Opinion
Nebraskan
' Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Chris Ilopfensperger.. . ■.Editor, 472-1766
Dionne Searcey.Opinion Page Editor
Kris Karnopp.Managing Editor
Alan Phelps. . Wire Editor
Wendy Navratil... Writing Coach
Stacey McKenzie. Senior Reporter
Jeremy Fitzpatrick.. . Columnist
Giving them away
Free tickets mean lost money for NU
Apparently the easiest — and cheapest — way to get tickets to
Nebraska football games is to get elected to the state legisla
ture. _.. ,
While average Nebraska fans have combed, the streets around
Memorial Stadium td buy tickets at inflated prices, several officials
have taken advantage of this state government’s most valuable perk
— free football tickets.
But the perk lasts beyond the fall.
In the past year, slate officials accepted more than $ 12,(XX) worth
of tickets from the University of Nebraska to football and basketball
games and events at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
For years, it has been a tradition for state officials to be offered free
tickets; until this year the value of the tickets was not disclosed.
But a ruling by the Nebraska Accountability Disclosure Commis
sion required the university to report its entertainment spending
under state lobbying laws.
-✓Last year’s totals, released Friday, include:
• $9,792 worth of season football tickets.
• $187 worth of single-game football tickets.
• $1,316 worth of basketball game tickets.
• $750 worth of event tickets from the Lied Center.
The tickets amount for most — but not all — of the university’s
$13,183 entertainment budget.
That total, most likely, will continue to climb.
Ticket prices continue to rise and the demand certainly has not
fallen off.
Football fans have bought up every ticket to Nebraska’s home
games since 1962, basketball crowds have consistently grown as the
Comhuskers have improved into an NCAA-calibcr program, and
patrons of the arts have begun to notice the high caliber of shows
being offered at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
But university officials would like people to believe that the
money isn’t being lost.
“The university is not actually spending the money,” said Richard
Wood, NU’s chief legal counsel, “it is only the value of the tickets.”
It is, however, money the university could be making by actually
selling the tickets instead of giving them away as door prizes to the
49 members of the Legislature and six stale constitutional officials.
Trivial talk
Soundbites seem to have no real purpose
Turn on ihc evening news, and they lum oul everywhere.
Soundbites. Long or shon sentences, sometimes only mere
phrases, generally intend to boost a candidate’s name in the
polls. A good soundbite may spell election success; a bad one may
backfire, surely tarnishing the future of a political career.
Thai’s why it is so essential to emerge victorious in the war of
soundbites. From an embarrassing vice-presidential “polaloc” to an
election-winning “read my lips, no new taxes,” the soundbite has
increasingly become the queen of newscasts’ lead stories and front
page headlines.
Unfortunately, the notoriety has not been well deserved. The
actual content of the soundbites is appallingly small.
Their purpose seemingly is to satisfy the audience craving the
quick applause and acceptance.
— The Daily Iowan
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4.
MTV News nothing but flash, fluff
1 don’t think I watched MTV at all
this summer. But with the begin
ning of classes, I moved in with
my roommate, who tunes in to the pop
channel all the time.
I don’t sit down and stare at it with
him, but on occasion I catch a glimpse.
It’s painful, but it happens.
One of the biggest babblers on
Music Television is Kurt Lodcr, weeny
star of “MTV News.’’ When MTV
first began to air this
pseudo-news pro
gram, it was all about
music. Kurt would go
out and talk to bands;
discuss concert dates,
tattoos and makeup;
give us the lowdown
on Madonna; and gen
erally glorify MTV.
Nowadays, I’ve found, “MTV
News’’ has expanded its coverage. As
MTV has grown and started to think
of itself as some kind of generational
leader, Kurt and the boys have taken
up the pursuit of real news.
But it’s a long way from CNN.
When you tune into 'MTV News,”
you are treated to a decidedly differ
ent slant on world events. Lodcr and
his partner, “that MTV News girl,”
continually update us on the MTV
Agenda, in which George Bush is a
bad guy, Dan Quay Ic is an id iol, Demo
crals arc cool and Slash’s opinion on
world events really DOES matter.
