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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2000)
OPINION day.lApril 14, 2000 THE BATTALION Page 17 nfsp^fop the press! media coverage of Elian crisis demonstrates mrusivenessy tendency to focus on tragedies Tehran © elvho have willingly surrendered their rights to since Febniarv,«;-j V acY and to factual information. 't is a very rare day that Fi del Castro is right on any .matter. So rare, in fact. Hie NBA’s Los Angeles tippers make the playoffs ore often than Comrade jstro liits the correct button. In that case, get ready for ime time Clips fans. Unfor- , natcl\, Castro was right on 111 1 * lal e money when he said the Elian Gonzalez case -'-ikl ihc fact ih;it (dlecome a prime example of how intrusive the edin has become in American society. Rarely - ’ 'viiionsandtk )es broadcast media actually fulfill its obligation -- ul 'ia condemned lkiH )or t the news to the American people. It is now f Hore interested in coming up with sensational " " l! mls 111 cu - sl °dy‘ eas to increase ratings than in telling the truth. - J: lasted m) minute' he|najor losers, as a result, are the American peo- Naseri said. Three oil ^ lcai u heftierthe_\ appaa®i ie niedia barricade in front ofElian Gonza- iz’lgreat uncle’s house is not new — remember • 9 Imp O.J.? But the broadcast media has still sue- -a -*-% -pi •i^/sssliilly reached a new low in tenns of class. Di- xXj. A 1J ijie Sawyer’s two day stalking ofElian and his limjly held absolutely no infonnational value 'hatsoever: it was merely a pathetic attempt to HA money offthe life of a confused little kid. ■ ABC News said that Sawyer’s farce was sup- osed to be a “human interest” story, and was innocent. 'The resia ewsworthy. Then again, this is the same organiza- luuc! level as far as wet on that was willing to send that news hound I he drug gang was capah ,eohardo DiCaprio to interview the president of IOC pounds of heroin re United States. Any organization willing to sac- , h would represent ab ifice any vestige of professional ethics to gain a ib annual productii ewmatings points must have anything they say . police said. The} said onSidered suspect. ped heroin to the Unite. Ifthe American people want this situation to m, I lolland and Italy. ihange, it is within their power to see that it does. n.|ui|o. whose mother is; mr all, they are the ones that made it happen, 'bur’s mother, was capture fhe media is simply looking for ways to increase w estern cit\ of Medellin, 'atings and will try anything once to see how pop- ii rested Wednesday ram alar it is; if people watch, then more sensationalist ■hmen to drug couriers K garbage will lifter onto the air. Ifthe viewing pub- in trafficking heroin-pi b nicals and laundering dng :e said lie decides that enough is enough, then TV news will go back to being just that — news. It is a self- fulfilling prophecy. The first thing the American people must rec ognize is that the talking heads on television are not trustworthy. Most members of the broadcast media today do not believe that their primary obligation is to properly inform the public, as Wal ter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow did. Their pri mary obligation, unfortunately, is to their own ca- rests People that are in the business of gathering news should be interested in findings of fact, not trampling on pieces of already shattered lives. reers. Currently, American society tends to reward those who get the big, dramatic “scoop.” Whether that “scoop” is true or causes increased pain and suffering for others is not an issue. The nation must recognize that while the Diane Sawyers and Jane Pauleys of the world may be tearing up someone else’s life right now, they could show up on their doorstep at any time. The bonfire collapse brought that stark reality to life at Texas A&M this past fall. Suddenly, our ability to privately mourn our dead and put our lives back together was gone; we were forced to do these things in front of an audience of millions. Most (though certainly not all) of those covering the tragedy for the TV media had no interest in find ing out the truth about the incident or allowing us to pick up the pieces. To them, it was not “news worthy.” Only tears and condemnations made the evening news. This, by defi nition, is not news. It is garbage. People that are in the business of gathering news should be interested in findings of fact, not trampling on pieces of already shattered lives. The Nielsen families do not seem to recognize this, however, and the shameful trend continues. It is time — frankly, it is well past time — that the American people recognized that those “average Ameri cans” that are being subjected to me dia scrutiny are no different from them. The right to “be informed” (if this warped brand of reporting can even be called “information”) has shoved aside a citizen’s right to live their own life without outside interference. Ifthe viewers of American television show their contempt for the current crop of broad cast joumalism by complaining, or, better yet, by changing the channel, the press will change in or der to survive. Then, perhaps, news will