xt770r9m6564 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt770r9m6564/data/mets.xml The Kentucky Kernel Kentucky -- Lexington The Kentucky Kernel 2005-10-21 Earlier Titles: Idea of University of Kentucky, The State College Cadet newspapers English Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. The Kentucky Kernel The Kentucky Kernel, October 21, 2005 text The Kentucky Kernel, October 21, 2005 2005 2005-10-21 2020 true xt770r9m6564 section xt770r9m6564 Columnists address Genocide Awareness Project
in Point/Counterpoint PAGE 4
FEAWRES
Google: it's a verb that can do just about any-
thing. Like make you procrastinate PAGE 3
y Kernel
Friday, '0ctober 21. 2005
Cel
ebrating 34 years of independence
www.kykernel.com
FLOW: Court decision a ‘minor setback’
By Chris Weis
mt kniwm mm
After last Thursday’s Ken-
tucky Supreme Court ruling
against a Nov. 8 vote, supporters
of Lexington’s water-condemna-
tion referendum are looking to-
ward 2006.
Foster Pettit, Bluegrass For
Local Ownership of Water chair-
man, said the decision is only a
setback.
“We're going to continue mov-
ing toward our goal.“ he said.
Bluegrass FLOW would pursue
the vote for 2006, a regu-
lar election year. Pettit
said. Last week, the Ken-
tucky Supreme Court
said a general election
would be the time for a
referendum.
The referendum
would decide whether
voters support the con-
demnation of Kentucky-
American Water Compa-
ny, which is owned by
RWE, a multinational
utility conglomerate. Pet-
tit said.
“We strongly
object to the
being silence
voices of 26,000
by the voices of
four Supreme
Court Justices."
Richard Becker
Ul Water Democracy President state
Fayette Circuit
Court and the Ken-
tucky Court of Ap-
peals ruled this
summer that a peti-
tion begun by
FLOW and Let Us
Vote Lexington ~-
which collected
more than 26,000
signatures from ref-
erendum supporters
— should force a
vote, Pettit said.
“I think (the
Supreme
(1
Court) got it wrong." he said.
“The lower courts were right."
Coalition Against A Govern-
ment Takeover President Warren
Rogers said he was pleased with
the court's decision and that the
law was clear that there was not a
regular election in Kentucky until
2006.
Rogers said it is illegal to have
a vote on this issue at all.
“Our litigation is based on the
fact that referendums of this type
were outlawed." he said.
A Court of Appeals hearing on
the legality of the referendum
could happen early next year.
Richard Becker, president of
the UK Water Democracy Project.
said he found it odd that the
Supreme Court ruling departed
from two lower-court precedents.
“We strongly object to the voic-
es of 26,000 being silenced by the
voices of the four Supreme Court
judges," Becker said.
Becker said the ruling has
caused his organization, among
others, to shift their focus to 2006.
and to back candidates for elec-
tion to the Lexington Fayette Ur-
See Water on page 2
SWIMMING IN
2"!”
36 calls
proposal
‘power play'
Student Affairs seeks changes
to establish oversight over 56
By Sean Rose
m: KENTUCKY mm
THE GENE POOL
Student Government released a press re—
lease Tuesday condemning UK’s proposed
changes to governing regulations, calling
them “a complete lack of respect for the stu-
dents they hope to educate."
The Office of Student Affairs published a
draft of . oposed governing regulations
changes lfireek. The changes would affect
how UK an G interact and would give Pat
Terrell, the vice president of Student Affairs,
oversight on all SG’s actions.
“The university and Student Affairs have
more important issues to deal with like in-
creasing diversity of enrollment and making
campus safer for students,” the statement said.
Terrell was not available for comment last
night.
SG’s statement went on to call the pro-
posed changes “an obvious power play to gain
control of the only statutorily independent
student organization on campus."
SG President Becky Ellingsworth said
making SG less self-governing inhibits its abil-
ity to serve the students.
“The changes would take away a good deal
of the independence that 80 should have and
does right now," Ellingsworth said.
Ellingsworth said in the statement that
“every student should be united; the official
student voice should be free of administrative
oversight."
Terrell is currently collecting comments
and suggestions on the proposal. She will then
send a final draft to interim provost Scott
Smith and President Lee Todd. If they ap-
prove, the draft will go onto the Student Af-
fairs committee of the Board of Trustees.
