Editorial roundup
Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:
Oct. 25
The Advertiser, Lafayette, La., on media access:
The so-called Jena 6 case has ramifications that can impact the entire nation. Yet at this point, media access to the proceedings in the case of Mychal Bell, one of the six, has been severely limited.
The media, obligated to uphold the people's right to know, have filed court documents to open the Bell case -- seeking the right to attend hearings and review transcripts of previous hearings. Lifting the gag order against participants in the case is also urged. ...
Since 1931, the U.S. Supreme Court has stated repeatedly that government attempts to censor the media are presumed unconstitutional. The court has articulated only one circumstance under which prior restraint would be permissible -- an order barring publication of the movement of troop ships during war time.
Accordingly, editorial decisions are generally left solely to the discretion of media organizations.
Challenging the restrictions placed on the media in the Jena 6 case is part of a broader obligation of all news organizations to protect the people's right to know. If the freedom of the press guarantees in the constitution are breached here, a precedent will be set. That precedent can be applied to increasingly critical information until the courts and other arms of government have the power to build a wall between the public and vital information that it deserves and needs to possess. ...
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On the Net: http://tinyurl.com/g42ak
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Oct. 26
The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.) on staph infections:
They warned you. We warned you.
"The killer germs are coming -- and it's all your fault," The Press said in a June 1997 editorial. We weren't particularly prescient. We were just noting what medical authorities were saying at the time 10 years ago -- that the indiscriminate use of antibiotics would lead to the emergence of more virulent forms of bacteria that would have major implications for human health.
Well ... with the death of a 17-year-old Virginia boy last week attributed to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or MRSA, and the publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association of a study indicating an "astounding" rate of antibiotic-resistant staph infections, the nation is now in a full-fledged frenzy. Additional cases are being reported in the media daily -- cases that never would have been newsworthy before the current panic. Schools are being scrubbed with bleach, and people are rushing out to buy antibacterial hand cleaners.
What's happened is that the antibiotic-resistant strains have moved outside their traditional setting in health-care institutions and into the community. Gyms, locker rooms, schools and similar places now account for 14 percent of new antibiotic-resistant infections, according to the JAMA article. ...
Your best defense? Frequent handwashing with soap and water, keeping cuts and scrapes clean and covered -- and a better understanding of antibiotics.
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On the Net: http://www.pressofac.com
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Oct. 27
The Hutchinson (Ill.) News, on sexual misconduct in schools:
A recent series of stories about sexual misconduct by teachers in public schools across the nation mostly focused on perpetrators who eventually are caught and convicted. ...
The Associated Press took a thorough look at the issue, the accused and the accusers, and the obstacles that delay or stop reporting of sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior between educators and students.
An untold number of incidents never are reported by school administrators or their school board. ...
That school districts fear the baggage from reporting suspect abusers is understandable in some respects. But law enforcement, not school boards or administrators, should determine if a crime has been committed.
Some legislators and legal experts say that Kansas law already calls for such mandatory reporting by school districts if they have knowledge of teacher sexual misconduct -- including consensual sex.
Others think the law could be murky at this point.
If necessary, lawmakers should clean up the language of the law further. And mandatory reporters should follow the law -- not to mention good conscience.
Anything less simply allows school districts to move their "bad apples" from one basket to another.
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On the Net: http://www.hutchnews.com/Opinion/
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Oct. 28
The Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times on U.S.-Mexico border:
The security crackdown on the U.S.-Mexico border has reduced the number of illegal immigrants trying to cross, authorities believe.
At the same time, it may have drummed up business for drug gangs experienced at smuggling goods and people across the border, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Fewer than 1 million people have been caught trying to cross illegally from Mexico to the United States in the year ending Sept. 30. ...
That means the crackdown is working, officials believe. Although Congress failed to overhaul immigration policy, Republicans did insist on curbing illegal immigration from Mexico.
But while it is harder for individuals to sneak into the United States from Mexico these days, more illegal immigrants may be placing their lives in the hands of criminal gangs, many with ties to the drug trade.
U.S. officials are reporting more violence along the border, including gunfights between gangs smuggling people across, hijackings of each others' customers and abuse of migrants. Fees to smuggle a migrant across the border have risen from next to nothing to as much as $6,000 per head. ...
The increase of Border Patrol agents and the addition of 6,000 National Guard troops along the boundary line have made a difference. But authorities are finding more immigrants who are smuggling drugs. ...
