page 4
daily nebraskan
monday, february 2, 1981
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Despite profits, fuel costs passed on to
Even before President Ronald
Reagan had announced he would lift
the remaining price controls on pet
roleum and gasoline products, con
sumer groups and a handful of U.S.
congressmen were crying wolf.
Those who would suffer from
higher heating oil and gasoline prices,
they argued, would be low-income
persons, while the profiteering oil
companies would have everything to
gain.
Though figures vary on the effect
of deregulating the oil industry, no
one doubts the result will be higher
prices for consumers all consumers.
What peeves consumer groups
most is that Reagan's move looks
like a malicious twist of the knife
while low-income persons already are
bleeding from runaway costs.
This isn't the first time American
consumers have felt outrage at oil
companies or oil policy. In 1971,
and again in 1979, millions of Amer
icans angrily spent hours waiting in
blocks-long gas lines, while the oil
industry cried "shortages," the con
sumers cried "deception."
Political chaos in the Middle East
cut severely into foreign exports to
the United States. The shortages
were real. And just as real was the
political ineptness in Washington.
Instead of demanding an increase
in the pump price to curb the hungry
drivers' appetite, the government
placed an artificially low ceiling on
the price of gasoline. By keeping the
price unrealistically low, the govern
ment gave the go-ahead for wasteful
consumption.
Now Reagan says he will right the
wrongs of careless Americans and
kick in a few more benefits to boot.
With the bonus profits from decon
trol, the oil companies, Reagan says,
can reduce American dependence on
foreign oil, thereby giving the indus
try the extra bucks it needs to in
crease exploration and productivity
at home.
Lofty goal or not, one has to
wonder if the oil industry really will
use the ,$3 billion it expects to make
from price decontrol on American
productions after windfall profit
Open eyes to bias
We now join the show already in pro
gress. This whole business (newspapers,
television) is nuts, if you ask me.
Where else can you combine objectiv
ity with sensationalism, emotion with
reason, significance with the trivial?
With the exception of life in general, I
can't think of any other example.
n
SSEHcliiH
This subject comes up because t lie
press' coverage of certain world and
national events (the presidential cam
paign, Iran, to name two) was, and is.
questionable. People tend to lake the
process of news-transmitting and re
ceiving for granted.
That last reason might sound kind
of strange, but it's a factor in much of
what we read and see some person (a
colunist, a newspaper or TV editor)
feels siiongK about a subject and
wants to report on it. I vents (or what a
few people think are events) are covered
not only for then newsworthiness, but
also because some person thinks these
events are important, or because cover
age of these events will increase ratings
or sell more papers.
I'm sure this is no great revelation
for most of you. Anyone who has had
his or her eyes open to the selective
little world of reporting should have
noticed examples of a bias or a slant in
coverage. Even "60 Minutes," that bas
tion of universal truths, has to be
taken with a grain of salt. And those
who listen to Paul Harvey need to
remember his show is called "News and
Comment." As one of my professors
said in class last semester, "That's not
'the way it is.' Walter, no. no that's the
way you say it is."
As long as everybody remembers
there arc people involved in news
gathering, editing and reporting, and as
long as they are a little skeptical about
what somebody decides is news, the
system works. But when people assume
that the news they read or see is report
ed exactly the way it happened, miscon
ceptions may arise and manipulation
may result.
During the first days and weeks ol
the hostage crisis, reports of angr mobs
outside the I'.S. 1 mbassv in Teluan
might have led the average news con
sumer to assume all of liati was up in
arms. Howevei. accouling to some
reporters who looked back on the
ordeal, had the cameias turned awav
liom the embassv . the scene would have
been different. The average Iranian in
Tehran was indifferent to the noting,
these reporters said, and life in the city
went on as usual.
That's just it: we have to believe
somebody. Either we believe the report
ers at the embassy or the ones five
blocks away. You have to trust some
body, but whom do you trust?
Most of this, of course, depends on
perspective the reporter's and yours.
From the campaign reporter's perspec
tive, the New Hampshire primary is
important. It's the first hard news of the
campaign year. But to somebody in Ne
braska, the New Hampshire primary
shouldn't mean anything, at least not as
much as it's made out to mean.
You, too. decide how the news is
recieved. James Neal and Suanne
Brown wrote in their book Xewswriting
and Reporting, "People apparently have
a tendency to expose themselves mostly
to information that appeals to them or
reinloices their beliefs, and they have a
tendency to see and heai only what
the expect or want to see ami hear."
The process isn't as simple as it may
seem, as you may have guessed. You
might think it's cra. too, I don't
know . But the important thing is that
you think about what you see or read.
I! v ou do that . it makes it all that much
easier.
Hiring freeze benumbs job seekers
WASHINGTON -Imagine quitting your
job, selling your home and moving to
another city to work for someone else,
only to discover you don't have the em
ployment promised.
That's what happened to roughly 2,000
individuals who moved here and were
caught by President Reagan's surprise de
cision to make a tough federal hiring freeze
retroactive to Nov. 5, 1980.
shearer
Acting on the advice of White House
counselor Edwin Mecse. President Reagan
has done in one week what it took Richard
Nixon six years to do-demoralize many
in the federal bureaucracy.
Reagan's precipitous decision has af
fected two groups of appointees: federal
employees who were undergoing transfers
and promotions, and members of the pri
vate sector who'd been promised govern
ment jobs.
The latter group is the most angry.
