Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / May 2, 1968, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Page 2 Thursday, May 2, 1963 It? Mn THE DAILY TAB HEEL FTP T mm mm- m 76 Years of Editorial Freedom ;'; Bill Amlong, .Editor Don Walton, Business Manager Looking Back On Year: re Made A It has been a year and 26 days since we first sat down at the editor's desk and began a not-too-modest campaign to set the world right. In that time, you would think, we would have said just about everything we wanted to, would have treated incisively every pro blem affecting this University, this town, 'this state maybe even this world. We thought we were going to, anyway. Instead, it seems we've made rather a tiny dent. Oh, yes, we have raised our share of hell. We have even upon an occason or two pointed calmly at what we considered serious problems here. And we have started people at least thinking about some of the more serious problems on which we have editorialized. But, today we are going to hand over to Wayne Hurder, the new editor, the daily newspaper of a campus that still has a great many things wrong with it. ,IT WILL THEN become his worry, as editor of :The Dailr Ta HapI fn nrod Student Oovernment' ' . - when it isn't responsive t o students, to raise hell with the ad ministration for some of their high handed and ill-conceived notions about how to run this place, to remind everybody in general around here that Black people are just as good as whites and should be treated as such, to decry the war and the draft which are sap ping this .jiiion's youth and money, and to occasionally sock it to the fratty bags just out of DTH tradi tion. But we are handing over to Hurder a lot more than a fist fuU of unresolved issues. We are pass ing to him the editorship of The Dally Tar Heel in its entirety. And the editorship of The Daily Tar Heel is probably the hardest job on this campus to comprehend and therefore, the hardest to explain. To begin with, there is the tradi tion of The Daily Tar Heel a fine, proud tradition which goes back more than 75 years now. It is a tradition that demands basically two things from an editor: THAT HE AT least attempt although ever-so-humbly, and preferably unconsciously to maintain the pace that has been set by such former editors as Charles Kuralt, Rolfe Neil, Walter Spearman and Dr. Frank Porter Graham. THAT HE ALWAYS be con scious of the fact that the proudest part of The Daily Tar Heel's tradi tion is that it has never in its history upheld tradition in favor of progress. A new editor, sitting down at his desk for the first time with the proper amount of conceit and nonchalance about the whole bit begins to appreciate im mediately just how difficult it is to carry the load. During his tenure he learns many things about the newspaper, the University, the town. . . And perhaps most importantly, he learns one very major thing about himself: he is indeed f alible, and the only way he's going to make it is by working his tail off and by having behind him a Pamela Hawkins, Associate Editor . Terry Gingras, Managing Editor Rebel Good, News Editor Kermit Buckner, Advertising Manager Tiny Dent staff which really believes in what they're doing. This year we have had such a staff. He is going to ,earn tnat -.being editor takes up) more hours per, day than he thought there existed. He is going to find that he becomes very well acquainted with James, the janitor at Graham Memorial, who will most likely wake him up the next morning whenever he has fallen asleep; at his desk while, writing editorials or doing a special Sunday feature. HE IS GOING to learn that there are more pressure and special interest groups on this cam pus than he ever imagined and that they're all interested in wooing him. He hopefully is going to learn soon that it's not him they're courting, but his typewrit er. He is going to learn that it is sometimes very hard to write an editorial about something on which he is taking an unpopular stand. As the issue gets closer to campus, the stand gets more dif ficult. People take it personally, and the only ; thing left ; to do is Sood of friends. anyhow. He is going to learn that it often doesn't make any difference what kind of an editorial he writes, because his crusades will sometimes take on the air of being jousts with windmills and when the windmills are either South Building or the Student Govern ment offices, they can very easily win. :.-r . And Le's going to learn, too, that The Daily Tar Heel never has and probably never will come all the way up to the expectations of its editor: even in the best paper he, will put out, somebody will have at least mispelled a name or have taken the wrong picture. BT THERE ARE a lot of po sitive things, too:There are times when the paper didoes look good, and it makes the editor feel rather proud perhaps unjustly so , since his staff did most the work. There are times when an editorial is, at one time, both well written and effective. Then the editor can be proud all by himself. There are times when the paper wins awards as it is wont to do. Everybody's proud then. But then there comes the time for leaving the time the editor waits for with mixed and heighten ed emotions. For the last month or so of his term, he'll tell everybody how he really can't wait to get rid of the paper, how tired he is of spending his afternoons and even ings in the miserable office, and how he is not going to graduate unless he gets some time to study. Also, he is rather anxious to. join the ranks of former editors of The Daily Tar Heel: they really have quite a bit more status and prestige than the practicing ones ever could. But then the day comes, and an editor realizes that he hasn't said a lot of the things he really wanted to say, he hasn't set the world right. In fact, he hasn't even written his last editorial quite the way he wanted. There is a tragedy in electing an editor. The tragedy does not have as much to do with the losing candidate as it does with' the staff of The Daily Tar Heel. Obviously with both candidates, as this year, having worked for the Tar Heel, they have been friends with the people on the staff . Unfortunately, these "friendships" can apparently be easily dissolved at election time, and definite camps are drawn each with its own hierarchy in support of one of the candidates. The animosities which develop are not easily erased after the electiori, and supposed newspapermen allow petty dif ferences to affect their ties to the business. f iA 7 ( M hi iHE tnife Jli mo vi lie' M MAfftlOK L WsWStelb W L m 1 ,m MSX mK mansion my u. , O v n LMW KnrVl nWt II V. i vvJl j. : ifv te? rS4stal Hk?U: Jk.M In The Charlotte Observer Folk Dance: Club's Inflexible Stand Introduced Political Issue First To The Editor: We wish to clarify some issues raised by James Kahan in his letter of 25th , April. When he w'as first invited to bring the Folk Dance Club