the daily collegian editorial opinion New HUB food service will be nice; so is Heineken By next fall, the ground floor of the HUB will cater to every tongue and tooth. In response to a marketing survey done for the Office of Housing and Food Services measuring student appetites, the new complex will offer quick hamburgers, pizza, subs, soups, salads, chili, takeout baked goods and table service. But the renovations, which will have the HUB ringing with the sound of hammers and drills through Spring Term 1983, will do more than please palates. First, they will plug the cash drain from the Terrace Room cafeteria, which vies with the Faculty Club for status as Penn State's whitest elephant. Since it was built in 1972, the Terrace Room has neither made money nor become popular with students. In fact, nearly half of a group of undergraduate students surveyed by Housing said they have never eaten there. The Penn State Bookstore, now divided among.three locations, will inherit the Terrace Room's building a textbook store is perhaps the only institution that can't lose money in State College, and students will no longer , have to buy books, pencils and Penn State souvenirs at different locations. The campus post office will inherit the bookstore's space in - McAllister Building. And the new eateries will inherit the Ter race Room's kitchen facilities, replacing the More than one person gets blame for Pulitzer disaster After years of exposing everyone else's scandals, journalism finally came up with one of its own. Actually, it almost looks like someone else's scandal change the names and a few minor details and it could be the saga of any of the n'er-do-rights against whom journalists crusade each day. There's no sex or violence, but there is everything else that makes a good story: ambition, competition and lies. The nation's newspaper-haters are in their glory. "Look," . they gloat, "lies, lies, lies. Every story is a lie, and now they've all been found out. Those reporters oughta be locked away for life." The nation's newspapers, meanwhile, are in disgrace, for the destruction of the credibility.of one of the country's most respected papers carries with it the deterioration of all papers' credibility. Much of the blame is placed directly in the imaginative .fingers of Janet Cooke, who invented an 8-year-old heroin addict, concocted vivid descriptions of his mother's boyfriend shooting him up with dope and kept his "identity" a secret by saying her life had been threatened if she revealed it. Much of the blame, of course, belongs with Cooke. It is or would have been gallingly beyond belief that any reporter could so completely and so nonchalantly disavow all journalis tic ethics and values just for the sake of a good story. Or more precisely, for the sake of faster advancement. But Janet Cooke did not put that story in the newspaper by herself. She had plenty of help from her editors, editors whose job it is to hear, and to heed, alarm bells and red warning flags. And there were plenty of warnings. Some were heard but not heeded; others were not even heard. It's a fact of journalism that newspapers must work with a basic trust in their reporters; there simply is no way to ensure that reporters have gotten every fact in every story right, that they are telling the story in the proper context, or even that they have not invented "quotes" or entire stories. When questions or doubts do arise, reporters are grilled more intensely and pressed to make sure that their information and interpretation is correct. But even then, as the Post said in its apology editorial last week, "You just do not read a many paged memorandum from an apparently reliable reporter, relating her visit to and prolonged conversation with several people in great detail, and then inquire: 'Say, did any of this actually happen?' " At the same time, however, you just do not brush off the growing suspicions of some of your most reliable editors as "professional jealousy," as assistant managing editor Bob Woodward put it. Nor do you keep your doubts to yourself, as did "a couple of dozen" lower-level reporters who questioned the story among themselves but did not go to the top editors because, they said later, they could not prove anything. Then there were others, including those most accountable to accuracy, who saw no reason not to believe the story. "Janet had written a great piece," Woodward said. "In a way, both she and the story were almost too good to be true . . . This story was so well-written and tied together so well that my alarm bells simply didn't go off. My skepticism left me. I was personally negligent." . So the Post published the story. And nominated it for =Collegian Monday Aptll2o, 1981—Page 2 Paula Froke Editor opinions HUBub ?aida 01981 Collegian Inc Debby Vinokur Business Manager ancient and hard-used kitchen of the Lion's Den. All in all, the shell game is a stroke of genius or at least the right plaster, paint and plumbing at the right place