4The Daily Tar HeelMonday, August 26, 1991
ffisy- I WORLD BRIEFS
Media called racist in Brown case coverage
Demonstrators assault
abortion clinic director
WICHITA, Kan. Police arrested
54 anii-abortion protesters for blockad
ing an abortion clinic that opened unex
pectedly Sunday and two others who
allegedly roughed up the clinic director.
Debbie Riggs, director of Wichita
Family Planning Inc., was pushed and
shoved by two protesters at the clinic's
back entrance when she arrived at 7:30
a.m. to open the clinic, said Deputy
Police Chief Steve Trainer.
"She was physically roughed up, but
she wasn't injured," Trainer said. "She
was a little shaken."
Two patrol officers responded to a
call from Riggs. They were surrounded
as they tried to leave the clinic and felt
threatened, so one of the off cers sprayed
Mace tear gas on some protesters.
Trainer said.
The two demonstrators who scuffled
with Riggs were arrested on suspicion
of assault, police said.
About 100 anti-abortion protesters
I
gathered at the clinic Sunday morning
before the clinic's staff arrived, police
said. By mid-morning, police had filled
two vans with detained protesters.
Yugoslavian planes
blast targets in Croatia
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia Army
jets, tanks and gun ships battered
Croatian positions Sunday in some of
the harshest attacks yet in the breakaway
republic. News reports said at least 18
people had died.
Fighting has escalated between
Croatia's forces and army-backed eth
nic Serb militiamen opposed to seces
sion, and Croatian officials have threat
ened even more attacks unless federal
soldiers withdraw.
Radio Zagreb said Serb guerrillas
and federal troops were trying to take a
town, and described the fighting as the
heaviest involving the federal military
since Croatia declared independence
June 25.
The Associated Press
By Lauren Chesnut
Staff Writer
After a member of the Durham City
Council contended that "there is an in
sidious racial nature" to the media's
"attack" on accused council member
Clarence Brown, community leaders
and a UNC professor offered mixed
opinions as to the validity of the charge.
Durham City Council member Diane
Wright voiced the contention about the
media's bias in last Monday's council
meeting.
Brown is the Durham city council
member and N.C. Central University
assistant professor who admitted to
double-billing both the city and NCCU
for travel-related expenses. Brown has
also been accused by his wife of carry
ing on extra-marital affairs and of using
drugs.
Attorney Darryl Smith accused the
Durham Herald-Sun of printing
unsubstantiated allegations and of be
ing sensationalistic in general, criticiz
ing especially what he sees as its "sen
sational bias in their coverage of people
and institutions in the African-American
community....
"I share the view of many folks that
they are often worse in matters with a
racial angle or will even interject a
racial angle into issues where that may
not be necessary," he said.
Smith feels the paper thereby does a
disservice when it "polarizes racial re
lations" in the Durham community.
UNC's Chuck Stone, a black jour
nalism professor, sees validity in sev
eral perspectives on the issue of racism
in media coverage. He criticized first
and foremost the Herald-Sun's "lack of
precision" in its coverage of Brown.
'They grouped his legal transgressions
with his ethical peccadillos, and they're
not the same thing," he said.
Stone said allegations of media rac
ism reminded him of Samuel Johnson's
comment that patriotism is the last ref
uge of scoundrels.
"That also applies to racism," he said.
"I'm not suggesting that (Brown) is a
scoundrel, but he resorts to this when he
can't explain why this is happening."
Regarding coverage of Brown 's prob-
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lems. Smith said, "I think that when an
individual is a public official or Dublic
figure that they are subjected to closer
scrutiny by the news media, and I think
it's appropriate to report on improper
activity by a public official in perfor
mance of their duties."
Clearly, the matter of the double
billing for travel expenses is appropri
ate for reporting, he said.
But the "sordid details of the dissolu
tion of a marriage" are another matter,
Smith said. He said many of the allega
tions made in Prattsie Cunningham
Brown's divorce lawsuit were not re
quired forthat type of pleading but were
added as a play to the media.
Relentless dissection of politicians'
improprieties is characteristic of "the
whole history of investigative journal
ism Watergate and exposing the
frauds and the phonies and the elected
officials who rip off the people," Stone
said.
"That wasn't pursued because of race.
It was pursued because they were giv
ing a man power. Brown has power, and
he has misused his power," Stone said.
Stone said hedoesbelievethe media's
scrutiny of Brown is more intense than
it might have been if he were a white
politician, adding, "There is an under
current of 'We gotta teach this nigger a
lesson.'"