If that committee approves the changes.
the full Board of Trustees will vote on it for fi-
nal approval. Terrell hopes to have the propos-
al approved at the Dec. 6 board meeting.
E—mail
sroseiakykernelrom
mm] srm
Daniel Farnham, senior sprinter on the UK swim team. will face his younger brother Adam for the last time in tomorrow’s meet against the University of Tennessee.
UK swimmer faces brother
for the final time tomorrow
By Jenisha Watts ’
THE KENTUCKY KERNEL
Daniel Farnham said.
Daniel Farnham began
swimming in summer and year-
round leagues at age 7 in Rome.
Ga. Two years later, Adam
Farnham turned 7 and started
swimming competitively as
well. They soon found them-
selves facing off in the same
races.
“I’ve trained with him my
whole life," Daniel Farnham
said. “(1) grew up swimming
against him."
Tomorrow’s meet will be no
different for the brothers.
See Swim on page 2
“Most boys in
sports have been
competitive, but
(these two)
encourage each
other."
Daniel Farnham and UT sopho-
more Adam Farnham w two
brothers, two rival swim teams.
Farnham explained that her
sons chose different schools so
they could stand out as individ-
uals.
Barbara and her husband
Tim don’t play favorites.
“Mom and Dad, they split
their love down the middle,"
Barbara Farnham’s alter-
nate screams of “Go, Daniel!"
and “Go, Adam!” at tomorrow’s
swim meet against the Univer-
sity of Tennessee are certain to
echo in the ears of nearby fans.
Farnham is the mother of
the All-American UK senior
Barbara Farnham
Mother of mi swimmer Daniel
Tarnham and UT swimmer Adam Farnham,
on their lack of sibling rivalry
BAS Kli’I‘BAlJ. MEDIA DAY
Floridians
brace for
Wilma’s wrath
Smith takes press
on carnival ride at
hoops media day
Tubby Smith was a little more jubilant
for his media day press conference yester-
day.
He had just fed the chickens.
“I mean, really, that’s what we were do-
ing," the UK head basketball coach said,
drawing laughs from the media. He was 15
minutes late -— on a picnic to a chicken
farm with UK's agriculture department —
to what was obviously the best part of the
basketball season.
[OS ANGELS TIKS
MIAMI As Hurricane Wilma slowly bore
down on the Yucatan with the power to wreak
havoc on one of Mexico‘s top tourist destina—
tions. far to the east, in Florida, officials and res-
idents began getting ready for the storm‘s poten-
tially destructive arrival in their state yesterday
“Right now, we‘re telling our folks to be pre
pared" said Sherry Montgomery; a government
spokeswoman in Charlotte County, home to
150.000 year-round residents on Florida's south-
western coast.
As Wilma. with sustained winds of near 150
mph, blew toward an expected landfall in the
Yucatan peninsula later today, though. it re
mained something of a meteorological enigma:
its future intensity and course ~~~ and the risk it
posed for Florida ~— diffith to predict.
Much. said weather experts. was riding on
what happened over the next 48 hours.
“A lot depends on how long Wilma spends
over the Yucatan. today and Saturday morning."
said Ben Nelson. Florida‘s state meteorologist.
“Whenever you have a storm sitting over land.
it’s gomg to decrease in intensity"
Nelson said he and many other Floridians
would spend what he deemed “an agonizing
Seellil'rlcaieonpagez
“It's my favorite
thing to do," Smith said.
with a hint of sarcasm.
A more visibly re-
laxed Smith than recent
media days fielded ques-
tions in Memorial Coli-
seum yesterday about
everything from the eli-
gibility status of sopho-
more center Randolph
Morris to how he spent
his summer.
But what else was he
going to talk about?
Aside from being a carnival for the
press, media day is a sort of Christmas
morning for sports writers.
There are a lot of presents to be un-
mummuulmquentlmzscents.
I
aura-m | srm
Junior center Shagari Alleyne speaks with the media during men's basketball media day yesterday in
Memorial Coliseum.
NBA and went undrafted.
Instead he laughed about the British
Open and Tiger Woods.
“Do I know Tiger?" Smith said rhetori-
call’y. “The question is. does Tiger know
me."