at the right time. But it's going to be expensive, very expen sive. To be as exact as possible in these inflationary times, the new HUB will cost Penn State $2.87 million. Rest assured that those millions will not come out of University funds: food service operations pay for themselves, including their buildings. So it is unfair to make comparisons with other places on campus where the money could doubtless be put to better academic uses (such as the library, where a $2 million budget for new materials is inadequate to keep Pattee on par with the major research libraries in the country). But it's still a pity that so much is being spent for new restaurants, bookstore and post office while some much less expensive aca demic concerns are dying for lack of funds. So who's going to pay for the new HUB and Terrace Room? Students, in higher prices for on-campus food. Students, in higher prices for books and materials. There's no free lunch. The Daily Collegian's editorial opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor-in-chief holding final responsibility. journalism's highest honor, the Pulitzer Prize. It won. And then, as fairy tales will, Janet Cooke's world blew up. Now everyone is mad at Janet Cooke and The Washington Post. The anger is for good reason; the Post, like Walter Cronkite, is one of the standard-bearers of journalism and has no "right" to be fooling around with accuracy. But then, neither does any newspaper. Unfortunately, how ever, some of the editors who quickly point out that Cooke's fabrications were a monstrous aberration from the journalistic norm, and pounce furiously upon the Post for its sloppiness, seemingly are ignoring the possibility that the same thing could have happened, undetected, in their own newsrooms. Janet Cooke was not the first reporter to use a confidential source, nor was the Post the first newspaper to fail to challenge a reporter's source. Often those sources are quite legitimate. Sometimes they're not. Janet Cooke also was not the first reporter to succumb to the competitive pressures of the newsroom. Nor was the Post the first newspaper to exert such pressures although its pressur es may have been greater than those of many newspapers. Those "couple of dozen" reporters who kept their suspicions about Cooke's story to themselves were not the first to opt not to get involved. The list could go on. The point is that journalists cannot afford to criticize Cooke and the Post while remaining compla cent about their own papers. After all the fine rhetoric about the need for public accountability, someone finally demonstrated quite clearly that the news media are just as vulnerable to wrong-doing as those they report about and editorialize against. The Cooke escapade does have a few bright spots for journalists. The initial questioning of Cooke's credentials that led to disclosure of the fake story came from The Toledo Blade Cooke's former employer and The Associated Press. Just because their profession was involved did not stop them from searching for the truth. And the Post itself, for all its error in the actual story, did invite a full investigation from its ombudsman, whose report covered more than 3 1 / 2 full pages in yesterday's paper. But the ultimate "bright spot" to emerge from this disaster is what must come from the journalism profession as a whole: renewed and intensified self-scrutiny; refusal to let reporters get away with as much freedom, and a greater willingness to acknowledge questions and criticisms both from inside the news media and from the public. Paula Froke is a 9th-term journalism major and editor of The Daily Collegian. 54`65 HER IselosT coLLE - 6-6 STY ="i"inf DO moT lof NO W E OU6I-1 AI3OUT WORLD AFFAIR, TO >coae - MORE 71-1,41 V PERC.ENT •CW A TEST. But it's Gonzo Janet Cooke• who made it all happen "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when•the`drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like 'I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive . .' And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?' the first paragraph of Hunter S. Thompson's book, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream," the definitive piece of Gonzo Journalism. "Jimmy is 8 years old and a third-generation heroin addict, a precocious little boy with sandy hair, velvety brown eyes and needle marks freckling the baby-smooth skin of his thin brown arms." the first paragraph of Janet Cooke's Washington Post story "Jimmy's World," the recipient of a Pulitizer Prize for about two days. • My, how journalism has progressed. When Hunter Thomp son created his extreme brand of journalism, using obviously exaggerated facts to illustrate a situation and having the writer be more of an intruder than an observer, he was a genre unto himself. Although the New Journalism allowed writers much freedom, Thompson's Gonzo Journalism was the first to go way out distorting the facts to hell, making the story a strange blend of fiction based