This definitely is not what congressional Republicans had in mind in emphasizing border enforcement.
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On the Web: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com
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Oct. 29
Houston Chronicle on the DREAM Act:
It was a dismal day's work in the U.S. Senate Wednesday, when lawmakers, including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, shot down the DREAM Act.
The bill would have given some high-performing children of illegal immigrants a chance for legal status if they had clean records, had spent more than five years in the United States and attended college or served in the military.
Even after the divisive effort to reform U.S. immigration policy, the DREAM Act inspired substantial bipartisan support in Congress. That's because it neither rewarded, or even applied to, immigrants who chose to come here illegally. The measure singled out their children, brought here without their say, who nevertheless aspired to college and military service.
By the time the measure appeared before the Senate last week, it had lost even a provision allowing these youngsters in-state tuition.
Simply, the bill tested lawmakers' ability to rationally address a small, blameless and high-achieving fraction of young people caught up in our chaotic immigration status quo. ...
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On the Net: http://www.chron.com
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Oct. 30
The Miami Herald, FEMA's image:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency created a disaster of its own last week when it staged a fake press conference regarding the California wildfires. This attempt to manipulate the American public not only tarnishes trust in government but brings another black mark on an agency still haunted by its inept response to Hurricane Katrina.
To his credit, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, who oversees FEMA, minced no words in criticizing the charade. "I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," he said. "I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again, and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited ... extraordinarily poor judgment."
That's the right message. John P. "Pat" Philbin, the FEMA external affairs director who arranged the event, already has paid for his part. He lost the job he was to start Monday heading public affairs for the director of National Intelligence. ...
What motivated the ill-fated "press conference" is still unclear. ... Everyone from Mr. Johnson and Mr. Philbin on down should have known better.
This is no way for FEMA to improve its image. The way to do it is to get the job done right on the ground and give the public honest answers to tough questions.
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On the Net: http://tinyurl.com/38q82q
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Oct. 30
The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C., on beach house fire:
In the words of University of South Carolina President Andrew Sorensen, a sense of "profound sadness" has settled over his campus -- and this state -- as a result of the deaths of seven college students over the weekend in a horrendous fire at a vacation home on a North Carolina beach. That same sense of profound sadness permeated the state four months ago when nine Charleston firefighters died in a raging Sofa Super Store inferno. There is a common thread in those fires as well as one in a Greenville motel three years ago when six people died: The lack of a sprinkler system. ...
But the tragic deaths over the weekend should focus attention on the greater danger of death from fires to people in their homes. At the least, lawmakers in this state and around the country should require the installation of automatic sprinkler systems in all new residential structures. ...
The devastating loss of life that has impacted so many in this state in recent months should provide the impetus to the Legislature to make the strengthening of the state building and fire codes a priority. Meanwhile, the relatively small cost of sprinklers and the high risk of residential fires should be cause for homeowners to consider installing the systems on a voluntary basis.
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On the Net: http://www.charleston.net/editorial/
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Oct. 30.
Springfield (Miss.) News-Leader, on the f-word:
... With all due respect to a group of students at Missouri State University who seem to have too much time on their hands, you won't find us cheering their recent tribute to the "f-word" that can only nominally be called a protest.
Maybe we're too old. We remember the Vietnam War. Now that's when college students knew how to protest.
Heck, we're in a war again. ...
But MSU students want to protest the fact that some campus cop asked a band not to use the "f-word?"
Hooray for the cop for having a sense of decency. And boohoo for those poor music lovers who felt censored. Go buy your obscenity-laced CD at any store of your choice and listen to it in the privacy of your own home. ...
That a group of college students would respond to such a reasonable request by shouting the "f-word" and waving the "f-word" in banners while schoolchildren are nearby just shows them to be a bit out of touch with reality.
Had a cop actually arrested a band member for use of the word, there might be more of a story.
Had the editor of the college newspaper used the word as a verb with the president's name following it, as a Colorado State University student recently did to much acclaim, perhaps that would have been a dustup worthy of a campuswide discussion about the rights of the free press. ...
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On the Net: http://tinyurl.com/2v5y64
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Oct. 26
Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, Japan, on labeling scandals:
Four months since the first in a series of scandals over false labels on food surfaced, police arrested the president of meat packing company Meat Hope Co. on Wednesday. The president was arrested on suspicion of shipping ground meat labeled as "100 percent pure beef," which, in fact, contained cheaper materials such as pork and chicken.