once again become factual information and not some garbage that should be recycled. Freedom of the press is a wonderful concept. The right of an individual is even more magnifi cent. Currently, the two are at loggerheads with each other because of the media’s view that what it wants is more important that what the public needs. The broadcast media is acting like a bunch of spoiled brats and needs to grow up. As soon as the American public does the same, it can force the media to do just that. Mark Passwaters is a senior electrical engineering major. RUBEN DELUNA/Thk Battalion ecent assisted suicide case bees the question: omeo survived? HEATHER CORBELL in Verona, Italy. Js is Crofton, Md., where two [ibled 15-year-olds chose to e a suicide pact in a graffiti- ijered drainage pipe under the m lat of separation. Jennifer Gar- : ey took the .38-caliber revolver her boyfriend handed her, put to her temple and pulled the trig- er. The boyfriend, whose name as not been released to the media lause he is a minor, was sup- led to follow her into death. In- Id, he ran to get help. HOn April 17, he will be put on ial for reckless endangennent, ille- d possession of a handgun and as- N de. The latter charge has ked wide-spread controversy, aryland law banning assisted jicide went into effect 17 days be- ‘e Jennifer’s death. It is now be- ig grossly misinterpreted in an at- ipt to imprison a young man jo chose life over death a few jonds too late. Maryland’s assisted suicide | allows for prosecution of any one who “knowingly provides the physical means by which another person commits or attempts to commit suicide.” Technically, the boyfriend is legally and justly accused of the crime. However, even his prosecu tors admit that the law is really in tended to deter people who poison or otherwise end the lives of termi nally ill patients and loved ones. Jennifer Garvey’s boyfriend is being prosecuted because of the anger and frustration felt by the Garvey family and investi gating officials. Granted, the boy is probably bad news, even his mother said so. His relationship with Jennifer was violent, possessive and intense. His hold on her was powerful, and her parents could not stand him. If the law had allowed, they would have done anything to keep him from their daughter. Now, the law is allowing for some degree of re taliation, and Jennifer’s parents are grabbing for it. Her mother stated on ABC’s “20/20” that she wishes the boyfriend had followed through with the suicide pact and shot himself along with Jennifer. She believes that her daughter was betrayed in the final moments of her young life. That is not the attitude of a per son seeking justice — to wish for two bodies instead of one — and certainly not the compassion that a parent should feel for all children. Her comments are just samples of the rhetoric that has surrounded this trial, and none of it is good for Jennifer’s boyfriend. This boy obviously needs love, support and professional help. So far he has encountered nothing but hostility. Psychiatrists say that a mentally stable person is inca pable of soberly taking his or her own life. Jennifer Garvey and her boyfriend both struggled with mental illness, in the form of man ic depression, for years. The young man identified Jennifer as someone with torment like his, mastenninded a suicide plot and put a gun into the hands of a con fused 15-year-old. He might even have had the guts to follow her to the grave if she had not flung the gun into some debris as she fell to the ground. Fie is mentally unstable, and the state would do better to help him instead of putting him through another emotional battle. This bat tle, however, may land him behind bars. Assisted suicide is a felony in Maryland with a sentence of up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine. Jennifer’s boyfriend had every intention of killing himself. He was not hidden in a culvert with the sole purpose of helping her commit suicide. He was there be cause he was in pain, and Jennifer, whom her parents were planning to send to an uncle in Oregon to get her away from the bad rela tionship, was the only person who could ease it. Like in Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera, Jennifer and her boyfriend chose death over separation. The boyfriend was not assisting anything. He thought he was winning, defeating his demons once and for all. The now 16-year-old boyfriend is obviously a danger to himself and others. Perhaps Jennifer would be alive today if not for his influence. His action in providing the revolver that Jennifer used to take her life is what prosecutors are using against him in the assist ed suicide trial. However, she is the one who pulled the trigger, and it obviously changed his life when he was faced with the reality of death. He carries the burden of some responsibility for her death, but it should not be a burden which is increased by the state. Every day, he will wake to face the spectre of Jennifer, sprawled in a culvert bleeding to death with powder marks on her hands. That should be punishment enough. Tips for students’ pursuit of the perfect summer job Heather Corbell is a junior English major. The Battalion encour ages letters to the edi tor. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author’s name, class and phone number. The opinion editor re serves the right to edit letters for length, style,and accuracy. Let ters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hot- mail.com I t's the time of year when most people have decided what they'll be doing for the sum mer. I am not one of those people. Right now I am in the thick of figuring out some thing to do that will keep me off the streets during those long hot summer days. And I've accumulated some wisdom about the matter that will be off no use to anyone since most of you already know what you're doing. One of the first things I have discovered is that the mass of college folk seeking summer activities is a veritable gold mine for employ ers. Imagine having a huge mass of relatively educated workers who are willing to doing charity work for free. Why? Perhaps the "ex perience," is worth more than any sum of money less than ten thousand dollars. But if you have to decide between ten grand and "experience" and you choose the latter, may your God help you. Perhaps I am being a cynic about these things. For example, my father continually reminds me that one of the best sum mer experiences he had was paying money re build a Shaker village in the sweltering Pennsyl vania heat. This first struck me as an inge nious scam — a scam I assumed was far below the clean-living psyche of the Shaker mind. But Be wary of the enterprising Shaker asking you to pay him money for the experience of building a "genuine Shaker casino." for the sake of argument, I will treat this as a bor derline case.. After all, perhaps it is worth paying money to go build something for the Shakers ? as long as it's the essentials ? a house, a bam, and an irrigation system, etc. However, be wary of the enterprising Shaker asking you to pay him mon ey for the experience of building a "genuine Shaker casino." There are a couple of ways to tell if you've been duped in your choice of summer-building activity. First, if you get to the project site and find out that your colleagues in labor are sever al hundred migrant workers from Mexico, you might want to hit the road and take that sum mer job at Wendy's. Also, you should raise an eyebrow if you notice that you are much more cheerful than your fellow workers, perhaps you are the only one whistling. This is proba bly an indicator that they are working more from dire economic need than from the charac ter building benefits of a hard day's work. Some of us might pay an institution to help a professor do scientific research, others might accept a "stipend" to intern at some company or other. And there is one thing that we should all accept about these sorts of opportunities: We are definitely a source of cheap labor. Our bosses are paying us with "experience," which will not pay off'a college loan, fill up a gas tank or, for some of us, pay off large, potential ly life-threatening gambling debts. But there seems to be a general consensus that experi ence is good for us mentally, or something. There are several kinds of pay internships to be had. The worst kind is what I will call the "menial task" internship. With these you spend your days doing menial tasks for your employ er for free or a measly stipend. You make copies and coffee and deliver things to spare your poor, impoverished corporation the Fed Ex fees. You might get a reference from your boss giving the vague impression you actually did something having to do with the business of the company, but most future employers will not be fooled. In short, if you take a me nial task internship, you either feel a bizarre sense of compassion for the welfare of your lo cal profit-making enter prise, or you are a suck er. Either way, avoid the menial task internship at all cost. Then there is the in ternship where you actu ally do interesting things having to do with the business of your em ployer. This internship has no name, but don't forget it because it's the best kind. I had an internship at a magazine two years ago. I worked long hard hours for a boss who would have been a fine drill sergeant in the Marines if he had not made it as a journalist. By the end of the summer I had learned a lot about joumalism and how to work for a direct descen- dent of Attila the Hun. Then finally there is the "sit-on-your-butt" internship, and the even better "sit-on-your butt-and-get-paid," internship. You will find out you have this kind of internship when, after a few weeks of you sitting around the office and sending emails, everyone realize there re ally nothing for you to do, and your presence becomes the joke of the office. Your boss has to give you some sort of reference unless you nearly burnt the place down by not fully putting out that cigarette you threw in the trash after smoking on your lunch break. The deal is obviously even sweeter if you're getting paid. All of us college interns can exact our revenge vicariously on the world of intern employers through the lives of these lucky few. Matthew Dalton is a columnist for the Brown Daily Herald at Brown University
