0 OPINION Page 4 Friday, November 20, 1981- The Michigan Daily .1 lI Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Is Reagan's foreign policy I Vol. XCII, No. 62 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 hurting-or helping-Castro? Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board It's ratings time again R EMEMBER last August? Remember those hot summer nights, when there was nothing to do but stay inside -with the air- conditioning? And remember how the only shows on TV- were "Godzilla Swallows Hoboken" and reruns of the Muppets? Compare that to this month. The networks are showing "Grease," "10," "Every Which Way but Loose," and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," In other words, we're getting a massive dose of fairly good-and very popular-movies. The reason? It's ratings time again, and the three commercial networks are falling all over themselves trying to lure viewers and boost their showings in the polls. Three times yearly-in February, May, and November-two firms con- duct surveys of Americans' viewing habits to help advertisers plan their marketing strategies. While the pollsters keep track of the relative strengths of the three networks on a national level all year round, it is only during these three "sweeps" that ad- vertisers get a look at what is going on station-by-station, market-by-market. Since higher ratings allow a station to ask more money from advertisers, the stations go all out during the period to raise their ratings. During these sweeps, the networks do all they can to bolster their viewer- ship by airing their most popular shows, but the changes that occur during a ratings sweep go beyond the movie selection. Local stations attem- pt to increase their share of the ratings by "improving" their local news coverage. The "improvements," however, often make the news shows concentrate on the semi-lewd or the outright ludicrous. Here are a few examples of what some local stations are doing during this ratings sweep: In Los Angeles, the local stations are now covering stories on erotic home video cassettes and seminars on human sexuality; in Chicago, one station is featuring a series narrated by Dr. Joyce Brothers entitled "What Every Woman Should Know About Men;" and in New York, WABC's star anchorman, 53-year-old Roger Grimsby, jumped out of an air- plane and risked life and limb in a speeding race car-all for the sake of the ratings. It's an amusing system we have, to be sure. But it would be a great deal more amusing if it didn't mean that the only times when commercial television rises even slightly from its usual in- sipidness are during the ratings periods. In the end, the whole system itself is a marvelous argument for continued support of public television. Instead of being encumbered by ratings races, the Public Broadcasting Service strives to present quality programming all year round. Instead of being forced to sink to the level of crass commercialism in its news reports, PBS is able to maintain a level of decorum in its newscasts. It stands as an island of relative quality in a sea of commercial mediocrity. By Robert Wesson The U.S. Navy sails around Cuba in a demonstration of strength. There are mutterings in Washington of drastic action against the Castro government if it persists in trying to export its politics to Latin America. The embargo on trade with Cuba is tightened and it is made more difficult for Americans to receive Cuban publications. New broadcasting facilities are to be constructed to transmit the American message to the Cuban people. THE ADMINISTRATION has undertaken what it views as a dynamic policy to weaken Castro and reduce his influence in Latin America. But to Fidel Castro, it surely is flattering to be the ob- ject of so much attention by a power so vastly stronger and richer than his island nation, which has a population about equal to that of greater Los Angeles and an economic product about a tenth as large. On the maps of the State Department, in fact, Cuba ap- pears to have become the major U.S. antagonist, figuratively enlarged.to at least the size of South America. There is reason enough to broadcast the American message more amply to Mexico and many other Latin American countries that fail to fully understand Washington's position. Yet Cuba alone gets a transmit- ter for its sole benefit, despite the fact that Cuba is the only Latin American country already adequately covered by American radio (from Miami). WORSE, THE cost of the new anti-Cuba station is to come out of the funds for the Latin American visitor's program, under which thousands of influential or poten- tially influential persons have become acquainted with the United States. Fidel Castro In the end, these anti-Castro policies may well operate to strengthen him and increase his influence. He grows in Latin American eyes as the United States makes military demon- strations, while he, playing David to Goliath, stands unmoved. Even firm anti-communists, because of their almost inevitable discomfiture with the predominance of the United States in this hemisphere, probably take quiet satisfaction in a fellow Latin American's defiance of the angry super- power. MOREOVER, such acute con- centration on- Cuba effectively entails neglect of the 97 percent of the people of Latin America who are not Cubans, and of the .mat- ters which are important to them. It seems to give substance to the left's concentration that the pur- pose of the United States is only to beat down Castro, not to assist the other nations of this hemisphere in finding a better life. Except in a few Central American countries, Castroism simply is not the major worry today. For example, Vice President George Bush recently warned the Dominicans of the danger of Castroism when they wanted to talk about a rise in the U.S. tariff on sugar now threatening their chief industry. And U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick suggested that Costa Rica be armed against guerrillas, presumably