0 OPINION Page 4 Wednesday, February 20, 1985 The Michigan Daily Edieb tu s a niig an l Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan A sexist and popular outlook By Susana Hayward Vol. XCV, No. 117 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board A soldie- M ONDAY'S SETTLEMENT in the spectacular Westmoreland libel trial was somewhat reminiscent of the conflict which spawned the entire situation. Like the war in Vietnam, the trial has been long, tedious, and poin- tless, costing baffling sums while resolving none of the basic conflicts. Monday's brokered settlement of the case could not have been more ap- propriate. After three years in court, General William Westmoreland dropped his lawsuit against CBS. Not surprisingly, both the general and the network claimed victory. CBS stood by the ob-. jectivity of their news documentary, and Westmoreland said that his name had been sufficiently cleared. But as important as a general's honor may be, Westmoreland's case should never have gone to court. By using the legal system to soothe his own conscience, Westmoreland has wasted a great deal of limited court time and money. The controversy surrounded a CBS News documentary on the Vietnam war. The program stated that West- moreland had been a part of a gover- nment misrepresentation of enemy capabilities during his service as commander of the U.S. forces in Viet- nam. The general held that post from 9S story 1964 tox1968. Westmoreland, along with many others in command position at that time, was shown to have un- derestimated enemy battle strengths in reports to higher officials and the press. 15 years after the fact, CBS saw fit to air a documentary on the whole affair. Westmoreland could not disprove the accusations. Inflated body counts and positive battle.reports, although they should not be condoned, are an inevitable part of war. Leiutenants seek to impress generals so they stret- ch the facts. Generals are responsible to their superiors so they further ad- just the figures given to them to appear more positive. By the time the public has a look at the battle situation, the in- formation the government provides has been so twisted and inflated that it is nothing more than useless propaganda. Westmoreland, and many others in- volved with information gathering in the Vietnam war are guilty of this of- fense. Because a news agency decided to publicize facts that were in- criminating, Westmoreland does not have the right to knowingly bring a un- substantiated suit to court. It was a lame attempt by a publicly defamed soldier to clear his record. DALLAS - Joe Briggs is the most sexist, most bigoted syndicated drive-in movie critic OK. So he's the only one. He's infuriated women, angered Mexican- Americans, and been called a racist, a jerk, and worse. The Texas redneck is also one of the most popular columnists in Dallas, and an estimated 4 million people now read his raun- chy reviews in 50 newspapers. "Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In," which as run weekly in the Dallas Times Herald since January 1982, was picked up by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate last March. In a typical blast, these were the tamest words Joe Bob had for Bo Derek in the movie "Bolero": "...We knew it was only a matter of time before the bimbo ripped all her clothes off and ran around acting like a goose that's been wired up for brain research." If a woman is insulted when he calls her a bimbo, a Hispanic offended by the word Meskin, or a black by the term Negro, Joe Bob figures they're just wimps. "There ain't no sensitive subject. Just sen- sitive people," says Joe Bob, who claimsto hail from "Frontage Road, Texas, dirt mining capital of North America." Pictures of Joe Bob show only the back of a head, but the character is widely believed to be the creation of Times Herald columnist John Boom. Bloom, a soft-spoken 31-year-old intellec- tual, denies he and Joe Bob are one and the same. He tells questioners he couldn't possibly be the drive-in movie critic because he's college educated and drives a foreign car. Joe Bob is 19, flirted with college for two weeks and- drives a 1972 Oldsmobile Toronado, Bloom said. His heroes are Charles Bronson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, and Ralph the Diving Pig, a paddling porcine at Aquarena Springs in San Marcos, Texas, Joe Bob said in response to written questions. Bloom said his fellow columnist responds only to written questions. His favorite movie is "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," a low-budget cult horror film made in Texas. Indeed, if heads roll, blood spills and cars collide, it's Joe Bob's kind of movie. And it had better be showing at a drive-in. Joe Bob's crusade is to save drive-. ins from extinction. "We've lost about 750, but I don't think it's any cause for alarm. We still got 3,500 left," he said. He's been called a communist, racist, of-. Hayward wrote this article for The Associated Press.1 I 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is syndicated columnist and educated redneck Joe Bob Briggs' favorite film-which says a lot for his taste in movies. 