Since beating Woods' alma mater Stan-
See Poore on page 2
Derek
Poore
SPORTS tDlTok
wrapped. We have plenty of access to the
coaches and players. But sometimes
there‘s a little disappointment when we
don't quite get that gift we wanted.“
Usually tolerant of the media. this
time Smith delivered. He was jovial. He
seemed to not worry about Morris or how
to replace departed senior Chuck Hayes or
Kelenna Azubuike. who bolted for the
Pass 2 | Friday, Oct. 21. 2005
Water
Continued from page l
ban County Council election who sup-
port local ownership of water.
In March. council members voted
to stop action for the condemnation of
Kentucky~American.
“The city council members will do
what they feel is right but the people
of Lexington should be able to over-
ride them." said Mike Richardson.
vice-president of the UK College De-
mocrats.
Richardson pointed to the vote as
a way for the people of Lexington to
speak directly on the issue. even if
they are against condemnation as. he
said. some of the petition-signers
were.
Brent Burchett, president of the
UK College Republicans. agreed with
the Supreme Court decision, saying a
year will provide time for discussion
and will allow people to learn more
about the issue.
“Whatever the outcome may be, at
least it will be representative of the
population of Lexington," he said.
Kentuckians For the Common-
wealth. in conjunction with FLOW. is
planning to mark Nov. 8 with a
demonstration that includes a sym-
bolic protest vote and a rally
Richardson also pointed to the
questionable service of RWE as a rea-
son for pushing for a municipally
owned water company
“It's very important to keep the
quality and service of basic utilities,
like water. to a high standard.” he
said.
Pettit said there is a real concern
among residents about water becom-
ing an international commodity run
by people who may not have the best
interests of the community in mind.
“Control of our water could be in
the hands of people throughout the
world who are not concerned with us.
but who are concerned with their
shareholders," Pettit said.
Burchett said local~ownership ad-
vocates have enumerated problems
with RWE that have not been evident
in the water company's service.
“They haven't made a case that
Kentucky-American Water Company
has not done their job," he said.
E—mail
newsttckykernelcom
Swim
Continued from page I
“It’s not weird." Daniel Farnham
said.
Adam Farnham said he‘s looking
forward to the match.
“(It's) a good chance to compete,“ he
said.
Barbara Farnham echoes the casual
manner in which her sons approach the
so-called rivalry
“They (have) always been their best
competitors." she said.
The two brothers even deny any
hints of sibling rivalry
“Growing up, we didn’t trash-talk
(each other),“ Daniel Farnham said.
adding that kind of attitude was a
“healthy situation to grow up in.”
“Most boys in sports have been
competitive." Barbara Farnham said,
“but they encourage each other"
Each has always been the other‘s
support system. A rigorous practice
schedule. in which a leyear-old Daniel
Farnham and 14-year-old Adam Farn-
ham made the hour‘s drive to swim
practice in Atlanta five days a week.
helped the two grow closer.
“They help each other to do their
best," Barbara Farnham said.
During last year’s UK-UT meet, Ten~
nessee won by three points, though
Daniel Farnham placed first in the 50-
yard and loo-yard freestyle events.
It was a sad game for Barbara. who
said she would’ve liked to see UK win
against Tennessee. which has a histori-
cally solid swim team.
For Daniel Farnham. it was a tough
loss.
“(It was) very heart-breaking." he
said. “Hard to take.“
Still, he puts last year’s competition
in perspective.
“(We had) two equally matched
teams." he said. “One was just slightly
better"
After the meet. Adam Farnham did-
n't gloat to his brother about UT‘s win.
“(1) didn’t say anything when we
won last year h didn‘t need to.“ he said.
Tomorrow. Barbara Farnham will
be rooting for both her boys during
their last college competition.
“I will be behind them all the time."
she said. “(and) I’ll miss them swim-
ming against each other.“
E-mail jwattsra kykernelcom
UK vs. Tennessee
When: 1 pm. tomorrow
Where: Lancaster Aquatic
Center, South Campus
How much: Free
Daniel Famham:
Season by Season Highlights
2002*03
Earned honorable mention All-America
honors
Helped set new Kentucky records in 200-
yard and 400-yard medley relays
Won the loo-yard freestyle event against
Georgia, Missouri, LSU and Cincinnati
{e N?
maria-"i
Earned honorable mention All-America honors
in the 200-, 400- and 800-yard freestyle relays
Broke UK's loo-yard freestyle record at the
SEC Championships,
Won the loo-yard freestyle event against Indi-
ana, South Carolina, Cincinnati, lndian River and
Ball State
was
0.-
Earned All-America honors in the 200-, 400-
and BOO-yard freestyle relays and honorable-men-
tion All-America selections in the 50- and too-yard
freestyle
Set new school records in the loo-yard
freestyle. the 200-. 400- and BOO-yard freestyle
relays and the 400-yard medley relay
Won the loo-yard freestyle against Michigan
State, Tennessee, Indiana, Southwest Missouri State,
Louisville. Cincinnati and the Indiana Invitational
Poore
Continued from page i
ford in the 1998 Final Four.