Former Durham Mayor Wib Gulley
agreed with Smith in his criticism of
what he characterized as the Herald
Sun's "rush-to-judgment" editorial
stance. He added, however, "In my ex
perience, (race) has not made any dif
ference. I've seen rushes to judgment -white,
black, male, female. There cer
tainly are cases where they are quicker
to rush to judgment than others, but it
doesn't seem to turn on race or gender
ground," he said.
Hurricane's light damage
not a constant for storms
By Anna Griffin
Staff Writer
Luckily for N.C. beachfront prop
erty owners. Hurricane Bob never
reached its full destructive potential
when it swept through the state last
week. But the light damage here may
leave people with a false sense of secu
rity the next time a storm hits the coast,
officials at the National Weather Ser
vice said.
Hurricanes are frequent this time of
year, often brewing and then embarking
on their paths of destruction so quickly
that property owners have little time to
secure their beach homes and boats.
Hurricane Hugo, which stayed along
the eastern seaboard during its entire
trip north in 1989, caused a billion dol
lars in damage to North Carolina alone.
The problems in predicting hurri
cane damage are great, typically be
cause the behavior of any given hurri
cane is unpredictable, said Chris Kzcieki
of the National Hurricane Service.
"Sometimes you just get lucky with
hurricanes," Kzcieki said. "We do ev
erything we can to predict where and
when they will strike, but like nature
itself, they are so incredibly hard to
predict."
As of Saturday, Bob was responsible
for 16 deaths nationwide and over 2
million power outages. Hurricane Bob
transformed into a mellowed Tropi
cal Storm Bob was seen heading
north and quickly wearing itself out.
BobhittheCarolinasonAug. 18, one
day after it first made its presence known
in the United States. The Outer Banks,
as well as some beaches in South Caro
lina, sustained minimal damage by
heavy winds and rain as Bob brushed
land.
"We were sitting in the living room
when it hit," said Sandy Davis, owner of
a beach house at North Myrtle Beach,
S.C. "All of our windows were broken
by the winds, and we were real lucky the
power was out, because if it wasn't, the
air conditioner would have blown.
"Looking up and down the street I
saw a couple of fires and a lot of win
dows that the wind had cracked," Davis
said.
Bob's last minute shift eastward, a
move that spared North Carolina, prob
ably saved the state millions of dollars
in damage, according to Wallace
DeMaurice, head of the National
Weather Service's Cape Hatteras bu
reau. After brushing North Carolina, the
hurricane moved northward past Vir
ginia, Maryland, Delaware and New
Jersey, bringing with it torrential rain
and heavy winds. Fortunately for resi
dents, the storm remained about 100
miles east of the coast during the trip
northward.
On Tuesday the eye of the storm
crossed land at Block Island, R.I., pull
ing up power lines, breaking windows
and making roads virtually impassable,
said Rod Gonski of the National Weather
Service's Raleigh-Durham International
Airport Bureau.
As it moved north toward the Cana
dian border, Bob's high winds ravaged
parts of Massachusetts and Maine, leav
ing millions of dollars in damage.
A hurricane is a violent tropical swirl
ing of winds around a center of low
atmospheric pressure, according to the
National Hurricane Center at Coral
Gables, Florida. This windstorm, which
must sustain winds of over 74 mph to be
classified as a hurricane, can cause tor
rential rains, incredibly high winds,
small electrical storms and even mini
tornados. Most hurricanes that hit the United
States begin as small tropical storms in
the Caribbean and South Pacific and
grow larger because of changes in the
atmospheric pressure around them.
The jet stream and the winds of the
storm usually push it northward, where
it eventually loses steam and becomes a
tropical storm again as accompanying
winds drop below 74 mph. In the recent
case, Hurricane Bob was downgraded
to a tropical storm just nine hours after
hitting Rhode Island.
Besides Hurricane Hugo, the United
States has been extremely lucky over
the past decade. In 1985, meteorolo
gists predicted Hurricane Gloria would
cause billions of dollars in damage, but
like Bob, at the last minute the storm
changed direction and moved away from
the coast.
The largest hurricanes to hit the east
em seaboard were the 1935 Labor Day
hurricane, which hit the Florida Keys
on the popular holiday and killed 600
and 1969's Hurricane Camille, which
hit the Mississippi coast, killing 256,
Kzcieki said.
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flTTennon semoRS:
To students interested in applying
for Rhodes, Churchill & Marshall
Scholarships for graduate study at
Oxford University, Cambridge Uni
versity and in England generally:
An informational meeting for seniors inter
ested in these scholarships will take place on
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1991
Where: Student Union, Rm. 209
When: 4:00 p.m.
All students who plan to apply must attend
this meeting.