Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / June 19, 1975, edition 1 / Page 5
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'"' Jj Thursday, June 19, 1975 the tar heel 5 Don Morris Watergate helped end a national nightmare It was not one of those freakish early-morning events three years ago in Washington that began "our long national nightmare." In fact, they helped to end it. Proclaiming June 1 7 a national holiday would be superfluous. Stilt, it should be realized that if pure luck had not tumbled what must have been 500-to-one odds against the Waterbuggers arrest, a sick, fearful, reactionary man would, rather,, might still, be President. -The resignation of Richard Nixon less than a year ago prompted the widespread, still-' current proclamation that "the system worked." Sure, it worked but just barely, like a 1 953 Chevy going backward from Nags Head to Charlotte on three wheels. And with another election year coming up, it's inviting trouble to think that it can make it to Los Angeles. America had a right to be euphoric last August not because of the system, however, but in spite of it. In large part, the Watergate story rode on the incredible luck of June 17, 1972, at the Watergate Hotel and later on the qualities of a very few components of the system. We may never have heard about Watergate, related scandals, and the recently-exposed CIA misdeeds if the Waterbuggers had not been so stupid, and a police officer, so tired. If conspirator James McCord had taped the door vertically rather than horizontally, guard Frank Willis never would have seen it. If the Waterbuggers had not gone ahead after finding that someone had removed the tape. they would have avoided arrest. If a uniformed officer had not begged off the assignment, a warning by the buggers' lookout man would have given them time to escape. If the only walkie-talkie with the conspirators had been turned on. they may have gotten away. That break-in did not make Richard Nixon crooked, and the fact that the bungled operation was necessary for the exposing of the much more crucial fact that he was unfit to be President (for acoverup was inevitable) indicates that "the system" failed somewhere. Most notably, his election in 1968 resulted from the press's failure to penetrate the surface of both Nixon's campaign and his character. A distant relationship between the press and the bureaucracy then allowed several scandals to go by unnoticed. Press coverage of the 1972 election was simply a repeat of '68, in that the media played along. Neither might the Watergate story have been gotten had it not been for two Washington Post reporters. Why was it that Judge Sirica was skeptical and therefore threatened the Watergate Seven with heavy sentences unless they talked? Bernstein and Woodward, not the press. (That John Sirica judged the case was lucky in itself; another judge may not have been so strict.) And why did the Senate finally vote to investigate the crimes? Same reason. Thus, without the press. Congress is sometimes helpless. It should not have been so. however, that the press was helpless without two Washington Post reporters. That the latter were virtually alone in working on the story for six months doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the rest of the press. Will it be a handful of tireless reporters who get out important facts in the future? Is it prepared for anything even approaching Watergate? James M. Wall has said, "The failure of the American press to pursue Watergate is due, in part, to a commercial editorial bias that prefers to reassure the public with images and data that confirm existing preferences." Unless the press goes behind the obvious and undertakes both the knowledge and investigation of political actors and go deeper into the throat of organizations, then we might he in trouble. Richard Nixon was only one of many who had. have, and will have the hots for power. And as someone has asked. How would the press cover the emperor's new clothes? Don Morris is a senior journalism major. GPSF needs social funding To the editor: The following misleading statement appeared in a Tar Heel editorial on June 5: "(G)rumblings about the use of CiPSF funds for departmental parties should have indicated that students do not want to see their fees devoured in social settings." This statement is not only inaccurate but it also suggests a community of interest in what may be the one area in which graduate and undergraduate issues and interests diverge. 1) Departmental parties are funded with GPSF allocations to the various departments. Until the current 1975-76 budget became effective, these allocations were per capita and mandatory. Each graduate society decided its own priorities. 2) In certain graduate departments (1 won't say many because I don't know), departmental parties (such as picnics) arc the only setting in which graduate students and faculty get together informally. Abolition of the fall, spring, and summer picnics sponsored by the Ciraduate History Society, for example, would be resented bv these students. faculty, and their families. The History Society also sponsors a speaker series and donates several academic journals to the departmental library yearly. 3) Graduate students particularly those enrolled in small departments and in departments with shrinking enrollments do resent large departments which hoard their entire allocation until April 15 and then blow it all (upwards of SI. 000) on a beer blast. We also resent those departments w hich hoard their funds until May 15 at which time unspent allocations revert to the Student Activities Fund. Wc would like to see this money revert to the GPSF Treasury, enabling us to increase the budget of departmental societies with particularly valuable programs. 4) The Summer Life package, by permitting organizations to use Student Government funds for social functions, will enable GPSF to co sponsor graduate orientation programs with Craige. Unlike undergraduate orientation, we are not funded by the U niversity. The short-lived prohibition on spending SG funds for social functions would have eliminated graduate -student orientation in the very year of -its birth. 5) In three years at Carolina, the only grumbling I have heard from graduate students regarding departmental parties has been from those students like myself active, committed participants in GPSF and its activities. We don't want to prohibit departmental parties. We merely want to exercise some discretionary controls over the expenditure of graduate funds. 6) GPSF is unique among groups funded by Student Government. We represent one-third of the student body, a third which approximates a cross section of the student body at large. In a sense we are parallel to Student Government as well as part of it. This letter, therefore, does not constitute an endorsement of the" Student Life program in toto. It does endorse that aspect of the program which enables GPSF to decide what expense categories are appropriate for its own member organizations. Deborah T. Bloom Q-6 Estes Park Apts. Welcome, Summer Folk! We at The Intimate hope you enjoy your stay in the village. And we hope your visits to the old emporium will make it all the cheerier. There are two of us in Chapel Hill the old joint downtown and the newer old joint at the Mall on Estes Drive. We're both open civilized hours, and each shop boasts an ample supply of hardcover and paperbound books for folks of all ages and tastes. You'll find plenty of bargains, too, in each. Books to tickle your fancy! Great reading matter at all prices, for study and pleasure. Enjoy a browse in North Carolina's favorite bookshop. 119 E. Franklin St. and University Mall. Chapel Hill TiiiiMMnmnimMMj mm: x. - . .ff . yy-yy-yy:yyy. - . . .v.-.-.-.-awi awit'av.v.w.w - mmm-,-y """ "" '-"'- " sS'jCdC ' s3&& .. v spa DU rtinnKgp'Es' Featuring O Free hourly . bus transportation to UNC; special, service to sporting events and shopping centers on vintage English double-decker buses O 1 -Bedroom studio " O 1 -Bedroom loft: O 2-Bedroom fjat , O 2 -Bed room town house O Totally electric kitchens with dishwashers, O Furnished apartments available O Beautifully landscaped grounds O 24-hour security O 24-hour maintenance service O clothing care centers O maid service available O 2 swimming pools Tennis courts O Sauna baths all of this PLUS the Villages Club serving your favorite beverages. For rental information, call Four blocks west of QOQ -I1vi1 Highway 54 on Smith yli7- I I I Level Road, Carrboro We have selected Cort Furniture to furnish our apartments.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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June 19, 1975, edition 1
5
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