I —The Daily Collegian Wednesday, Oct. 22, 1986
Editor: Lawsuits a growing threat
By WINSLOW M. MASON Jr.
Collegian Stall Writer
The nation faces a growing problem of libel
lawsuits involving newspapers and private citi
zens amid a climate that offers no immediate
solutions, said Gene Roberts, executive editor of
The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The increase began a few years ago after
actress Carol Burrnett sued The National En
quirer for defamation of character and won,
prompting America’s public officials and private
citizens to seek court action against derogatory
remarks appearing in the media, he said.
These court actions have forced many newspa
per editors to temper their news coverage, ini
tiate fewer investigative news stories and print
fewer letters to the editor that accuse public
officials of wrongdoing.
But while many of the larger newspapers can
afford to fight the lawsuits, the smaller ones are
being forced out of business, unable to contend
with the million-dollar courts fees involved in
most libel cases.
The problem is forcing newspapers’ coverage
of news events to be shallow and not as critical as
it could be, Roberts said. He said many newspa
per editors are adopting a popular attitude: "If
there is any question at all, we tend not to print
it.’’
Roberts spoke to about 100 students and facuty
of the Schoool of Communications last night as
part of the school’s first Mellet Awards program
for media criticism.
School of Communications Dean Brian
Winston, along with Vice President and Vice
'Sister! Sister!' portrays women of world
By ERIC SCHMIDT
Collegian Staff Writer
: vignettes showing women from
She is a modern woman talking around the world facing their prob
with her old-fashioned mother on the lems.
telephone. She is society passing **j don’t make a deliberate effort to
judgment on a 14-year-old girl who sen d a message,” Burrows said, “I
has committed infanticide, as well as j us t present the truth of women and
a traditional African woman who h o p e that people take away their own
does not understand the modern ad- message.”
vances her husband brings home, and „ ~ , . ,
£) feminist explaining what a man can f B “I r ° ( WS , She C ”? d t
do about women’s liberation. t( ; r ’ S^ ter! a T f\ B I(
She is also a performer named at the beginning of the United Nations
Vinip Riirrnwc Decade of Women,” Burrows said,
Burrows, the veteran of seven “ and I’ve added more and more
Broadway shows, performed last women t 0 ll
night at the Paul Robeson Cultural Burrows, a New York City native,
Center in the first of a series of received her prelaw degree from
programs on the interaction of rac- Yale University something she
ism and sexism. The series is co- said her mother wanted before
directed by the Office of Minority entering the theater at a very young
Programs and the Center for Women age.
Students. “I was * n a Broadway show with
SOLOISTS NEEDED
for
MESSIAH SING-IN
to be held
SUN., DEC. 7, 1986
3:00 P.M.
SCHWAB AUDITORIUM
Interested persons please contact Will
Hartman at 23H156 (office), or 237-0278
(home). Auditions will be held
Nov. 1 , 1986 in the Music Bldg.
Provost Ken Mortimer and other School of Com
munications faculty, invited the winners of the
award to a presentation, held at Kern Building.
Honored for their outstanding media critism
were Norman E. Isaacs, author of a book titled
Untended Gates, which expains how to improve
the media through libel law and ethics, and
The program, called “Sister! Sis-
ter!,” is a conglomeration of several
Collegian Photo I John S. Zoedlck
Gene Roberts
Helen Hayes,” Burrows said. “That condition of women worldwide to the
got me on my feet, and I liked it.” U.N. Commission on the Status of
Burrows said she has seven one- Women,
woman nroerams the three bieeest Burrows was also a part of a recent
including “Sister l ' sfster'” “Walk u:N - fact-finding tour of the African
Together Children,” a show abouUhe “frontline states” - those countries
black experience; and “African bordering South Africa including An-
Fire,” a show about African folk g° la . . Zamb ia, Zimbabwe and Mo
leg,„ds a„d m y,h, 3ST£iES£F ““
Burrows is also a permanent rep- Burrows said she looked at health
resentative to the United Nations care facilities, Housing and education
representing the Women’s Interna- re fugee camps in these nations,
tional Democratic Federation a “There are thousands of people
nongovernmental group formed in mainly young people moving
1945 by European women. across the 1,000-mile South African
The organization is designed to border,” she said. “Where do they
promote world peace and to ensure go? Angola.”
another conflict like World War II it is because of that movement into
does not happen again, Burrows said. Angola that the South African govern-
The organization has 127 affiliates in ment is attempting to destabilize the
116 countries. Angolan economy and is conducting a
As a representative, Burrows said war in its southern province, Burrows
she provides expert advice on the said.
Anthony Marro, managing edtior of Newsday in
Long Island, N.Y.
Loren Ghiglione, editor and publisher of the
Southbridge News in Southbridge, Mass., and
Bristol Press in Bristol, Conn., was presented a
special citiation for his contributions to construc
tive analysis of the media.
Winston said at the awards ceremony that the
winners share the philosophy that “a free press
should be a responsible press.”
In expensive libel cases, Roberts offered no
immediate solutions for smaller newspapers.
But he said that when libel suits can be brought
only by those who can be sued themselves, the
media will come to “an enlightened position.”
A 1964 Supreme Court ruling in the case of New
York Times vs. Sullivan which allows public
officials to win libel cases involving actual mal
ice or “reckless disregard” for the truth began
as a good intention by the courts but has turned
into a “weapon aimed at the heart of criticism,”
he said.
By publishing stories on, libel cases, Roberts
said, the media have made lawsuits an attractive
profit-making move by citizens. To some extent,
this is to blame for the situation today, he said.
Isaacs added that the media’s arrogance helps
contribute to the increasing number of lawsuits
against them. “We’re too goddam big for our
britches,” he said.