Smith laughed and said he
and Woods have long been
pen pals.
I doubt it.
Smith said he was a
mere 20 yards away when
golf legend Jack Nicklaus
strolled across the Swilcan
Bridge on the 18th hole at St.
Andrews. ,
Then. after we were all
warned to turn off our cell
phones. Smith started strug-
gling with something in his
pocket.
His phone was going off.
“That was my wife." he
said. after taking his phone
out. hanging it up and stuff
ing it back into the pocket of
his UK-blue running pants.
“She's not going to like
that.“
Everyone laughed.
When it rang again.
Smith tossed it to UK Athlet-
ics spokesman Scott Strick-
lim who fielded the call in
the hallway
“Tell her I'm with
confident. He‘s got the best
backcourt in America.
“I do?" Smith said. puz-
zled. when someone asked
what he thought about the
UK basketball media guide
naming senior Patrick
Sparks and sophomore Ra-
jon Rondo the best guard
tandem in the nation. He
paused to flip through the
book. “Maybe I need to start
proofreading these things."
Rondo didn‘t quarrel
with it though.
“Pat (Sparks) can shoot
the lights out. and I can de-
fend well and take the ball to
the hole." Rondo said later.
Nope. Rondo didn‘t quar-
rel with it one bit.
Jokes and vacation tales
aside. Smith did say he fully
expected Morris to be back
this season. With ridiculous
depth and an even speedier
team than last year. no me»
dia circus could ruin his
mood.
Looks like he‘ll be hav-
ing a party after all.
Sports Editor Derek
Poore is a journalism senior:
He can be heard Sunday
friends!" Smith yelled. nightsfrom 8 to 10 and
Wednesdays at 4 pm. on
The party this year is WRFL 88.
Smith‘s. He's relaxed and dpoorerakykernel.com.
“We're having a party."
Hurricane
Continued from page I
weekend" monitoring Wilma‘s progress.
As of yesterday. forecasters at the Nation-
al Hurricane Center were predicting
Wilma might reach Florida late Sunday
or early Monday anywhere along a bmad
swath of its western shoreline. from the
northern Gulf Coast to the Florida Keys.
“There are all kinds of possibilities ~
not many of them good." said Greg Art-
man. an emergency operations official in
the Keys.
In Mexico. officials feared that if
Wilma continued on its northwesterly
tack, it could sweep along the east coast of
the Yucatan peninsula. A direct hit there
could be a “tremendous disaster.“ said
Jaime Albaran. a meteorologist and
spokesman for Mexico‘s national weather
service. “This is a very. very powerful
As Wilma. whose forward motion
slowed yesterday to 6 mph. got nearer.
Cancun Mayor Francisco Alor announced
the evacuation of the city’s hotel district.
According to Mexican media, about 30.000
Wists had left.
0
1 FM. E-mail
Sophomore center Ran-
dolph Morris goes up ,
for a shot during prac-
tice yesterday at
Memorial Coliseum.
Prior to practice, UK
held its annual men's
basketball media day
yesterday. Head coach
Tubby Smith gave a
one-hour interview fol-
lowed by a tour of play-
ers by the press.
Morris, the sophomore
. center who declared
for the NBA draft last
spring and went
' undrafted, has been
practicing with the
team and will be
allowed to play in Sat-
. urday's Blue-White
_' scrimmage in Memorial
" Coliseum. He has not
yet been cleared to
play in games. Tip-off is
set for 2 pm.
UK's first exhibition
game is Nov. 2 against
Northern (5.0.) State
and the Cats open the
regular season Nov. 13
against South Dakota
State.
mun“
sun
Felix Gonzalez Canto. governor of
Quintana Roo province, which includes
Cancun. told reporters that police and
government workers were going door to
door to make sure people with tin roofs
and wooden walls had evacuated.
