Wednesday, September 13, 1995 Page 4
Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
J. Christopher Hain.'..i- Editor. 472-1766
Rainbow Rowell............Managing Editor
Mark Baldridge.......Opinion Page Editor
DeDra Janssen....Associate News Editor
Doug Kouma .Arts & Entertainment Editor
JeffZeleny...!___Senior Reporter
Matt Woody..Senior Reporter
James Mehsling.........Cartoonist
From the Lincoln Journal-Star
James Mehsling is making a. name for himself as a student car
toonist at the University of Nebraska. Unfortunately, he is doing it
— and the editors of the Daily Nebraskan are allowing him to do it
— by taking irreverence to the point of irresponsibility.
He did it a few weeks ago with his Daily Nebraskan depiction of
Lincoln Police officers beating Francisco Renteria with nightsticks.
That is complete fabrication of any witness’s description of the
events that led to Renteria’s death last year.
Now Mehsling is doing it again with’his skewed cartoon percep
tion of Comhusker football player Riley Washington, a suspect in
an attempted-murder investigation, dragging a ball and chain at prac
tice. Readers could easily carry away a message that Washington
has already been found guilty. The drawing is wide open to misin
terpretation.
The Lincoln Police Department compounded the error in the first
incident when an officer arrested Mehsling by putting a slow-mov
ing misdemeanor warrant into the fast lane. Now error has been
compounded again by the decision of Head Football Coach Tom
Osborne to punish reporters from the UNL student paper by refus
ing to speak to them or give them information. Student reporters
can come to practice, but they’re to be given the royal cold shoul
der.
Osborne has every right to be angry with both the cartoonist and
with the student journalists who are supposedly vested witf^yeto
power over his work. He has every right to point out that exaggerat
ing the truth for the sake of making an important point is one thing.
Completely misrepresenting the truth, under the guise of artistic
license, is another.
But disagreement does not give the coach the right to inflict pun
ishment when he disagrees with somebody’s media coverage.
Both cartoonist and coach have gone too far.
From the Chicago Tribune
When you’ve been as successful as Tom Osborne has been for as
long as he has been at a football hotbed like the University of Ne
braska, you can start to get a pretty high opinion of yourself. If
being coach of the reigning National Champions doesn’t make you
God, it at least makes you a god.
Last week, angered by two cartoons in the Nebraska campus news
paper, Osborne hurled a thunderbolt. He said he would ban the
' paper’s reporters from practices of his Comhuskers football team.
“Attending our practices is a privilege, not a right,” he declared.
A short time later, threatened with a very un-divine form of re
taliation — a lawsuit — Osborne rescinded the ban, but said he
would not give interviews to the Daily Nebraskan.
What got Osborne upset were two cartoons in the campus paper.
One depicted a player who has been charged with attempted sec
ond-degree murder working out in a prison jumpsuit. The other
showed another player driving a car with dollar bills spilling out
the back—reference to the circumstances under which he suppos
edly obtained the car.
Neither cartoon may have been great journalism, but that’s not
the point. They were legitimate forms of commentary on issues of
public importance to the Nebraska campus community.
What’s interesting is how coaches like Osbome, whose sports
depend for their popularity on the free publicity given by newspa
pers and other media, are happy to be open when the news is favor
able but ready to clam up defensively when criticism comes.
Sony, Tom, only God gets a pass.
^ _
Editorial policy
Staff editorials represent the official
policy of the Fall 1995 Daily Nebras
kan. Policy is set by die Daily Nebras
kan Editorial Board. Editorials do not
necessarily reflect the views of die
university, its employees, die students
or the NU Board of Regents, Editorial
columns represent the opinion of die
author. The regents publish the Daily
Nebraskan. They establish the UNL
Publications Board to supervise the
daily production of the paper. Accord
ing to policy set by the regents, respon
sibility for the editorial content of the
newspaper lies solely in thehands of its
students.
Utter policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the
editor from all readers and interested others. Letters
will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity,
originality, timeliness and space available. The Daily
Nebraskan retains therighttoeditor reject all material
submitted. Readers also are welcome to submit mate
rial as guest opinions. The editor decides whether
material should run as a guest opinion. Letters and
guest opinions sent to the newspaper'become the
property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be re
turned. Anonymous submissions will not bo pub
lished. Letters should include the author’s name, year
in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Re
quests to withhold names will not be granted Submit
material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union,
1400 R St Lincoln, Neb. 68S88-0448. "
----
People’s court
Let’s take a look at two things
that have appeared to be on trial
over the past week: Tom Osborne
and the Daily Nebraskan.
We have coach Osborne who, in
an effort to show support to his
players, banned the Daily Nebras
kan from Husker practices. A man
of integrity, who volunteers his time
in the Lincoln community, teaches
Sunday School and withstands
constant criticism from members of
the media, boosters and various -
other people.
Now let’s look at the other
involved party, the Daily Nebras
kan.
Over the past few years, the
Daily Nebraskan has turned into a
tabloid paper. If the information
seems a little risque or controver
sial, it will appear in the newspaper.
If it seems too conservative or
won’t raise eyebrows, the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln won’Lhear
about it.
At least not through the Daily
Nebraskan. The Daily Nebraskan
has taken news to the border of
indecency and steps across the line
as often as possible.
Luckily, for the Daily Nebraskan,
Tom allowed them back into
practices.
But isn’t it ironic that Coach
Osborne banned only the Daily
Nebraskan from practices and no
OTHER members of the media?
Think about it!
Kiersten Lockie
Senior
Deaf Education
Victim’s rights
1 believe staff reporter Jeff
Zeleny crossed the line of good
_ reporting when he identified the
victim of Lawrence Phillips’ alleged
assault.
The fact that the Lincoln Police
Department and coach Angela Beck
declined to identify McEwen as the
_—
victim, not to mention that
McEwen’s roommate said that she
(McEwen) didn’t want to speak to
the media, should indicate to an
intelligent person that she didn’t
want her name published.
As the victim of a crime and not
the perpetrator, I believe that she
had every right to remain anony- .
mous. Don’t you?
Daniel Brox
Junior
Political Science/ Mathematics/
Economics
via e-mail
Disappointment
I was very disappointed in the
DN’s decision to publish the name
of the victim of a recent assault
incident. I understand that you, no
doubt, feel the “professional”
obligation to give ALL the facts.
However, I hope each of you
involved in this editorial decision
will now feel the moral obligation to
field the threatening phone calls and
respond to the disparaging mail this
poor young woman will be receiving
from every Husker FAN-ATIC with
an axe to grind over a national title
defense. Sometimes professional
discretion isn’t a violation of FIRST
AMENDMENT rights, sometimes
it’s common humanity.
Maryanne Mellor
Lincoln
Dignity
I wish to say that Doug Peters is
correct in the fact that it is a tragedy
about what happened to the young
woman Lawrence Phillips allegedly
assaulted.
I do find, though, that he is quick
to judge the entire program on a few
incidents that have been unfortunate
and are still pending.
These young men are innocent
until proven guilty, and he is not
‘only talking bad of them, but of all
the players, many of which have not
done anything to deserve to be told
that they have no dignity in their
program.
Tom Osborne has shown dignity,
I believe, in kicking Phillips off the
team. It wasn’t the most popular
thing for him to do, or the easiest,
but it was the right thing to do, and J
have much respect for the program
because of that.
Also, I feel that it should be
noted that the Daily Nebraskan has
not helped matters any by its
coverage of the situation.
I feel this way because on
Monday morning I awoke to read
the Lincoln Journal Star articles on
Phillips’ dismissal, and it was said
in their artiele that the police were
not releasing the name of the young
woman, by her request, because she
was scared.
I then head to class and read the
DN and see the young woman’s
name, which shows no decency on
your part.
Not only that, but in the Tuesday
edition, you have her picture!
I would like to know how this is
necessary information!
Now, when this young woman
goes to class, people will know all
this about her, and it’s none of their
business. I don’t think that is what
she wanted, and the police were
willing to withhold, so why weren’t
you?
The DN should practice what it
preaches if it’s going to talk about
dignity of a program.
Jim Vance
Sophomore
Math Education
via e-mail
Editor's Note: The Daily Nebras
kan does not, as a matter of policy,
print the names of victims of alleged
assault.
In this case an editorial decision
was made that all concerned were
public figures and that all names
were newsworthy.
--1
...to the
i Nebraskan
Send your brief letters to:
Daily Nebraiskan, 34
Nebraska Union, 1400 R St.,
Lincoln, Neb. 68588, or Fax
to (402) 472-1761, or email
detters @ unlinfo.unl.edu.>
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