But Roberts said “the chill goes on” as news
paper editors single out letters to the editor that
take on certain public officials and refrain from
publishing editorials that could be controversial.
“I submit that people of your generation can
play a useful role when you move out into a world
of professional communications,” Isaacs told
students gathered at the talk.
WIIV Kentucky /
▼ ▼ pried Chicken feL
But ya gotta listen .
in the morning
Student loan
defaulters'
payments up
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) -
Federal collections on student
loan defaults during the last fis
cal year are expected to total $229
million, more than twice the pre
vious year’s collections, the Edu
cation Department said
yesterday.
“This is bad news for default
ers,” Education Secretary Wil
liam Bennett said in a statement.
"When loans are paid back, the
integrity of the federal loan pro
grams is preserved.
In fiscal year 1985, which ended
Sept. 30, 1985, federal collections
totaled $94 million.
Bennett attributed the increase
in fiscal 1986 which ended three
weeks ago to the Federal In
come Tax Refund Offset' Pro
gram, a two-year pilot program
that began last year.
Under the program, debtors
were warned by mail to pay up or
face the loss of their 1985 income
tax refunds.
I ' ■ — 1 1 ■
The Accounting Club presents:
Opportunities with
Local :
Accounting
Firms
Wednesday, Oct. 22, 1986 Drintin*'
121 Sparks 7:30 p.m. Offset Printing • Quick Printing • Xerox Copied*
All Students welcome |
Be Fashionable
Photos offend 'Zone' lawyer
By LINDA DEUTSCH
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES A defense attor
ney complained yesterday that the
Twilight Zone prosecutor has turned
her office into “a grotesque chamber
of horrors,” displaying pictures of
decapitated victims for witnesses to
see.
Attorney Harland Braun asked Su
perior Court Judge Roger Boren to
order Deputy District Attorney Lea
Purwin D’Agostino to remove the
pictures from her office wall when
Steps taken to close dial-a-porn
complaints against a single company were selected from
about 30 received from parents since the law was passed
in 1983 and sent to the Justice' Department for possible
WASHINGTON, D.C. Almost three years after Con- criminal prosecution,
gress enacted a law to keep children from calling sexually Smith said he sought prosecution of the company, which
explicit telephone messages, the Federal Communica- he refused to name, because it was not making an effort to
tions Commission has taken the first step toward shutting keep youngsters from hearing the messages,
down a dial-a-porn service, the FCC chairman said If the government decided to prosecute, Smith said the
yesterday. next step would probably be to ask a judge to order the
A series of court decisions blocked enforcement of the company to stop letting children hear the sex talk,
law until a way could be found to prevent youngsters from Enforcement of the law has been postponed while the
hearing the messages without keeping adults from hear- FCC searched to find a way to keep children from hearing
ing them if they so choose. the messages without infringing on free speech guar-
Jack D. Smith, the FCC’s general counsel, said nine antees in the Constitution.
By BILL McCLOSKEY
Associated Press Writer
RS PIZZA
$ 5.40
s also available
ivery service
4 p.m.-12 a.m.
4 p.m.- 1 a.m.
eryday Special
238-9403
foot
trial witnesses are in the room.
"l think this is a barbaric thing to
do,” Braun said. “She admits she
brings witnesses into a room with
pictures on the wall of Vic Morrow
and the children in life and death and
also pictures of their body parts.”
D’Agostino ridiculed Braun’s com
plaint outside court, saying:
“They’ve got to have at least one
complaint a day about me. It’s back
to persecute the prosecutor.”
Before attorneys left court for the
day, Braun raised his complaint
about the pictures, which depict the
VISIT HARNER FARM
OpeS Sunday”® intersection of West College & Whitehall Road
deaths of Morrow, 53, Myca Le, 7, and
Renee Chen, 6, in the helicopter acci
dent which led to manslaughter
charges against director John Land
is, associate producer George Folsey,
special effects supervisor Paul Stew
art, production coordinator Dan Al
lingman and pilot Dorcey Wingo.
A helicopter, flying through special
effects explosives in a mock Vietnam
ese village, crashed on top of them in
the early morning hours of July 23,
1982. Morrow and the Le child were
decapitated by the helicopter blades
and the Chen girl was crushed-
campus briefs
Blood drive today
Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity will “Originally the blood drive was
sponsor a blood drive at noon to-meet the demand for B positive
today at the Paul Robeson Cultu- blood that is predominant among
ral Center. minorities,” Schroeder said. “Yet,
Connie Schroeder, campus coor- this blood drive has gone beyond
dinator for Red Cross Johnstown emphasizing B positive blood.”
regional blood services, said the Schroeder said statewide hospi
drive is meant to help ease the tals have recently requested all
demand for blood in State College types of blood from the Red Cross,
and surrounding areas. —Victoria Pettles
Band to rock Asylum
Students can listen and dance to door each will receive a free paint
the music of the band Press Club er’s cap in recognition of the Na
tonight at the Asylum in the HUB tional Collegiate Alcohol
Cellar. Awareness Week, which started
The Asylum will be open from 10 Monday,
p.m. to 1 a.m. Admission is $2 and In addition, a variety of free
college identification cards are non-alcoholic dririks such as
required, said Dave Raymond, mocktails, near beer and non-alco
chairman for the Asylum commit- holic wine as well as carbonated
tee. beverages will be served.
The first 200 people through the —by Megan McKissick
Career Night Signups!
McNeil Consumer Products
Alcoa • Hershey • Stern’s • Xerox
Baxter & Travenol
0ct,22 &23
Oct 24
10-3 pm
*2.00 fee
LIMITED SPACES A VAILABLE
The Daily Collegian Wednesday, Oct. 22, 1986—5
PSMA members Only
non members
HUB Basement