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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1991)
Opinion === — Affirmative action policy not favoring all minorities Waller Gholson (“Colleges should remove blinders,” DN, Nov. 19) dis misses ihe concern that affirmative action policies may result in lowered hiring standards and argues that the main reason for affirmative action is “to provide equal opportunities for those who have been locked out of mainstream education for centuries.” Gholson goes on to develop an amus ing metaphor of ducks and ponds but I would suggest that he is himself ducking the issue and misstating the purpose of affirmative action, which is to provide equal opportunities for equally qualified people. It is true that for years, academic hiring discriminated not only against blacks but against Jews, Roman Catho lics and other groups. But in trying to correct this injustice, affirmative ac tion guidelines have privileged cer tain minority groups and ignored others. The consequence is that while many departments arc anxious to hire more blacks or women, say, there is seldom any talk about seeking belter repre sentation of orientals, Indians from India, Muslims, Mormons, Jews, Southerners from impoverished back grounds, fundamentalist or Catholic Christians,conservative Republicans or celibates. Affirmative action may indeed result in lowered standards, but a more serious problem is its favoring of certain high-profile groups at the expense of others. The “dirty little secret” about the crusade for diversity and plural ism is that the crusaders have defined those words very narrowly and then gone on to exhibit the intemperance and bigotry so often found in crusad ers of the past. It would be much better to junk the whole idea and hire people according to their individual qualifications and abilities. This is the best way to show the individuals themselves genuine respect — and it is also the best way to achieve an authentic intellectual diversity. R.D. Stock professor English -LETTER POLICY The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all read ers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publi cation on the basis of clarity, original ity, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit all material submitted. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for publication. Let ters should include the author's name, year in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. -EDITORIAL POLICY Signed staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 1991 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its members are: Jana Pedersen, editor; Eric Pfanner, editorial page editor; Diane Brayton, managing editor; Walter Gholson, columnist; Paul Domeier, copy desk chief; Brian Shellito, cartoonist; Jeremy Fitzpa trick, senior reporter. Editorials do not necessarily re flect the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent the opinion of the author. The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers are the regents, who established the UNL Publications Board to super vise the daily production of the pa per. According to policy set by the re gents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. 'CWW UP HOP^VIORK ’ PAUL DOMEIER Cartoonist should look at facts Not many people know this, but an ancestor of Garry Trudeau, the creator of “Doonesbury,” was a propagandist in France before the Revolution. The Jacobins accused him of covering up the economic crisis in the government of Louis XVI. Actually, 1 have no idea whether that’s true. If readers believed it, though, they next could make the simple assumption that the Trudeau family has a history of playing around with facts to get across an opinion. Then I, of course, would be guilty of the same tinkering with facts to criticize Trudeau. It frightens me that a lot of people who would agree with that criticism wouldn’t mind my fiddling with facts. The ends justify the means if the ends are acceptable. Wrong. If I cannot reach my con clusion by looking at the facts, my conclusion isn’t worth anything. Trudeau’s recent conclusions, or his suggested conclusions, are that Dan Quaylc may have tried to buy cocaine while a senator and that if he didn’t, at least he was investigated and the investigation covered up. His conclusions twist the facts, especially the part about the cover up. The non-publiciz.ing of a non issue is not a cover-up. “Doonesbury” has been suspended by more than 20 newspapers, includ ing The Omaha World-Herald, not because Trudeau’s taking shots at the Republican vice president, but be cause he is harping on a refuted alle gation. That fiddles around with the ethical framework of journalism. The important issue isn’t politics, it’s the truth. After 200 years, Americans have grown complacent with the First Amendment. We know it is supposed to protect the expression of unpopu lar ideas, but we’ve forgotten what those unpopular ideas arc. They have little to do with the current First Amendment debates over perverse photographs and Luther Campbell’s cussing on stage in Flor ida. The important unpopular ideas challenge the status quo. When propa ganda is the basis for government and society, we need unpopular ideas. Any ideas presented to challenge the status quo must be based on fact. This forms the marketplace of ideas, from which we can recreate our gov ernment and our society. False tacts arc counterfeit products in the mar ketplace of ideas. Still, readers have demanded that The World-Herald run “Doonesbury” and haveasked, “Let us decide what’s # Not iwa/iv people know this, but an an cestor_a£_Garry Trudeau, the, creator of“Doonesburv. ” was g propagandist in France before the Revolution._The laeahim accused him of covering up the economic crisis, in the government of Louis KiLL fact and fiction.” How ridiculous. That would be like jury members saying, “Let us hear allegations by a discredited source, and solely on the basis of that infor mation we’ll decide whether the de fendant is guilty.” People don’t seem to realize what is at issue when wc take the market place for granted. Our country is ignoring too many instances in which fiction is included or facts omitted to advance a point. Twisting of facts has hit institu tional levels in New York. A com mission created to study diversity in history in the state’s public-school curriculum has suggested that the curriculum be changed to emphasize the importance of women and mi norities. The commission’s majority won’t admit it, but ihccommission minority — generally, its historians — says that emphasizing importance means exaggerating importance. If the suggestions are adopted, the children of New York will be subject to a historical quota system: A woman mentioned for every man mentioned, with blacks and American Indians thrown in at the “proper” proportions. Nurturing the idea of ethnic iden tity has been determined to be more important than historical accuracy. Diversity in history now means truth and fiction. That is dangerous. The Soviet Union offers plenty of evidence about what happens when the facts come from the ideas instead of the ideas from the facts. For 70 years, Soviet “historians" have been touting the Russian Revo lution. Communist revolution was inevitable, beneficial and perfect, despite evidence to the contrary. The expectation was that, in lime, the facts would come around to meet the ideas. That didn’t happen. The invented Soviet identity has collapsed, and the Soviet people have no history. They’ll be able to rebuild their history, and their identity, but it will take a long time and be painful. I’m confident that this time, their base will be the facts and not Marxist Lcninist ideology. The biggest fact is that they’ve been lied to for 70 years. And anyone who believes that the Quaylc drug investigation has been a cover-up has been lied to. Trudeau is good at it. The strips so far haven’t included material worth a lawsuit. Trudeau has danced along the libel line often enough that he knows how to smear without slander ing. Yet he may have gotten his point across, trying to create a public mind set that says every administration official has a well-hidden file of dirt. Sooner or later, the facts will show that this is not true, and certainly not limited to the administration. But what will the cost be until then? All of this because of one of Trudeau’s biases. He claims he is a satirist, not a journalist, and therefore is permitted to do so. But lately Trudeau has hinted that his satire might really be fact, cloud ing the line between satire and jour nalism. When Trudeau does that, he must follow the rules. One rule says that the biases of journalists are wild beasts to be caged and killed, not pets to be fed and played with. As for Trudeau, discuss ing disproved attacks on a man you normally portray as invisible with a feather for a brain fits into the cate gory of playing with a bias. He’s also playing around with li bel, with the First Amendment, with his readers, with journalism, with the marketplace of ideas. Trudeau is kicking around the truth. 1 don’t like that game. Domeier is a senior news-editorial mnJor> the Daily Nebraskan copy desk chief and a columnist.