4 fensive and, of course, sexist, as in this review of Brian de Palma's "Body Double": "But what we got here is 26 breasts, in- cluding four full-screen wide bodied garbonza closeups. One vampire. One sardine imitation. Two porno scenes. One bimbo slap- ped around. Two motor vehicle chases ... Two dead bodies. One Supremo power-drill scene. One attack dog. Three gallons blood." Offensive or not, Joe Bob has clearly struck a nerve. "Oviously we thought it would be a lot of fun," said Times Herald Managing Editor Kerry Slagle. "But we had no idea it would turn out to be such a phenomenon... It's one of the most popular features of the paper." Michael Carmack, promotions manager for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, said com- pany officials picked up the column because it was "enough off-the-wall that it might really work." They were right. The Cleveland Ohio Plain Dealer'yanked Joe Bob's column for two weeks last fall "because of a number of complaints... that basically he's a sexist pig," said Robert Snyder, the newspaper's features editor. Snyder said he soon realized his mistake. "The first day we got 450 telephone calls," he said, the most the paper has ever received over a column. Snyder stopped counting let- ters after 1,000 but estimated the newspaper received a total of 4,500. The Plain Dealer "surrendered" and Joe bob was reinstated, although "offensive" words are now edited out. Greg Getz, a professor of sociology at Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth who reasear- ches the sociology of film, said one ex- planation for Joe Bob's popularity could be that "people like to be offended." "A possible analogy is sportscaster Howard Cosell," Getz said. "Some people are so offensive that they generate a constituency." Bloom, a former movie critic who now writes a regular column on the Times Herald's Metro page, attributes Joe Bob's success to his honesty. "Joe Bob is a redneck, an intelligent one," said Bloom. "He's honest about bigotry and prejudice. Therefore, you can't hate him as much as a person who's secretive about it." But there is hate mail. One letter to the San Francisco Chronicle read:-""We are appalled at the offensiveness of your new columnist, Joe Bob, and are shocked at the irresponsibility and disrespect to our community in choosing to publish it." The letter was signed by 27 people, most of them doctors, psychiatrists, attorneys, and counselors at family oriented clinics. "Joe Bob loves hate mail because it always comes from stuffy organizations and stuffy people," Bloom said. Dynamic duo Letters ARTISTIC and political speakers can be the spice of the University, and the last few days hasseen outstan- ding pair. Poet Nikki Giovanni spoke on Sun- day night during a salute to black women sponsored by the Black Student Union, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and the Michigan Student Assembly. Before reading any of her poetry, Giovanni argued at length that blacks, poor whites, and all citizens hurt by President Reagan's policies must make themselves heard. Famed political and environmental activist Abbie Hoffman spoke Monday and showed time hadn't changed his politics. Noting that college campuses these days have become "hotbeds of social rest," he asked students to think about issues around them-from rising tuition and lack'of responsiveness by the University administration to Nicaragua and impending restrictions on abortions-and to act on them. Both speakers talked before full houses and both were well received by their audiences. In addition to presen- ting fresh viewpoints-which are vital to sustain the open exchange of opinions at the University-the two speeches indicate student political concerns. Giovanni summed up her speech by saying, "I don't want to make you' mad.. I just want to make you think about what's going on." Hoffman, who never mentioned he was aware of Giovanni's visit, echoed her by saying, "The (University) administration looks at students as so much meat to be processed through...You find out about power in this society only when you challenge it." Simply having a pair of noted speakers talk about student em- powerment won't make any significant number of students suddenly become active, but it does indicate they are concerned with the issues the two raised. And that concern may even- tually give birth to