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Vol 78 No. 96 GSPS 0453110 20 pages in two sections
College Station, Texas
Thursday, February 16, 1984
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By ROBIN BLACK
Staff Writer
The American media has free
doms that are unheard of in other
countries, from First Amendment
freedoms to free enterprise business
operations, two speakers at the Stu
dent Conference on National Affairs
said Wednesday.
Fred Friendly, former CBS exec
utive and professor emeritus of
broadcast journalism at the Colum
bia University Graduate School of
journalism, and Donald Kummer-
feld, president and chief operating
officer of News America Publishing,
Inc., presented those two approaches
in separate addresses Wednesday,
opening the 3 ’/a-day conference.
Friendly, who gave the keynote
address on Media and Society to kick
off SCONA 29, pointed out the
unique qualities of the American
press.
He said that because the United
States is the only nation with the free
doms guaranteed by the First
Amendment, “we’re the only press in
the world that could print the Penta
gon Papers.”
Citing the Constitution as “the
gridiron on which the great Ameri
can green is played out,” Friendly
traced the development of a free
press through First Amendment Su
preme Court precedents and its im
pact on society.
He pointed out the importance of
the precedents of prior censorship
and libel laws to the media’s ability to
function properly.
Because of the freedom those two
protections gave the American press,
Friendly said, media has developed
into a vital and powerful part of so
ciety.
Figuratively a fourth branch of
government, he said, the media has
made for itself an obligation and re
sponsibility to keep the people of the
nation informed.
“Our job is to hold up a mirror to
government or business or whatever
for the American people to see what
is going on,” he said.
Friendly, producer of the crit
ically-acclaimed CBS show “See it
Now” from 1961-66, said the world
of media is far more different and
powerful today than it was when he
was a boy, when newspapers were the
sole source of information to the
public.
Today, he said, technology has
vastly expanded the capabilities of
the media to relay information, and
as a result, most people get their
news from television or radio.
But, he warned, “it’s all lights and
wires in a box” unless there is dedica
tion and inspiration by people in the
media to supply the public with in
formation in the most enlightening
and effective manner, and not just
attempting to entertain the audience.
“Contrary to that old saying, ‘what
you don’t know won’t hurl you,”’
Friendly concluded, “what the Amer
ican people don’t know — about defi
cits and Lebanon and everything else
— can and will kill them.”
Donald Kummerfeld, who spoke
on the relation between media and
business, said he knows of no country
in the world that provides its people
with the wide diversity of program
ming that the United States media
does.
Kummerfeld explained this by
defining media as privately-owned
communications businesses that are
free to pursue profit like any other
business, with minimal government
regulation.
He divided media into nine areas:
broadcasting, cable and pay-TV,
books, consumer magazines, business
magazines, newspapers, business in
formation services, entertainment
providing services and advertising
agencies.
Diagnosing media as being eco
nomically healthy, Kummerfeld
Fred Friendly speaks to SCONA delegates Wednesday afternoon
pointed out that media ranked
eighth among national industries in
profitability and growth.
Over a five-year period from
1978-82, media as an industry had a
compound annual growth rate of
15.1 percent and a compound an
nual profit margin of 9.7 percent, he
said.
With a combined growth rate of 13
percent, the communications indus
try was the only industry with posi
tive growth, he said, while all other
industries were seeing receding
growth and profits during the reces
sion.
Kummerfeld said that media as a
business has had to make huge in
vestments in new technology to keep
up with audiences’ demands and de
crease labor requirements.
' He said the print and electronic
media have been effected the most
by this.
“The media business must meet
the tests of the market,” Kummer
feld said. “They must compete for
the time, attention and dollars of the
consumers.”
Kummerfeld said that from what
he sees, competition in the media is
increasing.
“And so long as profit is high and
governmental regulation is minimal,
the media should be able to compete
and provide a variety of program
ming,” he said.
“Media is not just a business,” he
said, “media is a^reative institution.
“Journalists are not businessmen,
but professionals who strive for crea
tive excellence.”
He said the business side of media
shouldn’t be “deplored, ignored or
circumvented,” but treated as an im
portant part that is necessary to keep
the whole institution functional.
Speaking today in Rudder The
ater is Reed Irvine, founder and
chairman of the board of Accuracy in
Media, and Harvard law professor
Arthur Miller.
»ma Tau [V-
Russian leader attacking U.S. policies
United Press International
MOSCOW — The Soviet Union’s
new leader, Konstantin Chernenko,
attacked U.S. policy in Central
America and the “aggressive in
trigues of U.S. imperialism” in meet
ings Wednesday with the leaders of
Cuba and Nicaragua.