Cuban- backed, when the Costa Ricans have no guerrilla movement-but do have mountainous economic problems. Most of all, the anti-Castro campaign ser4es to strengthen Castro's position at home. He has used the threat of U.S. attack to proclaim an emergency and call upon Cubans to prepare for the final and decisive battle for in- dependence: the conclusion, in his interpretation, of the fight against Spanish rule begun a cen- tury ago. ARTILLERY HAS been placed along the coast; anti-aircraft batteries are manned; men and women drill; tanks have been drawn up. In the meantime, we may assume, chronic consumer shortages have been more or less forgotten. Probably Castro would welcomeba shooting encounter with U.S. forces short of an in- vasion of the island. This, he doubtless knows, is improbable for a country that finds it difficult to send a few dozen military ad- visers to a friendly government in El Salvador. SOME 22 YEARS ago, Castro took up anti-Yankeeism to establish a control over his island far more complete than that exercised by any previous Cuban ruler. It was a clever tactic because it made use of resen- tments built thanks to the long U.S. domination of the Cuban economy and politics. But Castro hardly could have guessed how helpful successive American administrations would be to him-cutting off U.S. in- fluence while they kept tensions high through pinpricks and threatening actions which seldom really hurt Havana. It was altogether too clear that a suc- cessful attack to bringhhim down would demand a high price in blood and would be very risky on the international scene. This general policy has been little changed over 22 years of failure, during which it has saved Castro from his own errors and helped make him and his poor nation giants on the world stage. Wesson is a professor of political science at the Univer- sity of California in Santa Barbara. He wrote this article for Pacific News Service. 01 " I LETTERS TO THE DAILY: WERE A VERY HAPPY GROUP* IaI .v J---d \ , e K r f , C Racist film shouldn't have been shown To the Daily: What was the City of Ann Arbor thinking of when it let the city- owned Michigan Theatre show the blatantly racist, offensive film Birth of a Nation? Has the City of Ann Arbor lost total respect for black people? These and other angry questions come to mind as members of the Washtenaw County Chapter of the National Black Independent Political Party and other black organizations learned of the Oc- tober 29, 1981 showing of the racist film Birth of a Nation. Birth of a Nation began as a novel, The Clansmen, which was written by Thomas Dixon in the early 1900's. During an intermission of the play The Clansman in 1906 Mr. Dixon made this blatantly racist statement: "My object is to teach the North, the young North, what it has never known-the awful suffering of the white man during the dreadful reconstruction period. I believe that the Almighty God annointed the white man of the South by their suffering during that time. . . to demonstrate to the world that the white man must and shall be supreme." The film portrays three types of black people: the submissive mammy and pappy; the con- fused, evil mulatto; and the shadowy menacing mass of black people. The only good blacks are the submissive blacks and they are portrayed as dying off. The only hope of these "good darkgies" came from the "good white people" in white sheets who even- tually came to calm them down and "save" the white race and the black race. The fact that this type of racist violence in the media can provoke racist violent behavior and attitudes has been documen- ted repeatedly. Therefore there can be no excuse for the son- tinued showing of films such as Birth of a Nation. The fact that the film was presented at taxpayers expense (and we assure you that black people are taxpayers) is revolting. Why anyone would consider racist propaganda that glorifies a murderous, racist group such as the Ku Klux Klan as entertain- ment is beyond the scope of decency. To ask people to pay for such trash-with their tax dollars-is ludicrous. The dangerous activities of the KKK increased after the 1915 showing of The Clansmen, KKK activity has been increasing from 1975 until now. Surely the City of Ann Arbor is not recruiting for the KKK, or is it? The increased activity and violence of the KKK and other murderous racist groups in recent years is clear indication that the situation is nothing to be taken lightly. The recent inciden- ces of violence such as: the mur- ders of black men in Boston by racist whites; the murders of black men in New York by racist whites; the bombing of the hom- e of a black family in Detroit by racist whites; and the murders of members of the Communist Workers Party in North Carolina by KKK members, as well as the subsequent acquital of the Klan- smen involved, are nothing to be advocated in any media format. Yet by the City of Ann Arbor letting taxpayers' money sponsor a blatantly racist and offensive film such as Birth of a Nation, the , city is condoning the racist acts, and ideas esposed in the film. The City of Ann Arbor owes black people an apology, and its, assurance that the blatantly racist, offensive film is never shown in Ann Arbor again, and most certainly not with tax- payer's money. -Regina Hunter Patrick Mason Co-chairpersons Washtenaw County Chapter, National Black Independ- ent Political Party November 18 0 Crew coverage inadequate To the Daily: I was rather disappointed by your coverage (Daily, Nov. 10) of the men's and women's crew meet at Michigan State on Nov. 7. One member of the team repor- ted all the results and times (men's, women's, varsity, and novice) to you, yet you printed nnlv the men's scnres I never would have accused the Daily of being sexist, but I'm beginning to wonder. The women's teams and their coaches work equally hard as the men and they deserve equal newspaper coverage. I think you owe these women, their coaches, and their fans an apology. i, k - , , any - - 1 -Marv Cella I Al