But the cheating did not stop there. He is also suspected of carrying on such deceptive practices as mixing livestock blood into meat to make it red and look like beef. He also allegedly falsified the production areas for beef. It is natural that he be held severely accountable for his actions. ...
As processed foods and sweets inundate the market, it has become increasingly difficult to keep an eye on them.
We think food makers are taking advantage of the situation and losing their ambition to properly make tasty products. The situation is serious. And it will not be easy for the food industry to recover consumer trust.
One good thing that came out of the series of scandals is that employees of food makers have started to openly object to dishonest practices.
Many of the scandals, including Meat Hope's, were brought to light as a result of whistle-blowing by insiders. ...
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On the Net: http://www.asahi.com/english/
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Oct. 29
Postimees, Tartu, Estonia, on Airbus A380:
The first commercial flight of Airbus 380, the world's largest passenger plane, from Singapore to Sydney may open a new page in aviation history.
The new plane, dubbed "Superjumbo", is truly big ... with a capability of carrying up to 850 passengers.
But while being an imposing structure, the plane makes you inevitably think about the possibilities of an accident (involving new technology). We should keep in mind that the history of the mankind has witnessed many catastrophes related to new technology.
These include the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, destruction of the airship Hindenburg in 1937, the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986 and the accident involving the supersonic plane Concorde in 2000.
However, all of this is not likely to matter for those passengers who were unable to get tickets for the first (A380) flight. Convenience and speed are the key issues that count.
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On the Net: http://www.postimees.ee
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Oct. 29
The Independent, London, on marketing football:
The effort to sell "soccer" to the American public has a long and undistinguished history. The U.S. was awarded the World Cup in 1994. They have been bombarded by pre-season tours by the cream of the Premiership. This year they even got David Beckham. For some time, the traffic has been one-way. But yesterday we received a little payback. The Miami Dolphins played the New York Giants at Wembley stadium as part of a U.S. drive to sell American football to the Brits.
Actually, this is not the first visit of the NFL to these shores. The old Wembley hosted an annual pre-season exhibition game between 1986 and 1993. But this made little impact. To the typical British sports fan, American football remains something impenetrable involving shoulder pads and helmets. Will things be different this time? The NFL has made more effort, for sure. Unlike in the past, top players were in attendance. Yesterday's game also counted. This was the first competitive NFL fixture to be played outside the Americas.
The match was a sell-out. But the 1994 World Cup final at the Pasadena Rose Bowl sold out too, and the tournament itself attracted more spectators than any before or since. But what good did it do in the long term? Soccer is still regarded stateside as a game for teenage girls, despite its vast popularity among Hispanic immigrants.
We should not underestimate the power of marketing. There is a huge amount of money to be made from broadening the appeal of football in the U.S. and the American variety over here. But at the moment our two sporting cultures feel rather like Kipling's East and West: "Never the twain shall meet".
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On the Net: http://tinyurl.com/yvm289
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Oct. 30
Winnipeg Free Press, Canada, on Tibet:
The Chinese government may be frosted but Canadians should be warmed by the fact Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided to meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, publicly and officially in Ottawa on Monday.
Mr. Harper is the first prime minister to do so -- former prime minister Paul Martin met the Dalai Lama privately in 2004, which did not greatly agitate the government in Beijing. Mr. Harper's decision, however, caused a lot of fretting and fussing and angry communiques from the Chinese embassy.
Whatever strain Mr. Harper's decision may have put on Canadian-Chinese relations, part of the vitriol in China's response may have been fuelled by the belief that Canada is easier to bully than the United States or Germany. ...
China regards Tibet as an integral part of its territory, although almost no other nation in the world agrees. To keep that integrity intact, China has, since its invasion of Tibet in 1950, launched a series of mini-genocides and cultural massacres that continue to this day. The Dalai Lama fled to exile in India during one of those bouts of repression in 1959. Since then, Tibet has become something of a cause celebre, embraced by Western celebrities and ordinary folk who simply believe in freedom.
The sad truth, however, is that in the international context, the oppression of Tibet occupies pretty much the same place as homelessness does in the Canadian context. Almost everyone is against it, almost everyone wants to do something about it, but no one knows what do, what might work. Hold another rally, raise a little money and go home to watch TV. ...
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On the Net:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
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