12
Thursday, January 23, 1997
©I? oatly Mtd
Jeanne Figite edctor
Office Bonn, 2-3 p.B. Friday!
Graham Brink MANAGMGHXTDR
Laura Godwin managmg edctor
(2)
A
Worid Wide Web Electronic Edition
http a J/www.unc.edu/dth
Established 1893
103 Years of Editorial Freedom
BOARD EDITORIALS
Wired questions
Two words: cable television.
Two more words: lung disease.
What do these two things have in common?
Hopefully nothing, but when the University
began the gradual installation of cable televi
sion and data link wiring in South Campus res
idence halls, it knew that it would deal with the
removal of a dangerous building material called
asbestos. Prolonged exposure to these toxic
fibers can cause lung disease.
While it is greatly appreciated that the
University has taken a step to improve the qual
ity of life for students in on-campus housing by
upgrading their television viewing potential, the
failure to address student concerns about poten
tial health risks caused by the installation is
unfortunate.
Several students observed that the rooms
being cleaned for asbestos were covered in plas
tic sheeting, but that there were holes visible in
the containment, which were re-covered with
duct tape. Larry Herringdine, assistant director
of Facilities Management for the Department
IN MY OPINION
Finding freedom for self-expression
Pornography, like politics, makes strange
bedfellows. It divides women’s rights activists
between those who recoil at its degradation of
women, and those who rejoice at its celebration
of their sexuality. Conservative Bible thumpers
join radical feminists in urging censorship. Over
accusations of sexploitation and liberation to be
exploited, however, we must remember the cov
ering umbrella of the First Amendment.
I have Larry Flynt and the makers of “The
People vs. Larry Flynt” to thank for bringing
this undying issue to light again, although that
remains almost all I would thank him for. (The
rest is that in his offensiveness he secured con
stitutional protection for parodies of public fig
ures all he won in his celebrated court case.)
I believe certain forms of pornography are
very harmful for women, either by directly
encouraging abuse, or by indirectly reinforcing
images of women-as-objects waiting for a man’s
whim. Pornography that depicts rapes, bloody
mutilation and domination all carry frightening
suggestions.
But despite the repugnancy of such materi
al, our freedom of expression is more impor
tant than protecting women from such trash.
Doing so reinforces the concept of women as
helpless victims, in need of a man’s protection.
BAROMETER
Rotten vandals Four down ...
j-y. Missing posters, smashed walls. President Bill Clinton's second
jJL Mijf shattered windows... and Hector’s inauguration means we're completely
owners are thinking about cutting done with elections, but with
late-night hours? Not all of us like fried hovering ethics charges, he could
chicken at 2 a.m. Cool it, kids. well find his next term interminable
Business and Advertising: Kevin Schwartz,
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of University Housing, offered reassurance,
“This is done under full containment. There
should be no health problems whatsoever.”
Regardless of whether the installation is
being handled in a safe and responsible manner,
the University should have tried to communi
cate better with students before got the project
underway. Several students have expressed gen
uine fears when they are caught off guard by a
sign warning them to avoid inhaling near con
struction sites. These fears need to be
addressed. It is, after all, these individuals who
live in these buildings.
The installation of cable and data links on
campus is a welcome move that students both
support and appreciate. Perhaps in future pro
jects rewiring more residence halls, University
Housing will be sure to keep the lines of com
munication open to all students.
Answering students’ concerns should be a
top priority, and effective communication with
students is the only way to assure that it is treat
ed as such.
More importantly,
though, our First
Amendment freedoms
dictate that it be tolerat
ed, for who exactly has
the right to determine
what is natural and
healthy sexual expres
sion and what is unnat
ural and dangerous?
It would be all too
easy for harmless or
even beneficial forms of
sexual expression to be snatched from the pub
lic eye.
Few would deny that works by lesbian artists
such as elin o’Hara slavick (“Art vs. censor
ship,” Jan. 21) portray erotic art. Many call it
pornographic. But countless works by male
artists foreshadow hers, showing women in
erotic and sexually explicit poses, an object for
their male viewers. In this context, I see erotic
art by women as an aesthetic statement of
women’s liberation.
But in the end, perhaps all that counts is that
sexual choices are just that: personal choices
that each individual should make for her or
himself.
THE DAILY TAR HEEL
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EDITOR
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EDITORIAL
Something stinks: jury’s decision chills media
Bleach should be used to whiten
whites. It should not be used to fresh
en spoiled meat.