The news segments arc flashy, with
all kinds of neato camera angles and
slices of groovy dance music looping
in the background.
I’ve never understood why MTV
cameras can’t be still, why they al
ways float around. Perhaps it some
how adds a cool factor to the person
who is speaking, simply because
people who wobble around and turn
on their sides for no reason arc great.
I know I am impressed when I talk
with people who arc able to lean at
incredible angles without losing their
balance. It’s even better if they can
move close to me, then rush back,
then rush up again at the same lime.
“MTV News” did a lot of this
camera trickery during the parly con
ventions. I saw one during the Demo
cratic National Convention in which a
couple of no-nkmc glam-band mem
bers interviewed some of the Holly
wood fare who always show up at
Democratic functions. The conven
tion looked pretty exciting with ev
eryone leaning this way and that over
a funky beat.
The subjects “MTV News” usu
ally concerns itself with arc the stan
dard issues we young people arc sup
posed to be concerned with—censor
ship, the abortion battle, racism, sex,
the environment and sex in different
environments.
It gets old after a while.
Actually, it gets old rapidly. The
amount of repetition on “MTV News”
is overwhelming. But then, it prob
ably lakes awhile for Kurt to beat his
views into the MTV-hcads.
But w hen a new segment is about
to be produced, the MTV “newsroom”
must be a beehive of activity. I’msurc
the brains behind it all is Kurt Lodcr,
the man who decides what news is fit
to run.
Kurt: Well, what’s in the news
today?
Nameless MTV weasel: Hmmm.
A quarter-million homeless in South
Florida, death in Somalia, Yugosla
via, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Iraq
That MTV News Girl: Hey, what
docs Axl Rose think of Roc v. Wade?
Kurt: That death thing, there m ight
be something there. All right, it’s
settled then—another segment on the
evil Tipper Gore and her anti-Amcri
can ways and how the government is
out to silence rap stars.
Kurtalways delivers the “news” in
a very serious way, rather Dan
Rathcrcsquc, but with that hip edge
that only Kurt has. Kurt isa self-styled
crusader, battling daily against those
who would keep Flavor Flav’s opin
ions from us. Kurt’s fighting a war,
and he’s taking no prisoners.
I’d like to see Kurt go one-on-one
against, say, Peter Jennings. Kurt
could even have the girl for a tag
team. Then we would see who was the
real journalist.
I suppose “MTV News” is good in
some small, insignificant way, be
cause at least the MTV-hcads get a
little dose of the real world, however
slanted it may be. MTV has made the
news — some of it, anyway — enter
taining to their target audience, and
that is an accomplishment. Few who
slay locked into Cablcvision’s chan
nel 25 ever drop to 24, and MTV
might be their only window to the
outside. 4
However, when that window is
painted over by Kurt Lodcr, it’s hard
to sec the truth.
I wouldn’t have a problem with
“MTV News” if it didn’t pretend it
was news. If it was called “MTV
Stuff” or “What Kurt Lodcr Thinks,”
that would be peachy. I’ve written
columns before that I think Kurt would
agree with, but they always appear in
the opinion section of the paper.
Our landlord came over last week
to spray our house for cockroaches. I
wish he could spray for MTV.
Like the German roach, one of
Lincoln’s most numerous varieties,
MTV likes to hide in cracks and be
hind cupboards. It drinks water from
the pipes under your sink, scrambles
across your floor and into your dirty
clothes hamper, and then — bam! —
The Week in Rock.
MTV breeds in a 30-day cycle.
The egg bundles arc easy to recogn ize
if you know what you arc looking for.
After you have sprayed in the comers
and baseboards of each room, set off
a bug bomb and get out of the house.
1 guess I’m just tired of MTV and
its pretentious assumption that factu
ally matters. I’m tired of hypocritical
rock stars telling me to vole; I’m tired
of little kids wearing their clothes
backwards; I’m tired of a channel that
is basically one long commercial for
jeans.
Phelps Is a Junior news-editorial major,
the Daily Nebraskan wire editor and a colum
nist.
X* ^... P.S. Write back
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