The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 32, Ed. 1 Friday, October 24, 1986 Page: 2 of 8
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Commentary
The North Texas Daily
Page 2
Friday, October 24, 1986
Editorials
Exchange program
boosts understanding
for Russians and us
There was a debate Thursday night that we all won.
It had nothing to do with the '86 elections. And,
anyway, it was more important than any of that mud-
slinging.
Why?
Because although it was a contest, it benefited both
sides.
It was between a Soviet debate team and an NT debate
team, and it was a success in that it brought two worlds
together.
The most common view of Soviet people that Ameri-
cans get is that of rosy cheeks riding atop bundles of
warm clothing on the frigid, windswept sidewalks of
Moscow. And the Soviet government? It's seen as a
collection of 80-year-old men who brave the cold every
few weeks to watch missiles on parade.
Yes, we sometimes see a brighter Soviet Union. But
for the most part, all we see of the Soviets are icy,
stone faces.
Events such as the debate can help us see a different
Soviet Union and a different Soviet people.
And more important than the exchange of ideas in a
structured forum is the person-to-person contact. The
Soviet debaters are university students. They did not
come here to speak to us from behind lecturns, they
came here to speak with us — to shake our hands, to
see us eye-to-eye, to shatter that stone image and to
penetrate that iron wall.
The Soviets' visit was part of an exchange program
offered by the Speech and Communication Association,
a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to the
promotion of speech communication.
Some people might argue that such programs are
nothing more than propaganda tactics by the Soviet
government. This debate exchange is a private program.
Certainly the Soviet government has some say in a
program like this. It has limited the debate team's tour
in the United States to two weeks, most likely for financial
reasons.
Whether these exchanges are private or governmental,
we have a lesson to learn from visits like this one. Our
"enemies" are flesh and blood.
But the Soviets who visit us also have a lesson to
learn, too. We are real, and we have worries and questions
of our own. And, we can be friendly. At least, we should
prove to them that we are not automatons acting upon
the will of a government that sees in black and white.
No doubt, the Soviet view of the American people is
just as blind as ours can be of the Soviet people. Maybe
through exchanges such as this one, we can let the Soviets
know what we are really like.
We wish the Soviet debaters good luck in their last
few stops at college campuses. And we welcome them
back to NT anytime.
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"I don't think the paper
is as good as it should
be for the caliber of the
journalism school. It
lacks graphically." —
Philip Freeman, Dallas
sophomore
"I think it's real thor-
ough, and the editorials
are interesting." —
Donette Shackelford,
Jacksboro senior
"I think it's a good
thing because everyone
you see has a Daily.
I don't know why I
don't!" — Maria
Dowdle, Texarkana
(Texas side) senior
For those of you who compliment
and correctively criticize The Daily, we,
the staff, would like to thank you.
But those of you who prefer to aim-
lessly demean The Daily for its own
sake, allow me to educate you in what
you think you know.
The NT Daily is a newspaper run by
students for students at this university.
It is not a professional newspaper, yet
it is a real newspaper.
Staff and advertising members, car-
toonists and illustrators do get paid to
put this paper out four times a week
(although that point is debatable).
Nevertheless, those involved don't do
it for the money; we do it for the
education, experience, and at times, the
fun of it.
MANY STUDENTS and teachers
ouside the journalism department some-
times forget that The Daily is a learning
experience for students.
Most of the staff have never worked
on a newspaper before coming to The
Daily. Usual Daily staffs are made up
of mainly juniors and seniors with a
few graduate students and maybe a
sophomore.
The experience many of us have
already achieved before applying for The
Daily staff is photography and/or news
reporting, At this university, to some
of you who have encountered this
phenomenon, the latter means the
dreaded daily reporter.
Some teachers and a few departments
and divisions at NT hold a grudge
against the Daily year after year for a
mistake made by a daily reporter or staff
member. This person may have mis-
spelled a name or misquoted someone
(although sometimes the "misquote
syndrome" is just a scapegoat).
Granted, a mistake in print should
not be taken lightly for enough may
give a paper a bad name. But there are
exceptions depending on the situation.
MAJOR NEWSPAPERS hire expe-
rienced people. Some mistakes may cost
the wrong-doer his job. But these people
had to start somewhere — a college or
small town newspaper, more than likely.
They learned what to look for, where
to look, what to ask and what to do to
get the "scoop." Many, not all,
learned ethics and to never misquote
someone or misspell a name.
But in learning these skills, it took
experience, among other things. This
is the kind of experience we, at The
Daily, are trying to obtain. But we can't
do it without the cooperation of the
entire university.
Some stories were and arc unat-
tainable because some choose not to
speak to a reporter or staff member
because of one or more bad experiences.
Wouldn't you hate to be held ac-
countable for another's mistake? That
happens too often to us. Most of us,
daily reporters and staff members, do
our best not to make a mistake. But it
ty/p'rr
Laura
Dowlearn
not "superhuman," as many expect
us to be. ■
EVERY FRIDAY at noon, jour-
nalism teachers, staff members and other
interested parties, gather in GAB 117
to listen to the experienced verbally
"slash" the week's papers of the
inexperienced to bits. These blood-thirsty
(sometimes rabid) displays of oppression
are properly named "slash."
Here, most if not all, of our mistakes
are aired in hopes of never seeing them
again — sometimes grammatical,
prayerfully never libelous (our budget
can't muster a pay raise much less a
law suit) but mostly style errors.
All newspapers theoretically follow
The Associated Press' style which is
outlined in the The Associated Press
style Book and Libel Manual, better
known as "the journalist's Bible."
This book includes such important facts
as: there's no period in Dr Pepper;
T-shirt is with a capital T and a hyphen;
and OK is spelled this way, to name a
few.
* After slash, staff members pick up
the pieces and start planning for the next
Week. "Ed board" is held to discuss
(sometimes vehemently argue) the stance
to take on chosen issues for the
editorials.
DURING THIS session, some con-
troversial issues are thrown out if the
staff cannot come to a near unanimous
agreement of "yeah" or "nay." The
issues agreed upon arc then disseminated
among those assigned to write editorials
that week.
Many people outside tfi'e journalism
department confuse columns with edi-
torials; they're not the same thing. An
editorial is written by one person
encompassing the view of the entire
staff. There's usually two eds on page
2, Tuesday through Thursday. They're
the articles without a smiling face and
name floating among the words.
A column, on the other hand, is
written by one person and comes either
from his or her imagination or from
factual material, and sometimes both.
In other words, those assigned columns
for the week are given a certain amount
of space to fill with words that arc not
libelous — that's basically the only
restriction.
Cartoonists and illustrators are given
the same liberties with the space allotted
to them, although some ^ouId prefer
more screening before printing.
SOME OFFENDED people write
letters to the editor telling of their
discontent with such-and-such article,
cartoon or photograph. Some (usually
those unfamiliar with our culture) go
as far as saying it shouldn't have been
printed.
That is commonly known as cen-
sorship. This process of leaving out
material which may be considered of-
fensive to some abridges our, journalists,
cartoonists, illustrators and photo-
graphers alike (artists, if you will), right
to freedom of the press guaranteed to
us in the Bill of Rights.
This document was written in the 18th
century be wiser men than those
claiming offense. We respect and adhere
to this unalienable right just as others
living in this country rcspect and adhere
to their freedom of spcech, of religion
and of expression.
This paper also adheres to the last
freedom as shown on page 3 — the
letters page. Here, students and teachers
are given the opportunity to express
anger, frustration, happiness and any
other emotion found in the various letters
and poems we print.
HAUNANI WALKER, editor of
the page, said that she'll print just about
anything as long as it's not libelous. A
few students have complained about the
way in which Walker edits their letters.
She reassures them by saying, "I don't
like to cut letters because it's a person's
work. I cut because of space."
The space left free of ads is the space
used by editors of pages 3 and up. This
limits the editors, so they have to choose
which articles to print and which to save
for a later issue. In doing so, Walker
tries to give each letter an equal chance
and equal space. She said, "When I
cut, I tend to cut the longer letters
because shorter letters are usually easier
to read than longer ones."
I hope this article clears a few things
up for those of you unfamiliar with the
ins and outs of newspapers. I'm sure
that there will still be those who igno-
rantly criticize us and our methods, but
you can't say that I didn't try. That's
all you can ask of anyone.
ik-m VL
m
"I do like the fact that
you come and ask the
students their opinions.
It's a good paper."
— Luan Harrison, Dallas
junior
"I like to read The
Daily because of the
cartoons and the articles
are informative. Overall,
it's pretty good." —
Todd McAnally, Dallas
freshman
T
"I think it should come
out on Mondays and
have more gubernatorial
and campus spending
articles." — Kyle
Simmons, Dallas junior
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Vahlenkamp, John. The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 32, Ed. 1 Friday, October 24, 1986, newspaper, October 24, 1986; Denton, TX. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth332815/m1/2/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.