on fact that somehow told the truth. No one tried emulating him. Now a new force has hit the scene: Janet Cooke, Gonzo Journalist extrordinaire. She has taken the genre a step further, however, opting to eliminate all facts and trying to pass off bullshit as news, with no regard for the truth. No one seriously believed Hunter Thompson did everything he wrote in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas;" he would have to be super-human to ingest that many drugs and to get away with antagonizing everyone he met. Yet he did travel to Las Vegas with his attorney friend to cover a story and more than likely consumed drugs during the trip. But what he saw and felt in Las Vegas could not be put into conventional journalistic form. His perception of the American Dream could be express ed only through gross exaggeration, contorting the facts to create an impact, but with the reader fully aware of his intentions. • , • of J „ • , ;- .l:* , „:.W.l Janet Cooke strove to create an impact. However, her intentions are questionable. To give her ultimate benefit of the doubt, I could say her powerful story about an imaginary 8- year-old heroin addict was meant to show people just how depraved the heroin life is.• By substitutihg fiction for fact and not telling anyone, her story which appeared on Sept. 28, 1980, ushered in a bold new era of journalism. Yes, that's right, Janet Cooke is a trendsetter. No. Janet Cooke is a liar. Janet Cooke is a woman driven by blind ambition, driven by the desire to move rapidly up the ladder of success, no matter what it takes. She told her bosses she wanted to move quickly; she told her colleagues she wanted a Pulitzer Prize in at least three years. She wanted to make a name for herself. She accomplished all three, but not in the way she had planned. "Success success success, does it matter?" tered," by the Rolling Stones. Janet Cooke had some impressive credentials when she applied to The Washington Post on July 12, 1979, two weeks before was 25. Although she had newspaper experiknce on The Toledo Blade, Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the Post, was most taken with her academic achievements: Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar and a master's degree from the University from "Shat- wa 7107 i ER "AIN'T 714 E MOS T TZELIABCF 30(11166'. 6 • •,..! 6 •'"'. Illustration by Ralph Steadman, from "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas." 0+ of Toledo. She said she studied in Sorbonne, France, and was fluent in four languages. She started working for the Post on Jan. 3, 1980. Yet these credentials were just as fabricated as "Jimmy's World." She attended Vassar for one year, received a bache lor's degree from the University of Toledo, never visited Sorbonne and could barely speak French. Unfortunately, the Post did not find this out until Tuesday. Once on the Post, it is not easy sailing. Bradlee believes in "creative tension," producing an atmosphere in which the pressure to excel is incredible, the competition fierce. That probably is why the Post is one of the best newspapers in the world. Cooke took off. An excellent writer, she was gaining the respect of everyone in the office. She was in the arena of power. 't Her personal success was so close that she was salivating; the hunger pangs were intense. What she really needed was the big story which is not easily accessible. So she made it up. A beautifully written piece, complete with graphic descriptions of an alligator-shirted Jimmy being in jected with heroin by his mother's boyfriend. "Pretty soon," the boyfriend said, "you got to learn how to do this for yourself." An outrage, a shocker, a story that shook the nation and gave Cooke a promotion. Janet Cooke has committed a heinous crime against the people. She has raped a sacred institution, journalism. For personal gain, she fabricated a major news story, a story that was marked clearly as fact. Although the editors of the Post erred in not catching her lies, she bears the brunt of the blame, Editors must be able to trust their reporters. She should have r ' her fingers cut off. How many other news stories are mere fabrications, the public is wondering, how do we know these media people aren't bullshitting us just to sell papers? What painful questions these are, yet they must be confronted. The credibilty of the media, especially newspapers, is questioned daily, mostly a result of the inevitable inaccuracies that come from collecting the news. A step worse is the sensationalized story, the screaming headlines, the manipulated quotes. They help create a general skepticism of the media. But Cooke's escapades? Good God, her crimes are out of my realm of understanding. Completely fabricating a news story so she can pursue the monster of success? Oh, the horror, the horror . . . Ainerica is based on rights of the individual and the idea that people have the freedom to make whatever they want out of their lives; part of the American Dream is