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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1989)
The Battalion OPINION Tuesday, June 13,1989 Nw&vms ©\qeq hoa-cm Mail Call Memorial service appalling EDITOR: I could not believe that The Battalion would dare to print a memorial ad for Khomeini. Freedom of the press is one thing, but printing an insult to every American is going too far. Khomeini’s insane fanatacism has inspired the deaths of innocents in his country, and in countries around the world. For The Battalion to accept and print this ad shows its lack of compassion for the many victims of this criminal. It makes one wonder if The Battalion would have accepted ads for other murderers, such as Adolf Hitler, Lee Harvey Oswald, Stalin, or the leader of the Matamoros cult. I think The Battalion owes an apology to all students and former students for this lapse of editorial discretion. Thank you, the friends of the Chinese students, for allowing me the opportunity to help support the Chinese students and citizens Fighting for democratic reform in your country. By printing up T-shirts and selling them in the MSC, you have enabled me to make a small contribution to this MOST important cause. As a student, I identify with my Chinese counterparts in Beijing, Shanghai and all of China. As an American, I identify with the freedoms they are fighting for — the ones I am fortunate to already have. Yet, it is a tragedy that man has made his world one in which freedom has to be earned with blood and tears. Michelle Hart ’89 Troyce Wilson ’89 In support of fellow Aggies EDITOR: Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff re serves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the clas sification, address and telephone number of the writer. Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words. Ellerbee or not to be And so it went. Linda Ellerbee’s syn dicated column from the opinion page of the Bryan-College Station Eagle that is. The recent question of journalistic ethics, caused by Ellerbee’s appearance in a Maxwell House Coffee commercial, caused the Eagle to cancel the syndi cated column by the most famous media personality to have been born in Bryan. Linda Ellerbee, with 17 years of expe rience in the journalism field, is a public figure/business woman who has the right to appear in commercials if she so desires. Juliette Rizzo Opinion Page Editor According to the 1923 code of jour nalistic ethics known as the Canons of Journalism, journalists must adhere to freedom of the press, responsibility, truthfulness, sincerity and accuracy. “A journalist who uses his power for any selfish or otherwise unworthy purpose is faithless to a high trust.” This code has been revised and adopted numer ous times by many a newspaper. Today, the code reads that “journalists must be free from obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know.” Ellerbee, when she decided to appear in the commercial, did not go against the code, acting in selfish greed for money as some have said. In reality, El lerbee, who claims to be the toughest boss she’s ever had, runs her own pro duction company, Lucky Duck Produc tions, which produces television pro grams for public television and syndication. Ellerbee was acting in the best inter ests of her business just as a network news company acts in the best interests of all its employees by forming advertis ing departments that raise advertising dollars. Because of these departments, everyday journalists are free to do their jobs without haying to personally worry about money coming in. However, in the case of Ellerbee’s company, she was its only advertising asset. The advertising market is full of ac tors, musicians, and sports heroes, pushing everything including deodor ant, automobiles and insurance. So why should we hold members of the media to a higher scrutiny than other members of the public eye? W.O. Cawley, Jr., managing editor of the Eagle, in defending the Eagle’s deci sion to remove Ellerbee’s column, cited a conflict of interest when a journalist endorses a product. Is there a conflict of interest if a columnist promotes a brand of coffee? Maybe if she were a restau rant critic or nutrition expert for a newspaper, a conflict of interest could be cited. But Linda Ellerbee’s columns are opinion-oriented in nature, not cof fee-oriented. She deals in opinions and one of her opinions is that she feels stronly enough about a particular coffee brand to endorse it. someone saw her commercial and thought that the validity of her opinions was suspect. Those readers who didn’t know who Ellerbee was at the beginningof this col umn comprise a large portionof the na tional television audience whowill never see the commercial or even give it a sec ond glance. However, the average viewer who does recognize the news personality will not necessarily be persuaded to change brands or even buy coffee had he not in the past. Well, just like the coffee is known to be good to the last drop, so were Eller bee’s columns in the Eagle good to the last one. Her writing was accurate,ethi cal, insightful and definitely entertain ing. She never promoted theproduct in her columns nor did she eveiintend to. The Eagle may have overreacted when it dropped Ellerbee fromits page. Blinded by a false sense of ethica 1 supe riority, they failed to hold on toa good thing when they had it. As theold say- ing goes “it’s their loss.” Ellerbee will move on as she has in the past. TheEa- gle was just another medium sh< had to filter through. History