to perform at the Cosmopolitan Club annual dinner next Saturday, he stated categorically that they would perform "Israeli dances or nothing at all". We feel that this somewhat inflexible stance on his part introduced a political issue at the outset which all of us seek to avoid in a club whose purpose (to quote the Club Constitution) "is to promote international understanding, provide cultural ex change, and establish personal rapport and friendship through its functions." Secondly, ithe decision we took was made by members of the Executive Committee in charge of the dinner. They ., felt that while no decision in this difficult problem was satisfactory, it was im portant on an occasion such as the dinner to present an entertainment wrhich all would enjoy, and which would cause offence to no group in the audience, whatever anybody's opinions about their feelings might be. Thirdly, the above matter was discussed at our weekly Club meeting In This To The Editor: Sports writer Rick Brewer obviously shows a lack of knowledge of the present situation in the heavyweight boxing division, re Wednesday's sports article. Mr. Brewer goes to great lengths to show how Muhammed Ali was unfairly stripped of his crown, and tht the present World Boxing Association cham pion, Jimmy Ellis, is a pretender to that title. But the writer . misses the point and ignores; the. -qualities of Jimmy Ellis. It is general knowledge that Ali was robbed of his crown, but since Ali has been withdrawn from the world of boxing temporarily by the military-industrial complex, a new champion should be Bv PAMELA HAWKINS When it reaches the point that members of the staff are not even speaking to each other and have no regard for what the other person says, Letters To The Editor ' Tuesday, at which the majority of those attending were neither Arab nor Israeli. An overwhelming vote of confidence in the Executive Committee and its actions was passed. We would have welcomed Mr. Kahan to this meeting, as we welcome all students on campus, and we would have been pleased to discuss the whole matter with him. Indeed, this would have been preferable to his letter, which was not written in the spirit of understanding which he seeks to espouse, nor in the spirit in which he has approached previous joint efforts with the Club. This is regrettable, because the Folk Dance Club has reached a high level of performance. Last year the audience at the dinner greatly enjoyed their pro gram of dances, as did those at the Iweek dinner in March (the International Student Center, it should be stated, was not involved in the present issue). The community is fortunate to have social organizations interested in spreading cultural understanding and we hope to cooperate with the Folk Dance Club again in the future. We look forward to seeing the students Corner crowned in place of the now-inactive Ali. j This necessitated a tournament. This tourney, which Joe Frazier, refused to enter represented boxing's best actives in the' heavyweight class. Ellis was a true winner. As for Frazi l, who has he beaten besides Buster Mathis, that mass of whale blub ber how resembles a foam rubber pil low. Since Frazier is undefeated (but then so is Allen Jones, Florida champ) he deserves a shot at Ellis, but let's not crown him before the meets a worthy opponent. Arthur Allen Dale, Jr. 309 Lewis i , s . - i $ , .5 . - ' -' if he happens to be supporting the op position, the smooth and efficient work ings of the paper are effected. At many schools, the editor of the campus newspaper is chosen by a publications board after extensive in terviews and samplings of the can didate's work. Here, however,- the selection is left up to the vote of the students. These very students do not usually begin to understand the workings of a newspaper nor are they qualified to select the editor. The greatest majority of the students have never ventured up to 204 GM and have never seen the people at work and therefore have no idea who will make the better editor except for campaigning. and faculty of the university and their friends on Saturday. Campbell Read (Cultural Chairman) (for) the Executive Committee V of the Cosmopolitan Club. No newspaperman is particularly in terested in campaigning. That is cot his function and should not be. Bat several months before the election, the candidates quit the paper and devote their time not to writing but to con vincing the voters that he is best qualified to be editor. Of course there evolves from this the possibility that someone who knows nothing about newspaper operations can be elected. Fortunately, in this past run-off, both candidates had worked closely enough with the Tar Heel to know what it's all about. The editor of the paper has to have more knowledge that what he expresses in editorials though. He must know about the workings at the printer's, the sizing of pictures, the coordination of the news staff with that of the business office. Someone not familiar with these aspects on the paper can not possibly hope to secure the necessary admiration of the staff and its following. In other words, if there is a breakdown in the Tar Heel office it is particularly hard to mend. The newspaper "group" is usually a rather tightly knit one, and this too is the way it should be. But every yeart staffers quit, or threaten to, because their candidate is not elected editor. It is not necessarily the staffers fault that their support is split. And it is not necessarily the fault of the editor candidate that they find themselves with former friends alienated. The fault lies soully in the system of election of the editor. In no professional newspaper does the subscribing populace elect the editor. The decisions come from within and are adjusted to within. Many of the students will never know the extent of the breakdown in The Daily Tar Heel this year as a result of the elections. But for a staff member the petty differences which have ended "fTiendships', has been tragic, and the paper with Ks people will have a hard time recovering from a senseless election. The Daily Tar Heel accepts all letters' for publication provided they are typed, double-spaced ; and signed. -Letters should be no longer than 300 words in length. . We ( reserve the right to edit for "libelous statements.' ....... k . - ".-- TheDaily Tar Heel k pub lished by the Univmity of North Carolina Student Publi cations Board, daily except Mondayg, examinations periods and .vacations. Offices are on the second iloor of Graham Memorial.' Telephone numbers: editorial,, sports, .news 933-1611; bus iness, circulation, advertising -933-1163. Address: Box'lCSO. Chapel HOI, N.- C, 27514. Second class postage paid at ILS. Post Office In Chapel Hill, N. C. . Subscription rates: t$ per year; 5 .per semester. - fcu. K&O.V ' BW "
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 2, 1968, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75