that success is available to anyone. Janet Cooke decided she wanted to be a star journalist, but didn't want to wait around. She took a chance, pushed her luck to the limit and faked her way into big time journalism. Her overpowering desire for success made her blind to her own evils. Like a heat-seeking missile destined to attack a plane, Cooke barreled along, bent on her own self-destructive path aimed at exploding in the middle of journalism. The American Dream warped her mind; success became more important than scruples. She thought she could get away with it. "I felt like a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger . . . a Man on the Move, and just sick enough to be totally confident." the last sentence of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." John Allison is an Bth-term journalism major and assistant editorial editor of The Daily Collegian. 4P , L . ) ' rri \ J . Anti-growth position shows neither faith in technology nor compassion for less-than-afflue By ROBERT J. TISINAI 3rd-engineering The latest villain to be attacked by John Protevi and Eco-Action on The Daily Collegian's editorial page is the "myth" of the benefits of economic growth. They have taken on the task of proving that economic growth brings on ecological ruin, war, and individual unhappi ness. forum To prove his charge of ecological ruin, Protevi gives us the analogy of bacteria sealed in a petri dish; eventually, after a time of unrestrained growth, these microorganisms expand to a population the petri dish cannot support. However, this analogy fails when one grasps an astonishing fact: human beings are not bacteria. Bacteria cannot expand the "carrying capaci ty" of their environment; we can. That the world of a hundred years ago could not have supported the popula tion of today is ignored in this analogy, yet this is a crucial point. The population of a country expands whether its economy does or not. It is economic growth that makes life bearable for an expanding population, yet it is also economic growth that slows a population explosion. Look at a map; those countries with the weakest economies and the lowest standards of living are the nations where the population is increasing fastest. Those few countries in which this is not the case, such as Cambodia, are the countries where the economy has been made to stand still. With economic growth, these Attention Business Stu Get Involved Apply now to be a 1981-82 Undergraduate Student Advisor Application available in 110 8.A.8 complete and return applications to 8.A.8. by Friday May 15th. Sears Rapid Transit Competitive Edge ':-• 'DersheMS b t e t< cisi . TEE LE Sunday,' April 26 2 MILE FUN RUN and 10K SECOND MILE SPRINT SECOND MILE SUNDAY is designed to provide an entertain ing and informative afternoon for community members and students. In addition to the races and activities, an in formation booth, will be available to explain The Second Mile and its programs for youth. Go that Second Mile and give a kid a second chance! PLACE: PSU Campus-Hub Lawn FEE: $5 per individual (includes T-shirt, free a. PRIZES: Over 150 prizes and trophies Pepsi, and all participants in the Fun Run 2 awarded in all, including over are eligible for random drawings.) 60 prizes in the 10K with 6 age divisions. a. AGE DIVISIONS: A: 8-14, B: 15-19, C:2O-29, D: 30-39 E: 40-44, F:so+ TIMES: 1:30 p.m.: 2 MILE FUN RUN, 2:30 p.m. 10K SEOND MILE SPRINT The afternoon's entertainment and activities begin at 1:00, featuring the Nittany Lion, the Unicycle Club, the Frisbee Club, a Dixieland Band, the Juggling Club, live radio and more! L 1-, a) CL albh Sponsored by: PEPSI Ner —THE CENTRE DAILY TIMES—. I * , AMERICAN MAKETING ASOCIATION register TODAY in HUB basement and at these fine stores Name Number and Street In consideration of the acceptance of my entry, I, on behalf of myself, my, heirs, ad ministrators, and assigns, do hereby release The Penn State Chapter of the American Marketing Association, and The Second Mile Corporation, from all claims for damag es and/or injury resulting out of the risks involved in these events. I also certify that I am of proper physical condition to participate in this event. Furthermore, I grant The Penn State Chapter of the American Marketing Association and The Second Mile Corporation to use any photographs which I may appear in, in 'any form of publication that they see fit. These publications will be used for promotional and advertising purposes. Signature (Parent, if under 18) Division ❑ Please send me additional information on The Second Mile. Make checks payable to The Second Mile Mail entries to: Second Mile Sunday Marketing Dept. Business Administration Bldg. U• 122 University Park, Pa. 16802 A *must be 4th term as of Fall 'Bl To grow or not to grow countries would have a much better chance of survival; without it, they are all but lost. This brings us to Protevi's next point: the danger of war. True, increased competition for the world's re sources can