Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1996)
Opinion Friday, March 8, 1996 Page 4 Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln J. Christopher Haiti Doug Kouma. Doug Peters. Sarah Scalet. Matt Waite. Michelle Garner... Jennifer Mapes_ .Editor, 472-1766 .Managing Editor . Opinion Page Editor Associate News Editor Associate News Editor ..Wire Editor .. Columnist Quotes of the Week “Whatever kind of fun you can have on ice, we hope to provide it.” — Kent Reckeway, co-owner of the Lincoln Stars hockey fran chise. “What we are announcing today was science fiction just a few years ago.” — Sen. Bob Kerrey, on UNL’s World Wide Web-based distance learning project for which he helped secure funding. “They bleed too much.” — Ralph Spangler; owner of Ralph 's Hungry’ Eye Tattoo, on why he won t give tattoos to people who are intoxicated. “If anyone can do it, Tommie will.” — Cardiovascular surgeon, Deepak Gangahar, on Tommie Frazier's prospects for recovery from a severe sinus infection and a blood clot in his leg. “I don’t care if I have to play Shaq.” — Nebraska center Mikki Moore, on his determination to win the Huskers’first-round Big Eight tournament game. “A government is only as good as its king, and I’m a good king.” — OFFICE party presidential candidate Justin Firestone, two days before the election. “I went with ACTION because I’m in a sorority, and ACTION candidates actually visited us and talked about the issues.” — Stacey Long. UNL sophomore, on the herASUN choice. “... it’s like, wow!” — ASUNpresident-elect Eric Marintzer, giving hti reaction to the successful culmination of'the ACTION campaign. “I was their chance. If students ever have complaints about the student government, it’s their own fault. They had their chance.” — OFFICE’S Justin Firestone, talking about the low voter turnout after the election. “Give us three million dollars so we can buy cool technology, pump up our resumes and escape this fester ing boil you call a company.” — Dogbert. on what to include in a one-paragraph executive summary. “Tonight we found a leader.” — Sen. Majority Leader Bob Dole, on his sweep of the eight “Junior Tuesday” GOP presidential primaries. “Allowance of overnight visitation and premarital sexual relations in dorms is also activity that offends my convictions.” — University of Nebraska at Kearney freshman Douglas Rader, in a civil suit filed against the NU Board of Regents claiming that forcing him to live in a residence hall violates his right to freely exercise his religion. “1 got a big greasy haircut, a fancy suit and blue Swedish shoes.” — Migraine Boy's soon-to-be chastised Elvis-impersonating, buddy. Editorial policy Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Spring 1996 Daily Ne braskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the university, its employees, the stu dents or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent the opin ion of the author. The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan. They establish the UNL Publications Board to super vise the daily production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. Letter 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 Nebraska! retains the right to edit or 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 be 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. 68588-0448. ' \ THERE WfcTO BE SWCTUM67 IH HERE. Too personal TV reporters go beyond ‘doing their job’ Albert Belle, a star player foMhe Cleveland baseball team, was just fined $50,000 for being rude and hostile to a network TV reporter. It is said to be the biggest fine in the history of baseball. The circumstances leading to the fine raise some profound questions about justice. For those who are not baseball fans, Belle is a great home run slugger and also is said to be a chronic grouch. The incident occurred before one of last year’s World Series games when the Cleveland team was taking batting practice. A TV crew was in the Cleveland dugout to interview another star player. The crew’s presence in the dugout made Belle unhappy, and he used unpleasant language and chased the crew away. This made the TV network unhappy, and it complained to the commissioner’s office. That made the acting commis sioner unhappy because baseball loves TV money, and after ponder ing the issue for several months, he levied the record fine. Now Belle is even grouchicr, and I can’t say I blame him. Anyone who has watched more than one minute of TV news knows that TV reporters are not known for politeness, consideration and civility. And they aren’t heavy on brainpower, either. If anything, they are among the most obnoxious, intrusive and arrogant of all public creatures. We’ve all seen madhouse scenes at tragedies, with TV crews shoving cameras into the faces of victims and survivors and asking how they FEEL.'. Or chasing someone who doesn’t feel like talking in or out of his home and shrieking questions—usually “How do you FEEL?” —just to be sure they have 10 seconds of movement and action to offer a drooling studio producer. Mike Royko “Anyone who has watched more than one minute of TV neivs knows that TV reporters are not known for politeness, consideration and civility. And they aren Y heavy on brainpower, either. ” Then there are the political news conferences. The idea isn’t to obtain information from a public official that the viewer might find enlighten ing. Instead, they bark out embar rassing questions as if grilling a suspected felon. Had TV been around when the Civil War began, some network character would have asked Abe Lincoln, “Isn’t it true that you don’t have any slaves as personal friends?” So here we have a baseball player being rude to one TV reporter and he is fined $50,000. When has any TV creature been fined even 50 cents for being rude, obnoxious and a pain in the neck? It wasn’t long ago when a TV character took a dislike to a public official and put the official’s home phone number on the screen and urged viewers to call the man and tell him what a jerk he was. The fact that the public official’s wife was home in bed dying when the harassing calls poured in didn’t faze the TV creature. A few years ago, a TV crew showed up at a funeral parlor where a wake was being held for a man who was said to be affiliated with organized crime in Chicago. The man might not have been a model citizen. He might have even been a louse. But his family thought that there were moments when people were entitled to privacy — such as while mourning and burying their dead. The TV crew members disagreed. They believed it was their right to barge into the wake and stick cameras and microphones into the faces of the mourners. So one of the dead man’s relatives stuck a large fist into the handsome face of the TV reporter. Oh, what cries of outrage from the TV station and the rest of the broadcast community. A TV reporter, just doing his job of bringing the news to the public, had been assaulted by a crude and rude mug. So I wrote a mild dissent, saying that under the circumstances, it was fitting and proper for someone to have punched the TV reporter in the mush. And that any time they barge into something as personal as a family wake or funeral, they should be punched, kicked and flailed. Well, the TV reporter was terribly offended and called to demand to know if I did or did not respect the public’s “right to know.” I had to admit that the question stumped me. The public’s right to know what? If the guy in the casket was really dead? I’m sure that a discrete call to the embalmer would have cleared that up. So while Belle the baseball slugger might be rude and grouchy, a $50,000 fine seems a bit steep. If I were the commissioner, I would have fined him $5 and warned him that he had better not punch a TV reporter. Unless he really felt like it. (C) 1996, Tribune Media Services, Inc. ♦S. write MxtMM Send your brief letters to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588, or Fax to (402) 472 1761, or email <letters@unlinfo.unl.edu> Let ters must be signed and include a phone num ber for verification.