The official Tass news agency, re
porting on Chernenko’s meeting
with Nicaraguan junta leader Daniel
Ortega, said “both sides strongly de
nounced Washington’s intention to
whip up tension, to interfere in the
internal affairs of countries in that
region and to impose its writ on
them.”
In his meeting with Ortega, whose
leftist regime is under attack from
U.S.-backed rebels, Chernenko reit
erated Moscow’s support for “the Ni
caraguan people, defending the free
dom and independence of their
homeland,” Tass said.
Chernenko, who succeeded the
late Yuri Andropov Monday as gen
eral secretary of the Soviet Commu
nist Party, then met with Cuban Pres
ident Fidel Castro and reiterated
Kremlin backing for Havana’s oppo
sition to “the aggressive intrigues of
U.S. imperialism.”
Chernenko’s attack on the United
States came less than 24 hours after
he met with Vice President George
Bush, who said the new Kremlin
leader agrees thaf’constructive”
steps are needed to halt the decline
in U.S.-Soviet relations.
“We felt the spirit of the meeting
was excellent,” Bush said Tuesday af
ter the first session between a top
U.S. official and a Soviet leader since
Bush met Andropov at the funeral of
Leonid Brezhnev 15 months ago.
Bush was in Moscow at the head of
the U.S. delegation to Andropov’s
funeral, who died last Thursday at
the age of 69 after a prolonged ill
ness.
Chernenko’s latest remarks indi
cated Central America remained one
of the biggest obstacles, along with
the Middle East and nuclear arms,
toward improved U.S.-Soviet rela
tions.
The new Soviet Communist Party
chief also met for 35 minutes
Wednesday with Canadian Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau, who has
started an independent peace initia
tive to ease superpower tensions.
Trudeau told reporters the death
of Andropov gave the Soviets an op
portunity to change policy and re
turn to the Geneva arms negotia
tions.
“The general secretary talked spe
cifically about the need to reduce the
nuclear threat and reduce the num
ber of nuclear arms significantly.
He’s hoping for real progress” Tru
deau said.
But in a meeting with West Ger
man Chancellor Helmut Kohl Tues
day, Tass said Chernenko reiterated
the Soviets would not return to the
Geneva talks until NATO removes
all U.S. cruise and Pershing-2 mis
siles from Europe.
The talks on intermediate-range
nuclear missiles and strategic arms
broke down last November after
NATO countries began deploying
the first of 572 U.S. missiles planned
to be installed in western Europe.
Relations between the NATO al
lies and the Soviet Union, cool at
best, took a sharp turn downward
last September with the shooting
down by Soviet jets of a Korean air
liner with a loss of 269 lives.
Senator
wants
Soviet
summit
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Senate Re
publican leader Howard Baker
Wednesday urged President Reagan
to hold a summit meeting this year
with Konstantin Chernenko, the new |
Soviet leader, saying the two proba
bly would “get along very well.”
Baker, who traveled to Moscow;
with Vice President George Bush for
the funeral of Yuri Andropov, de
scribed the 72-year-old Chernenko
as a “take-charge individual” and
said he showed a “lack of anger, an
imosity” in his meetings with the
American delegation.
“I think we’re going to have to take
a fresh look at this because he struck
me as a man who knew where he was
going and knew how he was going to
get there,” Baker said. “It may be a
turning point.”
Asked on ABC’s “Good Morning
America” if there should be an elec
tion-year summit between Reagan
and Chernenko, Baker replied,
“Frankly, I think there should be. I
think they’d get along very well.”
When Bush went to Moscow for
Andropov’s funeral, he carried a
message from Reagan to Chernenko.
The contents were not disclosed, but
Reagan has said the note “makes ...
plain that the time has come, or has
long since passed, for talking about a
number of contentious issues be
tween us.”
Reagan, 73, has said often that he
is willing to meet with the Soviet lead
ership, but only if solid groundwork
for discussions are laid beforehand
He repeated that stance this week
saying, “I still think it remains thal
you should have an agenda to have
such a meeting that lays out the is
sues that we need to discuss ... yoc
want to know that there’s some sub
stantive issues that we can really gei
down to talking about.”
The administration indicated ovei
the weekend that the presidem
might be more open to a summf
than he has been in the past and Rea
gan himself has taken a more concil
iatory tone to Moscow since the firsi
of the year.
In a televised speech Jan. 16, Rea
gan said, “I believe 1984 finds th<
United States in its strongest positior
in years to establish a constructiv<
and realistic working relationshij
with the Soviet Union. The fact tha
neither of us likes the other’s systen
is no reason to refuse to talk.”
Baker said a Reagan-Chernenk<
meeting would be good for th<
United States.
“Holding each other hostage tc
nuclear weapons is just a bunch o
nonsense and we’ve got to get awa'
from it,” he said. “This man may b<
the man to talk to.”
Genene Jones convicted of murder
in the drug injection of 15-month-old
United Press International
GEORGETOWN — Vocational
nurse Cenene Jones was convicted
Wednesday of murder in the drug
injection of a 15-month-old Kerrville
girl.
The seven-woman, five-man jury
deliberated 4'A; hours before finding
the 33-year-old mother of two guilty
of killing Chelsea McClellan with an
injection of a powerful muscle relax
ant.
Jones clenched her teeth and cried
when the verdict was read. Chelsea’s
mother, Petti McClellan, hugged a
family member and also cried.
Jones, who never testified in the
trial, faces up to life in prison. The
punishment phase of the trial was set
for 10 a.m. Thursday.
Chelsea’s great-grandmother,
Hester Turner, said enduring the
five-week trial was worth the guilty
verdict.
“We can start living now. We’ve
nearly gone mad. It was worth every
minute because justice has been
done,” she said.
McClellan and her husband, Reid,
had no comment for reporters. Mrs.
McClellan held a fist high in a victory
sign before she got into her car. Mc
Clellan gave a thumbs up sign, then
the two embraced.
Robin Alexander, Chelsea’s
grandmother, said, “We can finally
bury her and they can dig her up no
more.”
Kerr County District Attorney
Ron Sutton said he was very tired.
“I was hoping they would come
across with a 6 o’clock verdict and
they did,” he said. “The jury reached
the proper decision.”
Prosecutors contended Chelsea’s
death — and injuries to six other
Kerrville children — were part of a
scheme by Jones to show a need for a
pediatric intensive care unit, which
she and her friends would run, at the
Hill Country town’s small hospital.
No trial dates have been set on six
charges of injury to a child pending
against Jones in Kerrville or on an
other injury charge stemming from
an unrelated incident in San Anto
nio. Those children survived alleged
injections by Jones, although one
child died seven weeks later.
Defense attorneys tried to prove
Chelsea, a blue-eyed baby girl de
scribed by trial witnesses as healthy
and happy, died of natural causes.
However, toxicological tests per
formed in Sweden on her exhumed
body indicated the presence of succi-
nylcholine, a drug used primarily in
surgical patients to relax the muscles
and stop respiration to facilitate the
use of a breathing tube.
Witnesses testified Chelsea went
limp, stopped breathing and seemed
to suffer a seizure moments after
Jones injected her with what the
nurse said were routine immuniza
tions at pediatrician Kathleen Hol
land’s clinic Sept. 17, 1982.
Chelsea died of respiratory and
cardiac arrest about two hours later
in an ambulance on they way to a San
Antonio hospital with Jones at her
side.
In closing arguments Wednesday,
Jones’ attorney Burt Carnes sug
gested it was pediatrician Kathleen
Holland’s incompetence that caused
the death of Chelsea, not the injec
tions claimed by prosecutors.
In her eight days of testimony, ;
Holland provided the most incrimi-L
nating statements against Jones, say
ing the nurse showed her a vial of
succinylcholine with two needle holes;
in it shortly after Chelsea’s death.
Carnes accused Holland of plant-:
ing that evidence to make it appear
Jones was guilty, saying Chelsea
could have died from a number of
medical problems.
But Sutton rebutted, saying the
defense was trying to put everyone!
on trial but Jones.
“The only thing they have not sug
gested to you as of Chelsea’s death is
that she committed suicide,” he said.
In his closing argument, prosecu
tor Nick Rolhe said Jones had “left a
trail of rag dolls behind her.”
“This whole thing is frightening,;
it’s bizarre, it’s terrible that a human
being would do this to babies,” he;
said.
Local
• A&M students are organizing a project to raise
$300(4 to help students who had property damage to their
rooms over the holidays because of the freeze. See story
page 3.
• Texas A&M is ranked 4th nationally in National
Merit Scholar enrollment. See story page 3.
State
• Many Texas towns will lose their HUD grants while
many towns have become eligible for them. See story page
4.
• A state-wide survey shows Texans think their chil
dren get a quality education in Texas public schools. See
story page 7.
National
• Louisiana’s Red River may not be able to re-open
due to federal budget cuts. See story page 7.