active response of the sort both speakers seek. The fact that there were two politically active speakers in such a short time is a good indication of in- creased political awareness on cam- pus. Although that awareness may not translate into action, it nonetheless represents a healthy concern by students over issues that affect them. Reagan supporters are uninformed To the Daily: It is ironic that many of those who voted for Ronald Reagan are only now examining the issues of his campaign. It' certainly couldn't come as a surprise to any informed person that the Great Prevaricator would cut funding for student loans - it has always been abundantly'clear that Reagan's policy is "bombs not books." A democracy in which voters vote for a candidate with whom they don't agree on. more than half of thetissues is no democracy at all, and those hyper-patriotic pro-Reagan types would do well to examine the rationale (if they have one) behind their patriotism. Theirlack of respon- sible voting practices has en- couraged government by the uninformed, for the uninformed. One really should just let the Reagan-Bush supporters speak. for themselves. "The military build-up is more important than education" says one obviously peace-loving Reaganite quoted in the Daily "Education cuts disap- point student voters," February 13, 1985). Another from the same article who also supports Reagan says "the people who don't have the money will have to be more creative in finding the funding" for college. It has been my ex- perience that people who make statements like this are usually getting a free ride through school from Mummy and Daddy. Fur- thermore, I am curious as to some of this person's more "creative" ideas. These must be beyond 60 hour a week summer jobs - that's passe, and even so, without a Guaranteed Student Loan in addition may of us have- nots will still be slinging hash at McDonald's come Fall term. Maybe we couldraffle off a coffee resourcefulness). The people that voted for Ronald Reagan without examining the issue have no right to be upset when he "fulfills his mandate" by cutting education funding. In addition, those who have no understanding of the dif- ficulties of funding a University education should try it some time without the help of grandfather's trust fund or checks from home, before they make slurs on the initiative and creativity of those of us who must depend on GSLs and NDSLs for funding our education. If Education Secretary William Bennett would bother to becone informed, he would realize that many of us have np cars or vacations or stereos to cut out, and that by treating eduation as a luxury he and the administration he represepts once again exhibit their nauseating elitism. -Kathryn Grimes February 13 Daily neglected campus security issue To the Daily: We were distraught with your incomplete and neglectful coverage of the February 14 regents' meeting. Close to half of the public comments session in- volved speakers from the Michigan Student Assembly's i Women's Issues Committee ex- pressing their concerns about campus security problems. Your exclusion of this portion of the Regents meeting implies a belief on the behalf of the Daily that campus security is not an impor- tant issue and subsequently does not merit coverage in your paper. We decry this oversight. Moreover, it detracts from your otherwise favorable record of past coverage on this topic. We hope that in the future your reporting is more complete and inclusive of all pertinent issues. -Anne Ryan Jennifer Faigel February 15 Column used To the Daily: Jeff Bergida is an excellent sportswriter, but as a rabid Michigan basketball fan and season (soon to be NCAA tour-. nament) ticket holder, I resent Jeff's One Small Voice column reference to Computer Science majors as people who probably would not know about our victory over Iowa. This uninformed reference perpetuates the grossly mistaken image of CS majors as boring Ryan is Chairperson of MSA 's Women 's Issues Committee. Faigel is editor of the MSA News. stereotypes anemics who spend their nights poring over a terminal in the bowels of UNYN or NUBS. Those of us who know what we are doing probably spend no more time on our programming assignments than History majors do writing papers, Biologists do on labs, or Daily writers preparing stories. Please try to refrain from suc blatant categorizations in the future. -Todd C. Sherwood February 16 ^ 1 - ME CST FCR CUR UICIES K N c.ARA uA! r, c 1 Letters, articles, and editorial cartoons on the right side of this page represent the opinions of the individual author. Readers are encouraged to submit their opinions on current news articles and events. BLOOM COUNTY by Berke Breathed C~V.." dU6T ON J[MT /s~,JG.- NASA 4togs 10 MrAY )C IT I ! i m