Many of them got into this mess by nor re
porting for work before Jan. 20. They're
now anxiously waiting in local hotels and
friends' homes, while government offic
ials tell them to "hang loose."
"There will be a procedure in which
agency personnel directors can come to
us, identify their hardship cases and ex
ceptions can be made," explained the act
ing budget director, Dale R. MacOmber.
"But it won't be done overnight
Remember, the government has no con
tractual liability to hire an individual,
no matter what promises were made by
personnel directors.
"This crisis," added MacOmber, "was
partly caused by agency personnel officers
who should have known that Reagan was
committed to a hiring freeze."
But agency personnel officers diagree,
contending they've been forced to replace
high numbers of recent federal retirees.
Shortly after the election. 50,000 federal
workers began announcing their plans to
retire and take advantage of government
pension adjustments that expire Jan. 18.
Some sources say Reagan's retroactive
luring freeze could wind up in the courts.
At question would be the nature of an
agreement between an individual and the
government.
To no one's surprise, Regan has quickly
acted to reduce trie size of the federal
payroll. But he may not know today that
arc fewer federal employees on the pay
roll than at anytime since the Korean War.
Many attribute the order simply to
Reagan's lack of experience.
"Politicians run against us bureaucrats
all the time." said one highly-placed bud
get offiicial. "We expect that. But it's bur
eaucrats that produce a politican's record.
And the politicians have to stand on what
we do. I don't think Mr. Reagan is off on
the right foot."
Do you ever wonder why college news
papers have faculty advisors?
Bear Tracks, published at Phoenix
(Ariz.) College, recently ran photos of
Uuee nude female models on the front
page. Up to that point, the newspaper had
never had a faculty adviser.
How sensitive will President Reagan and
Secretary of State Alexander Lig regard
African states?
With amusement is what African diplo
mats suspect.
And there is good reason for their
concern. In a speech during his California
governorship, Reagan issued the following
observation on emerging African states:
"When those people have you to lunch,
Uiey really have you to lunch."
As for Secretary of State Alexander
Haig, former National Security Council
staffer Roger Morris notes the following
anecdote in his book, "Uncertain Great
ness": "To the amusement of Kissinger and his
colleagues, (then) Colonel Haig would
quietly pretend to beat drums on the table
as African affairs were brought up at NSC
staff meetings, or other assistants would
joke contemptuously about so-and-so who
bought a house in a racially mixed neigh
borhood of Washington 'to be near his
dusky friends.' "
Continued on Page 5
consumers
taxes.
Do the oil companies actually
need decontrol profits to spur Amer
ican production of oil? Are they in
that much of a financial pinch?
True, the oil industry has gone
through its financial ups and downs
like most businesses, but the figures
also say the industry is making some
eye-bulging profits.
With the price of heating oil and
gasoline up, expect all transportation
industries trucking, airline, city
transit to pass the higher fuel costs
on to consumers all consumers.
Tom Mc Neil
Hate Phynkia
campaign
new target
Mr Reagan is "outraged" by the
Iranians. Mr Carter calls them "animals."
The pundits have demoted them from
dangerous "religious fanatics" to contemp
tible "Persian rug merchants." So off we go
on a hate Iran campaign.
After 444 days of helpless frustration,
a good hate campaign is just what this
country needs to clear the bile from its
blood. Unfortunately, if we get carried
away with hating Iran, which is probable.
hoppe
we could drive that strategicially-placed
OPl-C nation into the comforting arms of
its loving Russian neighbors. How frustrat
ing! Let us not despair, however. Help is at
hand. The Ratt of Phynkia has already
proposed a simple solution to our State
Department :
"for SI billion in anybody's froen
assets." he said. "I am perfectly willing to
cooperate w ith the United States in launch
ing a hate Phynkia campaign instead."
The Ratt (a hereditary title) was kind
enough to invite me to lunch to explain the
advantages of his modest proposal.
"first of all." he said, after order the
Chateaubriand. "Phynkia is ideally located
in the center of the Greater Antilles Desert
and oui sole export is variegated gerbils
which are of interest only to other varie
gated gerbils.
"Secondly and 1 hope you won't think
I'm bragging-Phynkia is an extraordinarly
hateful country. We Phynkians loathe our
selves. "The population consists of 742 relig
ious fanatics who belong to the little
known twingist sect. They worship J.R.
"Their only means of livelihood is
peddling Phynkian rugs to tourists. These
are made from the skins of Phynkian tur
keys and are guaranteed to molt within 37
minutes. But the tourist doesn't mind. He's
too busy searching for his missing wallet.
"The native garb is any fur made from
the hide of an endangered species. And the
traditional greeting is. 'Lxcuse me while I
put you on hold.' Phynkians are trained
from uirth to kick puppy dogs, smoke in
no smoking sections and park their
camels in your driveway.
"Here's our national flag. As you can
see. it's a dirty rat rampant on a field of
skunk cabbage over a bar sinister. Hold it
over the cherries jubilee and watch how
easily it catches fire. There! Isn't that
something0"
The Ratt suddenly glanced at his watch
and leapt to his feet. "Good heavens!" he
cried. "I must go melt an asset." And as he
rushed out. he brushed by the waiter
bringing the check.
Oh. I couldn't help but hate that lousy,
rotten, cheap, double-crossing . . . Gosh," I
feel better already!
(c) Chronicle Publishing Co.. 1981