ma# f repeat itself to By In January 1905 a large group of dis gruntled workers massed outside the St. Petersburg palace of Nicholas Roma nov, the last czar of Russia. They were hoping to present Nicholas with a 135,000-signature petition, asking for some basic concessions such as a constit uent assembly and the freedoms of speech and religion. Hal L. Hammons Makeup Editor looking to overthrow the commii: system in their home country. Butifi Chinese government continues iis pressive tactics, revolution may be only option that remains. The czar, who was away from St. Pe tersburg for the winter, didn’t feel the assembly worth his personal attention and left the situation to the discretion of the St. Petersburg police, which quickly called in the army. The result: Gunfire erupted, killing between 2,000 and 4,000 civilians bear ing nothing but religious banners and icons. Bloody Sunday carried waves of dissent across the Russian states, inten sifying the public opinion that the gov ernment was not listening to the peo ples’ requests. I lie Chinese students, many of vk have been schooled in America orti W ‘ 1 1 bcc that come from an open marketpkt ideas. And if the government of LiPti and Deng Xiaoping will not pn» one, history indicates the Chinesep pie will find one that will A rash of strikes and protests, along with a disastrous showing in World War I, finally resulted in the resignation of Nicholas on March 14, 1917, and the rise of a short-lived democratic govern ment headed by Alexander Kerinsky. This in turn quickly gave way to the Bol sheviks and Lenin the following Novem ber. Troubled times definitely have: rived for Li’s regime. They reacted the worst possible way to the protest resulting in what historians proM will call the Beijing Massacre, 'll bloodshed will only intensify the ready-growing sentiment that thego eminent does not have the people’s!* interest at heart. Make no mistake protests will continue until the cm of China get the rights they wantJ considering the hardline stance ofi government at the present time,li may mean what few could have hop ^ a F for — full democratization. We had a similar situation arise on our continent. On March 5, 1770, in what Bostonians proudly call the first battle of the American Revolution, Brit ish troops answered a flurry of rocks and snowballs with a flurry of bullets, killing five. The hostilities grew, and war broke out five years later. By 1783, the Americans had driven the British out and established the United States of America. The first half of 1989 indicatesli the coming decade may signal a treK clous turn toward democracy, notoi in China, but across the world. Refon the ST/ I A& ice fun bus ma has sun \ was bee pie witl rou fen nov mei mig das . 1 five froi san nig] « Par < « and < \ dat clas Bu< refi the The similarities between these events in history and the present situation in China are not difficult to see. And the results may turn out to be the same as well. are already in progress in the Union, but the Soviet states and I lies are not satisfied. States like Litbi nia and Estonia, oi^ce independerl tions, want their independence bi ^ Poland, if the recent elections are£ indication at all, seems on the verge voting the Communists completely# of office. And the trend can spread. In both cases, the “subversives” were in reality nothing of the kind. The Rus sians loved the czar, for the mdst part, in the early years of the 20th century. Le nin was exiled in Austria and having enough trouble keeping his party alive. Likewise, the thought of completely throwing off the British yoke didn’t oc cur until years after the Boston Mas sacre. The vast majority of the colonists were happy with being citizens of the most powerful nation on earth; they just wanted to be treated as citizens, with a representative voice in Parliament, not as a cheap source of labor and re sources. For the first time since the 1$ there is real hope that communism not here to stay. It has inherentet nomical and social flaws, and even hat core communist countries like theSoffi Union are beginning to see them. This may be too outlandishly mistic a prediction, but no one wot have expected the protests in China,' ther, so I’m in the mood. Communism as we know itverylik will be eliminated from the planet 2050. And likewise, the Chinese are not As with all columns, opinions pressed by Guest Columnists area necessarily those of The Battalion, sons interested in submitting guests umns should contact the Opinion h Editor at 845-3314. MAG&W-I&S One thing the Eagle should have con sidered is that Ellerbee’s endorsement of the product did not affect the credibi lity of her writing. I can’t imagine that The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Ellen Hobbs, Editor Juliette Rizzo, Opinion Page Editor Fiona Soltes, City Editor Drew Leder, Chuck Squatriglia, News Editors Steven Merritt, Sports Editor Kathy Haveman, Art Director Hal Hammons, Makeup Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa per operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily rep resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac ulty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Journalism. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62 per school year and $36.44 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 230 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-1 111. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Battal ion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, Col lege Station TX 77843-4111.