their jurisdiction.".
The Soviets, backers of the proposal they say
would aid in more complete, accurate Third
World coverage, said the phrase "under their
jurisdiction" meant governments should be held
responsible for news services and broadcast sta
tions they own.
: The distasteful proposal has been sent to the
drafting committee for revision. This move is
expected to stall until 1978 any further action on
the subject.
While it is unlikely the free world ever will
approve state control of the media, the contents
of the defeated document should give all those .
in the business of delivering the news cause for
reflection,
. Accurate, complete news coverage is wanting in
many areas particularly the Third World. Grant
ed, covering the news around the globe is becom-.
ing more difficult. Political and other observors
have a hard time sorting out the fast-paced
upsets in countries which up to a few years ago
were unheard of so it is not surprising journalists
don't have all the facts.
There is already secrecy and censorship in some
nations. But accurate reporting requires that
media overcome these handicaps.
The press can help assure support remains on
its side when and if this proposal crops up again
by improving its coverage.
The press has to get as close to 100 per cent
coverage as possible and must make sure it is
not promoting conflict by inadequate coverage.
(Violence is the only way some dissenters can get
the rest of their world to hear their cause.)
Editorially, the press should make every effort
to get ahead of events rather than merely react
to them. :
What it comes down to is assuring the press
gains the public's confidence through fair, com
plete coverage because freedom of the press
rests ultimately on public confidence in what it
turns out. - -.
These suggestions are made with the knowledge
that it has become fashionable to blame the
world's ills on the press and that criticizing a
fault is easier than curing it.
And while there will always be room for im
provement in the press, Moscow's proposal (plan
for the promotion of propaganda, for short) '
could only hamper any improvement in sketchy
reporting. . .
v: m-l V Govern me? 4TALV(Kf.l XX
. . . . yrA ,
Death is hot an unmentionable subject
By Nicholas Von Hoffman ' "
- October-November is the season of the harvest and
nature's most psychedelic colors. It is also the season of
ghosts, of Halloween, and of skeletons doing the dance
macabre in the night, one of the periods of the year when
we observe the Cult of the Dead. For this is the time of
Veterans Day when wreaths are laid at tombs where the
soldiers stand guard and where flags and flowers are put
on graves less grand. ,
; Nothing in this world or the next would seem to be
more settled, less changeable than the rituals and practices
of death, but it's not so. Our attitudes and behavior have
changed fairly frequently through the centuries and may
be about to change again:
Our dying and our deaths are expressions of our life and
our living, and the outward signs are that we'd like to
make some changes if we only knew what and how.
"-. We're at something of a crossroads as to how to dispose
of our bodies. Cremation or burial or tome form of pre
servation? In much of Western Europe, it appears, crema
tion and the rapid nullification of any public expression
of memory of the dead is on the ascendancy. r
sidewise
This isnl, cf course, true cf the United State's official
observance, like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but
the outward signs of mourning so universal in the 19th
century have vanished on both sides of the Atlantic.
little tlack zt (uzmli
Elack busting is now seen only, and even rarely, at the
church where ths fuserd senders tike phes; the black
arm bands for ths men zrd the mourning cb-Ls far"
women are unbird of. Restrictions cf acthitiei far a
period after a desth are now confhsd to the official
Cult of the Dead, the keeping cf flags at half cast, ths
csnecHition of parties and other activities which rJht I s
dzzzrl impropriety gey.
Ia ths kst four or five decays it kss Itccrzs herees
mgy usseerrJy for private people to show what's cow
considered excessive grief. He who wails too long the loss
of his beloved is liable to find himself face to face with
psychiatry. Death is bad and it's banished.
.y it's' been pointed out that whereas the Victorians did
their best to suppress sex in all its manifestations, they
reveled in death. Prolonged mourning, vising graves and
such is a very 19th century activity.
y In fact, it wasn't until the 17th century that the com
mon run of people had individualized graves for their
bereaved kin to visit. Prior to that most 'people were
buried in a common field next to the church around
which galleries were constructed. The bones from these
common graves would sometimes come to the surface, as
in Hamlet's "Alas! poor Yorick," or sometimes they
would be dug up and used to decorate the galleries. This
was the original charnel house and, far from terrifying
and disgusting our ancestors, there was a good deal of
-socializing and carrying on in such places, until in 1231
the Church Council of Rouen forbade the practice.
Merry making ia cemeteries
Evidently people'weren't as respectful of authority as
they might have bun because two centuries later the
forces of law and order were still issuing decrees against
gambling and merrymaking in cemeteries.
By the 19th century all that had changed, and we had
highly individualized mortuarial art in which the simple
headstone had given way to the declamatory figures of
angels and such.
Now that's gone. Death has become a secret subject;
too awful and taboo to speak of to children. The act of
dying is done ia such privacy that many hospitals dis
courage the presence of relatives or friends, a practice
that would have, been appalling and incomprehensible to
people 100 years ago.
There srs probably xrJUions of us who have seen other
people nuts but have never seen another human dis.
An absolute reversal cf ths past, cf ths Victorian death
scene with children xnd graadchilirca izi ths great
jrerJchilixea around ths bed with minister and friends of
the ferity in attendance. - .
.We, ca the other hand, cant teach our children about
sex ycurj eim'-t, but never is death mentioned. Deeth is
locked en u such in unmiursl, rizful act that even ths
most ardent advocates of capital punishment can't be
heard talking in favor of public execution. You would
imagine that if execution is a deterrent to crime, tele
vising our electrocutions and our gas chamber dramas
would teach the lesson even more vividly. But the mere
suggestion of such an idea makes most people gag.
Hangman's job public 1
- Our ancestors, who went with the flow of life some
what more harmoniously than we, weren't disturbed at
seeing the hangman do his job in the public squares and
marketplaces. Death wasn't as horrible or as wrong and
therefore probably not as fascinating.
. The 1 6th century had grotesque death fantasies, the
dancing skeletons and the dramatic depictions of de
composition, the vividly rich ghoulish style. The 19th
century saw the death romaticism cf the lovers who
lived to die sweet deaths in each other's arms. Beautiful
tubercular deaths were quit? the rags.
Cur passion now is for hidden, mysterious deaths. We
can't get enough of the lonely deaths of movie stars and
pop singers. Marilyn Monroe- and Janis Joplin. They
always die offstage, but if we don't permit ourselves to
see them commit suicide or allow death in our homes,
well watch it for hours when it comes ia the form cf vio
lence. It's almost as if it had to shoot its way into our
conscious recognition with magnum force. . . ,
More and more, those of us whs C2S face our own
mortality, dont wish to perish out of sight and out of
sync. So there is now talk not only of natural child
birth at home but natural death at home as well. There is
even discussion of mot els. for ths dying, or mortels, as
you might call them, where we might escape the lonely
and hidden death of the hospital to depart this earth with
our friends and relatives nearby. Requiescant in pace.
CofyytigHt, 17?S.by King FUrs tyrsixM '
Ths DiHy ftebrs-kaa welcome Lltzn to ths editor
asi guest opinions. Chokes cf materid ptilibd w3
bs fcss&4 fa tfcsdiasa and crlsslity. ictten r.u bt
acccsrreiei fcy tls Titers cr.s, t-t ry Is
crzzmszie piper. They fiicslJ be ascoass fey its
czsft tarns, dm rtrtili trJ rror, cr occcsa.'
AUrmterid nirittf j to th-s is rJt'zt t3 c'lt
asi ccnirrtica, izl cannot b r:t:i to ths
mtlzz.
