12—The Daily Collegian Monday, June 22, 1987 Dwyer suicide editing debated ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) Television news direc tors say they have no regrets about the various decisions they made on whether or not to show graphic scenes from the public suicide of state Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer. "The decision making process was quick, sudden," said By Williams, news operations manager at WPM . - TV, Pittsburgh. He and other executives shared their thoughts Satur day during a panel discussion at the spring convention of the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association. Williams and two executive producers decided to show the moment of the shooting on the station's noon newscast. At 6 ri.m. and 11 p.m., the video was stopped just before the shot, and the sound of the gun firing was , played. WPVI-TV in Philadelphia took a similar approach while WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh decided not to show the actual shot at all. Facing sentencing the next day for his conviction in the Computer Technology Associates scandal, Dwyer shot himself Jan. 22 in the state treasurer's office in Harrisburg before a room full of reporters and camera people. Williams said he was pleased his station introduced the video with about four minutes of commentary from Nuclear weapons plant on strike OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) About 4,100 production and maintenance employees at a federal nuclear weap ons plant and laboratory voted yes terday to reject a contract package, leaving one of the facilities idle, com pany officials said. The Department of Energy's Y-12 plant was shut down Saturday, idling 7,200 workers, after delegates from 17 unions represented by the Atomic Trades and Labor Council voted 23-20 to reject the offer. Picket lines went up immediately. 'Technicians have assumed duties of striking employees at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said Car ol Grametbauer, a spokeswoman for Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc., which operates the two facili ties. Union leaders were not immedi ately available for comment on the Brothers Pizza Fast . . . Free . . . Delivery LARGE PIZZA GAO for 4.99 Mon-Sat • 4pm-2am, 1641 N. Atherton St. 238-9403 BLUE BAND AUDITIONS • For Freshmen and Transfer Students Call The Blue Band Office At 865-3982 For Further Information vote. Phone calls to ATLC went un answered. There were no immediate plans to resume negotiations through a feder al mediator, Grametbauer said. The original contract expired Friday af ternoon, but both sides agreed to extend it 24 hours at the urging of federal mediators. The shutdown of the Y-12 plant, which produces parts for nuclear weapons, will not immediately affect the country's nuclear weapons pro duction, she said. "It's one of the key plants. Howev er, the U.S. weapons production com plex has the flexibility to meet its needs in the near future," she said. The spokeswoman .said officials built up inventories of weapons parts in anticipation of the strike, but she did not know how long the supplies would last. CONSERVE ENERGY reporter Stu Brown, who witnessed the shooting. While the stations that showed the actual shot may have made a courageous decision, Joe Rovitto, WTAE TV news director, said he felt impulsively that it shouldn't be shown. "It was just my gut, my gut that said, 'Don't put that on TV,"' he said. Bob Feldman, WPVI's news operations manager, said as the day progressed, station news executives decided they didn't want to reshow the shot. He said their decision was based on the normal progression of the story. Both WPVI and WPXI received several hundred telephone complaints after the video first played at noon. Both stations also received calls from viewers asking if it was going to be replayed so they could tape it on home VCRs. Paul Stueber, news director for WNEP-TV in Wilkes- Barre, Scranton, said he felt the decision not to show the actual shooting was an easy one. He said several stunned station personnel who saw the video come in from a satellite transmission wanted to be assured the station was not going to air it. With increasing use of live video from news events, news executives will be faced with even tougher decisions about what should or should not be shown. About 3,200 of the striking workers are employees of the Y-12 plant. About 5,000 people work at the labo ratory, where about 900 are striking union members, Grametbauer said. The bargaining committee of the ATLC approved the contract shortly before negotiations ended Saturday, but the delegate body of 43 union members voted later to reject it, said Bruce Swain, director of employee relations for Martin Marietta. Bob Keil, president of the ATLC, said there was a "lot of animosity" among some unions regarding Martin Marietta's proposal to make• craft classifications more flexible, en abling workers to help on jobs outside their designated job title. Company officials said they wanted to increase productivity at the plants by consolidating some of the job classifications. I Your Choice of Any I Turkey Breast Roast Beef Real Italian Combination Large lee Cream (1 of 32 Flavors) 16 oz. Soda For Only $3.50 Window Shopping Ginny Fry, Beverly George and Angela George, all of Carlisle, Pa., do some last minute Father's Day shopping at Jack Harper's on College Ave. U.S., Australia open S. Pacific talks SYDNEY, Australia (AP) Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar Wein berger opened talks yesterday with Australian leaders on U.S. trade policies and potential security threats in the South Pacific. The two Americans met informally with Prime Minister Bob Hawke and members of his Cabinet. They are to hold formal talks Monday. The talks are expected to be a low-key affair, partly because Hawke's government is campaigning for re election in parliamentary balloting set for July 11 and because an agriculture dispute is the only sizeable source of friction between the two countries. That dispute involves a U.S. program to help Ameri can wheat farmers raise the amount of their wheat exports. The United States calls the program "export enhancement" and says the subsidy payments to American farmers are designed to help them compete against' subsidized European wheat growers. The Australian government, which does not subsi dize wheat sales, says the U.S. program gives Ameri- offer good with this ad The Interfraternity Council reminds all students that valid, current PSU ID's are needed to any fraternity party. All IFC by-laws are in effect for the summer. can farmers an unfair advantage in traditional Australian markets. "I can confidently predict we'll hear about it (the wheat issue) tommorow," Shultz said at a banquet Sunday night. According to Australian critics, the U.S. farm pro gram is costing Australian producers nearly $1 billion a year in lost revenue. But the United States has questioned the accuracy of that figure and has said Australian wheat sales increased in the past year. In their talks Monday, the officials are also expected to discuss military arrangements in the Pacific. The Soviet Union has been trying to increase its influence in the region by seeking fishing agreements with some small South Pacific island nations. New Zealand would have participated in this week's talks but the United States severed military relations with New Zealand last year after that country declared itself a nuclear-free zone, refusing to allow U.S. warships carrying nuclear weapons to dock at its ports. to gain entrance • • i„~ , ~,«zaa,,. ~~~,~,~< Collegian Photo/Chris Hiester
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