friday, may 2,1980
page 4
daily nebraskan
Second plagiarism charge hurts DN readers, staff
This is the last day of publication
for the Daily Nebraskan this spring.
Traditionally, some pages of the final
issue each semester are devoted to
parody, attempts at humor and
general disorderly conduct by our
student staff.
But these are serious times, with
the UNL Publications Board requir
ing for the first time a minimum
percentage of advertisements in the
paper each week.
Even a fun-loving student staff
thought minimizing financial losses
more important than an opportunity
to lampoon the campus community.
In some ways, it is good that the
whole of this issue attempts to be
serious, because today the Daily
Nebraskan must make public its own
dirty laundry.
A second deviation from long
standing DN tradition in today's
semester-ending issue is found in this
editorial.
Usually, this space is reserved on
the last day for a farewell from the
outgoing editor in chief. But for the
second time this semester, a letter to
the editor charges this semester's
editor with plagiarism.
Earlier this semester, Editor In
Chief Harry Allen Strunk was
charged with plagiarism of a Time
magazine article and admitted that
he borrowed several words from the
article. The Publications Board, act
ing on what was termed a "serious
breach of journalistic ethics," repri
manded Strunk. Included in the
reprimand was the statement that
any further serious violation of
ethics would be grounds for
immediate dismissal.
The Publications Board met
Thursday evening, and its decision is
included in a news story in today's
paper. This week Strunk was charged
with using some portions of a News
week article by George F. Will in an
endorsement of Ronald Reagan; an
endorsement we now consider
tainted.
The reaction of this newspaper, re
gardless of the board's decision, is
one of sorrow, for ourselves, for
Strunk, for the readers, the academic
community and, most of all, for the
tradition and good name of the Daily
Nebraskan.
This semester is over for us, and
nothing can be done to change what
has occurred, both good and bad.
Perhaps it is selfish pride tin
motivates this statement, but the
paper has had some very bright spots
through the semester, from our pers
pective. Daily Nebraskan staffers who will
return in the fall must resolve them
selves to look ahead, and plan for
another strong student newspaper of
All-American caliber.
It is hoped that readers also will
look ahead, while continuing to
scrutinize the newspaper that
strives-and will continue to strive,
with or without student fees to
serve the university community.
Goodbye, until Aug. 20.
Randy Essex
, Editor in chief
Fall 1980
'M initt tO
me
editor
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate
you on the fine level of reporting and editorializing that
your staff has maintained. We feel it has been beneficial
to the students of the University of Nebraska to read, al
most first hand, the writings of some of the country's
major journalists. For example, Harry Allen Strunk 's re
cent editorial endorsing Ronald Reagan (Wednesday, April
30), was written in part by George F. Will, nationally
known syndicated columnist. It is insignificant that the
editorial re-uses some of the exact phrases and sentences
that appeared in a column written by Mr. Will published
in the March 31, 1980 edition of Newsweek. The only
question we have is how Mr. Strunk got Mr. Will to write
for the Daily Nebraskan anonymously. One would think
Mr. Will makes his living by getting credit for the things he
writes.
We anxiously anticipate another editorial by Mr.
Strunk and humbly request that he team up with the
likes of Jack Anderson or William F. Buckley.
Hopefully next year the epidemic of the "Bubonic
Plague" will be cleared up at the University of Nebraska
with the advent of a new Daily Nebraskan editor.
Jim Schonewise
Senior, English
Jon Hedges
Senior, Journalism
Clinic: no burden
I believe that the recent article published in the Daily
Nebraskan concerning the UNL Law College's Criminal
Clinic was inaccurate and unfair.
Many, if not all, of the statements critical of the clinic
were presented without any reasonable factual basis and
appeared to be based solely on gut-reaction or prejudice.
For example, a Lancaster County Judge was quoted as
saying that a large number of the clinic's cases went to
trial as compared to other prosecutors, although then he
stated that he didn't know what percent of their cases
actually went to trial. Also, Mr. Dick Goos, Deputy Lan
caster County Public Defender was attributed as saying
that he felt his office was defending cases that would
otherwise be settled out of court. He also accused the
students of being unwilling to plea bargain and questioned
their ethics.
The truth is that out of approximately 450 cases han
dled by the current Criminal Clinic students, only eight
actually went to trial. This is less than 2 percent of all the
cases handled by the clinic.
The rest of the 450 cases were disposed of by plea bar
gains, outright guilty pleas, pre-trial diversion, transfer
to juvenile court, or were dismissed by the
students.
Of the eight cases that went to trial, not all were de
fended by the Public Defender's office. None of the cases
required a jury trial and each required only one to two
hours of actual court time. These facts indicate far less of
an actual "burden" on the court system or the Public
Defender's office than the article seems to imply.
But what is particularly disturbing about the article
is its insinuation that the clinic students are callously pur
suing innocent defendants and prosecuting them under
obscure laws in search of a grade.
It is true that the students are more prone to make a
mistake during a trial than a seasoned prosecutor. This is
true in spite of the tremendous amount of time and effort
devoted to the students by Professor Pokorny. However
it is also true that the high degree of visibility that the
clinic is subject to enlarges any mistakes beyond all pro
portion. Few people seem to realize that the clinic students will
very soon be out in practice, quite possibly defending
criminal defendants. The experience they gain in the
Criminal Clinic is invaluable. It is far better that they cain
txperience at the state's expense if need be, than at the
expense of an individual defendant.'
All students of the Prosecution Clinic
Black struggle
is freedom fight
Editor's note: the following does not necessarily reflect
the views of the Daily Nebraskan.
Several months ago the university found itself in the
middle of a hot controversy concerning the donation of
nearly (at that time) SI million worth of gold coins
minted and sold by the racist white government of South
Africa. Since the beginning of the controversy the entire
scenario has taken some unusual turns and twists such as;
ASUN flip-flopping on their decision to support the re
turn of the coins, Coe demanding the return of the coins,
white students forming a pro-Krugerrand or pro-South
Africa group and countless attacks on the African People's
Union.
si! opinion
When the APU and others began to speak of the link
between the coins and racism in South Africa, many
people were shocked and outraged because they figured
that surely there was no way that the Coes could have
known about all that. They were merely victims of cir
cumstances being martyred and ridiculed by a group of
wild-eyed students and faculty who had no respect or
pity for the elderly couple. But as the controversy
plunged forward, Mr. Coe began what seemed like a regu
lar column in the campus newspaper defending policies
in South Africa.
The comments that Coe has made in his many letters
have shown beyond a reasonable doubt that he lacks a
reliable source when it comes to information concerning
the history and conditions of black people in South
Africa. First of all he has scored some success in promot
ing the idea that all the black people of South Africa want
are jobs, telephones, cars and handouts-this is far from
the truth. The blacks of that region are not fighting for
civil rights or affinitive action rhetoric, they we fighting
for the basic human rights to control their own destiny
and land. That means ALL of the land.
This is something that all so-called Americans should
be able to appreciate and totally . support. Surely Coe
hasn't forgotten that a little over 200 years ago George
Washington and others were in a similar conflict with
England, and nowhere in the his-story books does it say
that they were fightirg for better jobs, more jobs, or any
other two-bit concession. The his-story books state plainly
that those American revolutionaries fought unremittingly
tp free themselves from the colonial hold of England so
that they would be able to control their own lives on a
plot of land now known as the United States of America.
The major difference between the American revolution
and the revolution being waged in South Africa is the fact
that the blacks didn't steal the land they're fighting for.
Coe and others seem to think that the blacks of South
unsafe ml?nU!d re ty"!1" wit jY the right to slave in
unsate mines, live irbUantustans (which is the equivalent
ot saying niggervilie in English), take the left-over crumbs
ot whites and thank the great white man for making it all
possible. He even goes as far as making the remark that
certain groups of blacks are separated because "they just
love to murder blacks and mixed bloods."
Continued on Page $