For Florida. Nelson said. the worst-
case scenario would be the hurricane re-
maining over water as it crossed the Yu-
catan Channel that links the Caribbean
Sea with the Gulf of Mexico. “That would
allow it to enter the Gulf as a Category 4
hurricane.“ he said.
And the ideal?
“We’re not wishing any harm on the
tourist areas of the Yucatan," said Nel-
son. “But the best scenario for Florida is
that the storm stall over the Yucatan for a
day or two. "
Authorities in Florida were concerned
especially about the potential for large-
scale storm surge of the kind stirred up
by Hurricane Katrina. which leveled
much of the Mississippi Gulf coast. If
Wilma is still a Category 4 hurricane
when it reaches the Gulf. it could raise
ocean levels by 1015 feet Nelson said. The
Florida Keys and southwestern Florida
coast. both low-lying areas. could be
swamped. he said.
On Saturday, forecasters at the Nation-
al Hurricane Center said. the hurricane
should veer toward the northeast and
C
pick up speed as a low-pressure trough
forming over the central United States
starts to influence its track. It could reach
Florida as anywhere from a Category 1 to
Category 3 hurricane. with a tremendous
difference in its capacity to inflict dam-
age. they said.
At first, authorities in the Keys or-
dered all 70.000 permanent residents of
the island chain to leave, but postponed
the evacuation as Wilma's motion slowed.
Stung by charges of incompetence
and neglect in its response to two earlier
hurricanes this year. Katrina and Rita. of-
ficials of the Federal Emergency ManageL
ment Agency said they were doing every-
thing they could to help Florida get ready
for its eighth hurricane since August 2004.
FEMA announced Thursday that it
had assembled 150 truckloads of water
and ice, and 30 more of food, to distribute
to hurricane victims. Four urban search
and rescue task forces and nine disaster
medical teams were prepositioned in the
“hazard" area. FEMA said.
Florida‘s governor. Jeb Bush, signed
an order proclaiming a state of emer-
gency as part of preparations. By Friday
a state spokesman said. 1.600 soldiers in
the Florida National Guard should be as-
sembled at their armories and ready for
deployment to hurricaneaffected areas to
dole out supplies and help keep order.
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Send us your rants and we'll let
everyone else know how you truly feel!
Email sports@kykernel.com
POKER TOURNAMENT
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Friday
Oct. 21. 2005
PAGE 3
Features
Doug Scott
Features Editor
Phone: 257-1915
E-mail: dscottOkykernel.1:om
V ore than jut
. .
.2 ,4; r
engine if you look under the hood
No company has taken root in our
daily lives quite like Google.
Think about it — when you need to
find something, you
Google it. You don't
Amazon.com. Mi-
crosoft. or Wal-Mart
things (normally).
But Google is much
more than just a
search engine these
days. It’s searching,
shopping. e-mail.
blogging and so much
more. Here are some
features of Google
that you may or may
not have known about.
Google Calculator
This is. in my opinion. one of
Google‘s coolest features. If you need a
quick calculation done. just enter it in to
the Google search box. and out comes
the answer. Try it! Google “2020“ and
Google instantly tells you the answer is
1,048,576. That‘s not all! Try searching
for “150 miles in kilometers” and Google
will convert it into the proper units for
you! Douglas Adams fans can rejoice too
— search for “the answer to life, the uni-
verse, and everything," and you’ll get
your answer.
Roger
Elli
TICH COLUMNIST
GMail (http://www.gmail.com)
The first e-mail service to offer one
gigabyte of storage for free, and is now
the first e-mail service to offer a con-
stantly increasing amount of storage
(over 2650 MB as of now) for free. GMail
is by invitation only. but there are plenty
of people who have GMail invitations
handy Ask around, and you‘ll probably
end up with an account.
Froogle (httpz/ /www.froogle.com)
A pun on the word “frugal," this
Google service lets you shop around on
the Internet using the familiar Google
interface. Simply enter in what you're
looking for. and Google will work its
magic and spit out a list of prices at
stores all across the Internet.
Google Scholar
(http://scholangoogle.com)
Need some sources to pad your bibli-
ography? Google Scholar has your an-
swer. This Google service searches all of
academia for papers related to your
search topic. Google Scholar shows the
abstracts. but from the UK campus, you
can gain access to many full-text arti-
cles. should you desire to do more read-
ing.