increase international tension, but this is by no means the greatest threat to peace in the world today. Don't forget that when one resource starts running low, we can turn to a substitute. If no substitutes are available in nature, we can invent one; this is how synthetic rubber came about and why synthetic fuel is becoming more feasible each year. The main threat to world peace comes from an expanding population without corresponding economic growth. This has been true all through history and is still true today; what a country cannot produce or buy on its own, it will attack its neighbors to get. Now, with half the world starving, this danger is stronger than ever and brings us back to the fact that economic growth must accompany an increase in population. Don't try to claim that this does not apply to the United States. It may not today, but our population is still growing, no matter how slowly, and if our economy does not grow with it, it will merely be a matter of time until we, too, are living beyond our means. The most single shocking statement in Protevi's article, though, is his assertion that "after a certain minimum, material goods have no bearing on the quality of a person's life, the depth of his or her satisfactiqp, the intensity of their loves." Really? Tell a farmer who spends 18 back-breaking hours a day working his fields with a hand plow (the "certain minimum" he needs to get the work done), as he tries desperately to feed himself and his family, that his life Phone Number (during bus. hrs.) Male/Female .' . '''' .. rio' . .oi . oiiiiiiliie State would be no better were he able to do 10 times the work in 10 less hours with a tractor, because a tractor is only a material good. Tell a woman who is old and weary at age 35, because she has had to live with a "certain minimum" of material goods, that her loves and desires are just as intense as today's woman, who is still young at the same age and has 35 more years ahead of her. Tell people living in caves (the "certain minimum" needed to keep the rain off their heads) that they would be no more satisfied if they had four walls, heating, plumbing, and a warm bed at night, because these are nothing more than material goods. The fact is, there exists no "certain minimum;" intelligent people can select and purchase goods indefi nitely, each one making life easier and freeing time for other pursuits. The belief that economic growth will produce no more such goods is reminiscent of the legislator who wanted to close the patent office at the turn of last century, because "everything has already been invented." While some people may reach the point where they feel like a slave to their possessions, this is their own personal problem; not everyone shares it. Yet even if economic growth were undesirable (which it is not), by what means would it be stopped? Who is to decide what new products may and may not go on the market, what new jobs will be available, which investments will be allowed and which ones will not? The government? By what criteria will these decisions be made, and, given the criteria, what part of the U.S. Constitution grants the government these extraordinary powers? Who else could be given the responsibility? The people? Ah, but the people already have this power. If consumers do not wish to take advantage of the latest Cl) Ci) - 13 co a cn Shirt Size $lOO IN PRIZES 1::......A.':.•.:::i''..i . '1:..:,.:01...t1i.. - .:rif.:::l:'.'. - i....:* . i, -. 1•.•.-..:z..01,..:.4..:,4 COLLOQUY t'." ENERGY: A TIME TO CHOOSE SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY /SOCIETY EVENTS ALVIN WEINBERG BARRY COMMONER Physicist, Engineer, Authority Biologist, Environmental on Nuclear Energy Problems Scientist, Authority on Energy and National Energy Policies and Environmental Issues TUESDAY-APRIL 21 4:00 p.m. Lecture by Dr. Weinberg "Alternative Energy Scenarios for the U.S." HUB Assembly Room 8:00 Debate "Resolved: The Nation's Energy Needs Call for a Substantial Role for Nuclear Power" HUB Ballroom WEDNESDAY- APRIL 22 4:00 p.m. Lecture by Dr. Commoner "Toxic Chemicals: Who Benefits? Who Pays?" HUB Assembly Room Co-Sponsored by COLLOQUY and the SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY PROGRAM m 1-1 co) COLLOQUY • 111 l dr ,11 I I I P..." .. . . . . . e" N • ~....• e •7, 0 ,:!!ray ‘,) is 6 _h. evil produced by economic growth, they need merely not buy it. Throughout his article, Protevi bemoans the fact that educators are fail their duty to lead students away from their blind acceptance of "cultural as• tions," particularly those regarding economic growth. Another duty, however, i of training their students to think, and it doesn't take much thought befor realizes that most of the "myths" about economic growth presented lately a myths against it. L w,v_u nD ] COLLEGIAN CONTEST ..di~~~ . ~~,~ l~_ ~~ I ~~~~, Y - , . (( ):11 STS STS The Daily Collegian Monday April 20, COLLOQU COLLOQU
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers