The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 1, Ed. 1 Monday, July 9, 1990 Page: 2 of 8
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2 MONDAY, JULY 9, 1990 THE RICE THRESHER
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bummit coverage has
been anything but hot
With the hordes of media personnel the summit has drawn,
one might think reporters would be unearthing some captivat-
ing and important stories. Nope. All the media wants is a pretty
— or shocking — picture.
Yesterday's Houston Chronicle splashed a picture of police
in riot gear confronting irate citizens during yesterday's KKK
march, and photos of another conflict and a flag-burning were
plastered onto an inside page. Yet what really happened was
different "Most city protesters peaceful," said one headline.
But that error is trivial compared to how the local dailies
treated important pre-summit stories. Anything not favorable
to the Bayou City was brushed over or ignored. Invisible are
Houston's sizable black and Hispanic communities. There has
been nothing noting that the local economic recovery has
stranded many minorities and uneducated people.
Some may claim there was no alternative, that in a meeting
between government leaders, governments will control the
media because they dictate the agenda. That contains some
truth, but not much.
The U.S. government has focused news coverage by its
actions and inactions. It has dictated the minutest details for
this event in an attempt to ensure that everything is magnifi-
cent for world leaders.
Its demands included that Rice drastically renovate the
most gorgeous parts of buildings on campus. Naturally, that
this was done was newsworthy. But where was the healthy
skepticism that should have accompanied that?
Furthermore, when the summit does happen, how is news
distributed? In controlled briefings where the press is spoon-
fed the day's pablum of rhetoric.
But a real journalist, as we are told, shouldn't accept what
one source, especially an official one, tells him. He should
examine all sides of the issue.
The media has failed in its responsibility to the public, to
learn and relay the absolute and unvarnished truth. It has
allowed itself to be manipulated by one of the many who try to
do so, in this case the city of Houston and the government
headed by its favorite adopted son.
Exceptions exist, though. The Houston Press has been the
only major outlet that's mused whether Houston's overdoing
the hype, reported on The Other Economic Summit or exam-
ined any of the non-positive aspects of Houston.
Why? Other outlets don't want to report the true facts. They
just want to give picturesque images to sell themselves.
CALL IT IN THE AIR....
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Public misunderstands German change
by Boris Maurer
Bonn University
What we want is sensation. No
matter if it is a bomb thrown in
Beirut, the success of our local
sports team, a great bank robbery
(as long as there are hostages) or a
revolution taking place somewhere.
These are the events we get from
our daily news horror show and if we
are honest, we have to admit that
these are the things we want to see.
Sitting there, we know that all this is
really happening. We are not in-
volved but simply watching with red
eyes and goose bumps.
And now there are unbelievable
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and breathtaking things going on in
Eastern Europe. Only five years
have passed since Gorbachev took
over the government in the Soviet
Union and now all that seemed so
stable and eternal to us breaks down.
So everybody's attention has turned
to German reunification, what's hap-
pening after monetary union, how
Germans feel about all this and what
will probably happen next
It really frightens me how things
are dealt with in the public.
Newsweek comes out with a headline
"The Almighty Deutsche Mark",
people begin to speak again about
the resurection of the Reich and I see
KKK people runfiing around with a
Nazi flag. Everybody is monitoring
Germany again. This is not always a
good sign and I am not the only one
worried.
There are many misunderstand-
ings when things happen as fast as
they have in the Eastern European
countries. And there are not just
misunderstandings in the 'overseas-
countries' , like the USA but in Eu-
rope too. Events are taking place
with such speed that nobody is seri-
ously able to follow, to understand or
to analyze situations thoroughly.
One of the problems related to
this is understanding what the atti-
tudes on unification in Western Ger-
man society are. Since I arrived in the
United States everybody has asked
me what my opinion is on unification
thinking I could give them "the" Ger-
man perspective. But there is no
common German perspective. In-
stead the country is divided along
several lines, even among those who
agree on the idea of unification.
The older generation strongly
suffered from the division of their
country, v^hich resulted in an indi-
vidually felt division from their fami-
lies and friends for many of them. It
sffould be obvious to anybody that
these people will justgrip the chance
and want unity as fast as possible.
They were happy when the Wall was
falling like everybody in bothGer-
manys. But for different reasons.
Many of the younger generation
feel a strong reservation towards an
uncontrollable, nationally domi-
nated process to unity, or even to the
liberation of the other Eastern Euro-
pean countries. Instead we learned
to pay attention to a certain interna-
tional solidarity former generations
failed to learn. So we are stressing a
process leading to unity which is
more imbedded into the process of
European unification and the CSCE-
process which has been brought
back to life.
But this is mainly theory. Things
are moving so fast because East Ger-
many fears the threat of their recent
history and wants to have close ties
with a world that will prevent them
from a fall back into their 'dark ages'.
This does not make the problem
easier to solve, but needs to be un-
derstood. And that it is going so fast
is not at all a sign that the "old bad
Germans" are on the run again.
There are two main problems
remaining to be solved: The first
problem is a more emotional and
atmospherical one: How can we find
a way, that enables our neighbors to
welcome unification?
This might be done by strength-
ened efforts towards European inte-
gration.
The second relates to the position
of Gorbachev and the Soviet Union.
It is not, and this is the most impor-
tant thing to state clearly, the Soviet
Union who loses the Cold War. We
all have to thank Gorbachev for al-
lowing a development we all have the
chance to gain from.
The two-bloc system is vanishing.
We need new collective aid and secu-
rity structures in Europe including
the Soviet Union and America too. In
such a system there will be a good
place reserved for a un ified Germany
in a friendlier world.
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Moeller, Kurt & Yates, Jay. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 1, Ed. 1 Monday, July 9, 1990, newspaper, July 9, 1990; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245754/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1&rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.