For all the flack justifiably hurled at jour
nalists, “Prime Time Live”’s investigation of
unsanitary food handling at Food Lion super
markets should have left the critics cheering.
Instead, it was used as a weapon to silence
society’s watchdogs, to the detriment of con
sumers.
And unfortunately, when a North Carolina
jury decided Wednesday to award Food Lion
more than $5.5 million, they placed legal
shenanigans and corporate greed ahead of
truth and consumer safety.
The facts: Two producers for ABC’s
“Prime Time Live" news magazine show,
Susan Barnett and Lynn Dale, went under
cover at North Carolina and South Carolina
Food Lion supermarkets in 1992 to verify
reports of unsanitary food-handling practices.
To gather evidence, the producers lied on
application forms and wore wigs to conceal
hidden video cameras.
The producers filmed several Food Lion
employees bleaching and selling old meat and
repackaging rat-contaminated cheese. The
“Prime Time Live” broadcast aired on Nov. 5,
1992.
Food Lion did not dispute the validity of
the claims in court. Instead, it avoided the
truth and sued for trespassing, fraud and
breach of duty of loyalty.
Last month, a jury ordered ABC to pay
Food Lion $1,402 in actual damages, the
amount it estimated Food Lion spent to train
and replace the ABC producers.
While Food Lion had asked for as much as
$1.9 billion in punitive damages, the $5.5 mil
lion settlement will send a chill across the
nation’s press corps.
Journalists take undercover work seriously.
It is dangerous, stressful and often unpopular
I CHEAP
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Just clip, highlight, deposit for campus safety
When I volunteered as a tour guide
my freshman year, one question
which parents invariably asked me
was “Do you feel safe on this campus?” In
response, I would stutter “Um ... well ...
sorta” as I frantically searched for the nearest
yellow telephone (here’s a hint: there are
none visible from McCorkle Place). Needless
to say, Jackson Hall did not hire me on a full
time basis. But the question did make me
stop and think exactly how safe are we on
this campus?
I know Chapel Hill is hardly Central L.A.,
but most students I talk to have a hard time
expressing 100 percent satisfaction with cam
pus safety. The UNC police are well aware of
this situation, and— in addition to several
recent improvements in campus security
they have placed suggestion boxes in Lenoir
Dining Hall, Davis Library and the
Undergraduate Library. So now it is time for
us to do our part by letting them know what
areas of UNC safety still need work.
(I am aware that Carolina students are usu
ally pressed for time, so to facilitate commu
nication with the campus police I have made
some suggestions in capital letters. If you
think that these improvements need to be
made, feel free to highlight them, clip this arti
cle, and drop it off in one of the boxes. Or if
you have other ideas, please put them in a
note to the chief of campus police. If nothing
else, the volume will send a loud message.)
In all fairness, I must concede that UNC
does have several safety features—like Point
2-Point which make this campus more
secure.
But, if you miss one van, the 14-minute
nighttime wait is hardly soothing. Especially
since several of the P2P stops (i.e., Rosemary
Street) are poorly lit and sparsely traveled. Not
to mention the fact that there are no emer
gency phones at any P2P stop.
To fix these conditions, the administration
needs to pnt lights and phones at every P2P
stop.
In addition to the P2P service, campus
and unprofitable.
Television produc
ers and newspaper
editors plan under
cover investigations
only after consider
able deliberation.
Robert Johnson,
a noted ethics pro
fessor, said recently
that investigations
must have an over
riding public
importance, should
I GRAHAM BRINK
MANAGING EDITOR
be used only as a
last resort and the undercover tactics must be
revealed when the broadcast airs. “Prime Time
Live” met all three of Johnson’s criteria.
Without the mass exposure, Food Lion
could have continued the potentially life
threatening practices.
If “Prime Time Live” had approached
Food Lion without the undercover video
footage, the supermarket chain would cer
tainly have denied the charges and temporar
ily cleaned up their act.
Any notice of an investigation, undercover
or not, and Food Lion could have curtailed
the practices for a short time and then rein
stated them when the heat died down.
Employee testimonials help bolster a story,
but on their own don’t have the impact or the
credibility of video footage.
But the broadcast, which caused Food
Lion’s sales to plummet, not only reformed
Food Lion, but showed any other food retail
ers that toying with the public’s safety had
severe consequences.
