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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 1984)
. tu Opinion Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, February 20, 1984 SCONA a tribute to A&M students The 29th Student Conference on National Affairs, which ended Satur day, successf ully brought together stu dents from the University of Toronto all the way to Matias Delgado Univer sity in El Salvador. The delegates left the conference having learned more about other countries and other sys tems of government and media. The idea behind SCONA is to build for the future. In a letter to SCONA participants, committee chairman Alan Hill called the conference “a long- range effort to promote responsible leaders through free discussion of the crucial issues of our times.” Such a concept is necessary in our complex and changing environment. In order for student leaders of today to become world leaders of tomorrow, they must face world problems with open minds, realizing that there is no simple solution. The conference was a tribute to all the members of MSC SCONA who put in months of work organizing the myr iad of details which accompany such a project. Because the organizers don’t always know how well speakers and dis cussions will go, the group performs miracles just by pulling off the confer ence. SCONA committee members, and particularly Hill, should be very proud of their ef forts. Practically every last detail was taken care of. The conference ran smoothly, despite a potential crisis when a main speaker was missing. SCONA is a source of pride for Texas A&M, for the international in terest it creates and the learning expe rience it provides. — The Battalion Editorial Board SCONA 29 limited to one perspective In some respects, the 29th Student Con ference on National Affairs was a huge success. The hosts and hostesses from Texas A&M did everything possible to make sure the delegates enjoyed their stay here. The SCONA committee members were so busy making sure things ran smoothly that most of them didn’t get to hear most of the presentations they had worked so hard to make possible. On the whole, the conference was well-planned and well-executed. Nevertheless, SCONA did not achieve its major goal this year. The Conference Guide stated, “SCO- NA’s goal is to conduct informative, stimulating discussions by a serious ex change of ideas between students. We ask that you look forward to this experi ence with an open mind.” It went on to quote an anonymous source who said, “The uninformed are so certain about things and the in formed are so Filled with doubt.” As a journalism student, I consider myself among “the informed” on the conference’s topic, “Media: Behind the Headlines.” But after the three-and-a- half day conference, I was Filled with even more doubt — doubt as to whether the public’s negative attitudes would ever allow the media to have a positive influence on society. As for the uninformed, they heard little during the conference to make them change or even re-examine their views. The speakers’ attitudes ranged all the way from extreme right to the right 'side of middle-of-the-road — not much of a change from the traditional atti tudes at Texas A&M. Fred Friendly, former president of CBS News, kicked off the conference with a look at some of the problems fac ing journalism. His lecture was upbeat and stimulating, but the conference went dowhill from there. The next speaker, Don Kummerfeld, was the chief operating officer for News America Publishing. According to him, journalists are slaves to the profit mo tive. They’re out for the sensational story — whatever will sell. Then the delegates heard Reed Ir vine from Accuracy in Media insist that all journalists were liars. Then came a predominately conser vative panel to discuss the Media vs. the Public’s Right to Privacy, followed by a ^ predominately conservative panel on the Media vs. the Military in Grenada. After all this, I was hoping for an up beat speaker to end the conference on a positive note. Instead, we heard Arnaud de Borchgrave, a former Newsweek chief foreign correspondent, accuse the press of naivete and a consistent bias in reporting foreign affairs. In the roundtable discussions with other delegates some of the more posi tive aspects of the media were raised. But that was virtually the only time they were raised. Three days of being bombarded with nothing but the faults of the American press made me wonder if there was any thing the media were doing right. If SGONA’s goal was to present many perspectives of one side of an issue, then the conference was a success. I would venture to guess that the majority of American delegates went home re inforced in their beliefs that the press is a threat to the lifeblood of our country — sucking away at the privacy of indi viduals and injecting the poison of liber alism into reports on foreign policy. But if SGONA was intended to pre sent a variety of positions on an ex tremely complex issue, then it was a fail ure. The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference Editor Rebeca Zimmermann Managing Editor John Wagner City Editor Patrice Koranek Assistant City Editor Kathleen Hart, Stephanie Ross News Editor Tracey Taylor Assistant News Editors ...Susan Talbot, Brigid Brockman, Kelley Smith Editorial Page Editor Kathy Wiesepape Sports Editor Donn Friedman Assistant Sports Editor ...Bill Robinson Entertainment Editor Shelley Hoekstra Assistant Entertainment Editor Angel Stokes Photo Editor John Makely Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opin ions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author, and do not nec essarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, f aculty or the Board of Regents. 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United Press International is entitled exclu sively to the use for reproduction of all news dis patches credited to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. Portfolio: Lebanon aSB3DNV>M-©W WMETPWwtccwfWtj. Thu Sit t iiyj Ducks mew? to safety. Letters Whafs good for B-CS Editor: I read The Battalion’s Feb. 15 article on the Campus Theatre. It seems that Mr. Schulman might really have a good heart, wanting “to make the campus good for College Station.” In fact, Mr. Schulman seems to be going to some length to Find a reputable, trustworthy buyer. Yet I wonder, if he’s so con cerned about the good of College Sta tion, why continue to show “movies’ that don’t beneFit College Station at all? Mary Grace Marks Class of’85 Delete travesties Editor: The attitude and views conveyed in opinion page of The Battalion have demonstrated a disregard for godly vir- I kindly request that you heed® revolutionary words of wisdom anM sider deleting the future public;# such travesties. James Ad# MMM