While the “Prime Time Live” broadcast
easily fulfilled the overriding public impor
tance criterion, the jury’s decision alerts
potential delinquent food retailers or any
other purveyor of deception that no one is
safety is also bol
stered by the SAFE
Escort golf carts,
which provide lone
females with rides
from the libraries
to their residence
halls. The reason
the service is only
available to lone
females is because
everybody knows
that a gunman
would never shoot
at two people. This
ANDREA MAIN
WATCH OUT,
YOU'RE NEXT
service is provided until 1 a.m. because at
1:05, the streets of Chapel Hill are absolved of
all crime until the next sunrise.
But, for the benefit of all the males angered
by the sexism in today’s society, we need to
expand the services (and hours) of SAFE
Escort.
Another safety feature provided by this
campus is the locks on our residence halls,
complete with alarms. I
’m not sure exactly why they bother with
the locks, because if you wait outside of a res
idence hall long enough, someone is bound to
let you inside.
Heaven forbid we should enact a campaign
to increase awareness of the purpose of the
lock and alarms on the residence hall doors.
This attempt to dissuade trespassing is not
limited to residence halls. My favorite securi
ty measure is the Undergrad’s policy of
requiring patrons to show student identifica
tion after midnight. I have this mental picture
of dozens of hoodlums and ne’er-do-wells
casually strolling into the library at 11:55 p.m.
knowing that they will be allowed in without
a hassle.
Pity the rapscallion who was tunning late,
for, come midnight, we do not want his type
in our library. For his sake, we ought to
require that identification be shown at all
times when entering the library.
Now, in case anyone were to think that
Slip Baily (Ear Heel
watching.
What news organization, especially small
news outlets, would risk a potentially bank
rupting lawsuit for reporting a truthful story?
The decision allows large corporations like
Food Lion to avoid scrutiny by playing the
bully.
Food Lion should have accepted its wrong
doing and corrected the problems. But corpo
rations rarely accept full responsibility if legal
loopholes exist to squirm through. The jury’s
specious decision widened the loophole.
The press should compensate victims of
libelous reporting, but the press should not
pay for telling the truth. The “Prime Time
Live” story saved consumers more that just
stomach aches or nausea it re-confirmed
the importance of having a fair and watchful
press corps.
Undercover investigations in the past have
revealed everything from banking fraud to
corrupt politicians. Such investigations
increased public safety and created a more
humane environment.
Large news organizations like ABC will
continue to undertake undercover investiga
tions, but only after weighing the new legal
consequences. Similar legal precedents will
undoubtedly erode, if not eliminate, such
investigations at small and midsized news
organizations.
Which stories will the press pass up?
Unsafe veterans’ hospitals? Racially motivat
ed law enforcement? Child abuse at day-care
centers?
The settlement hurts ABC’s bottom line,
but more importantly, it leaves the public vul
nerable to corporations willing to disregard
personal responsibility.
Graham Brink is a second-year master’s student in
the School of Journalism and Mass Communication
from Vancouver; British Columbia.
campus safety issues are limited to escorts and
locks, I fee) the need to discuss UNC’s fire
safety. Asa former Morrison Residence Hall
resident, my first instinct when I heard the
alarm (for the 20th time that year) was to hide
in my room.
Despite threats of a SSOO fine, the call of
the pillow was usually far too irresistible.
Admittedly, sleeping through the drills was
stupid,- but I was not the only one staying
inside. Had there been a real foe, I (and sev
eral others) would have been, well, burnt.
This realization leads me to push for
stricter enforcement of fire evacuation poli
cies and, while we are at it, harsher punish
ments for polling fire “false alarms.”
At least Morrison had fire alarms.
Some buildings, such as Dey Hall, do not
even have that luxury. According to a class
mate, last November when Dey Hall had a
fire drill, the procedure was as follows: 1. call
the secretaries on each floor and inform them
of the fire, 2. have the secretaries inform
everyone on their respective floors of the fire
and 3. evacuate the building
I can’t wait to see what happens one day
when a secretary is out of the office.
To keep this thought a mere speculation,
we should install adequate alarms and sprin
klers in all buildings.
UNC has made a lot of progress since my
freshman year in improving campus safety
(witness the new blue lights). But the progress
should continue until we all feel 100 percent
safe.
Until then we need to write, highlight,
complain and do whatever is necessary to let
the UNC police and administration know
which areas need improvement.
And we should continue to bother them
until everyone can respond to the question
“How safe do you feel on UNC’s campus?”
with the answer “Completely. ”
Andrea Main is a political science major from Raleigh
who wonders how much protection is really offered
by an inanimate blue light.