Google SMS
(http://sms.google.com/)
If you need to Google on the go. then
you can use this on your cell phone.
Send a text message to 46645 (spells
GOOGL) with your search. and you‘ll get
a few results back. If you need to find
pizza around town, you can text "pizza
lexington ky", and in a few seconds you
will get one or more text messages with
information about some local pizza
joints. You can also get weather on the
go (try searching for “weather 40526").
and even driving directions (try search-
ing for “lexington ky to Cincinnati oh”).
Google Earth
(http://earth.google.com)
CNN. ABC. NBC and FOX News all
have to pay oodles of money for this pro-
gram. but it’s free for us! You‘ve proba-
bly seen this program in use on the news
at some point. whether to show the path
of the space shuttle on re-entry or to
show where attacks happen in Iraq. This
program basically lets you explore the
world with clicks of your mouse. Google
Earth combines satellite imagery with
fancy 3-D graphics. allowing you to tilt.
pan. zoom and fly around the world in
detail you thought was only available to
the military
In addition to these cool features.
Google also has photo organizer soft-
ware. desktop search software. a weblog
community (Blogger) and much more
stuff. Google has found their way into
the heart of this geek. Try it for yourself
and you might grow to love Google too!
E-mail
featuresm/kykernelcom
Journalist's dilemma: soul versus style in pursuit 'of a story
By Patrick Goldstein
Los ANGELES TIMES
For a journalist. it's surely a guilty
pleasure to see a movie about someone
who commits himself wholeheartedly to
the pursuit of a story with no thought
for the consequences.
As portrayed by Philip Seymour
Hoffman in the movie “Capote." the New
Yorker's Truman Capote was just as cun-
ning and exploitative as any marauding
paparazzi in the course of reporting “In
Cold Blood." his mesmerizing account of
the brutal murder of the Clutter family
of Holcomb. Kan.
The man whose book influenced a
generation of young journalists was a
master of the black art of doing any-
thing to get a story -- lying and flattering.
deceiving and dissembling nearly every
step of the way. When he couldn't get ac-
cess to Perry Smith and Dick Hickock,
the two imprisoned killers. Capote hand-
ed the prison warden a $10,000 bribe. He
wooed Smith relentlessly, bringing him
Henry David Thoreau to read in jail. He
helped the suspects get a new lawyer so
they'd stay alive long enough for him to
complete his interviews. And why not,
Capote reasoned. As he breathlessly tells
his pal Harper Lee after an early meeting
with Smith: “He's a gold mine!”
Of course, if you prefer a journalistic
hero cast as a white knight instead of a
wily charmer, look no further than
“Good Night, and Good Luck." Directed
and co-written by George Clooney. it
chronicles a climactic battle between
CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and
Red Scare-era demagogue Sen. Joseph
McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin.
At a time when most journalists are por-
trayed in TV and film as gushy light-
weights ~ many deservedly so -- it's quite
a jolt to see someone act like a real hero.
Played impeccably by David Strathairn.
the laconic. chain-smoking Murrow is
uncompromising and incorruptible.
This pair of artful portraits of two
worldclass journalists couldn't come at a
better time. As you may have heard.
morale at newspapers and TV news divi-
sions is at a low ebb, thanks to circula-
tion drops. low ratings and a string of
layoffs. As cable news grows more influ-
ential each day. network news is scram-
bling to reinvent itself and hold on to its
aging audience. The sense of turmoil is
equally apparent in print journalism.
With circulation down and costs up.
newspapers are in the midst of a wave of
soul-searching as they grapple with how
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to compete with the lightning speed and
breezy informality of Internet news
sources.
It's nice to have these Hollywood re-
minders that journalists once pursued
greamess. not just ratings and ad linage.
One of our biggest challenges these days
is facing up to our low standing in public
opinion. That's where movies come in --
almost since their inception. they've
been a reliable barometer of the nation's
attitude toward journalists. In the years
before the US. entered World War II. in
such films as “It Happened One Night"
and “His Girl Friday." newspapermen
were wisecracking workingclass heroes.
in the racket for the scoop, not the mon-
ey. By the 1950s. the portrait was less ro-
mantic. ranging from the bitingly cyni-
cal “Ace in the Hole" to “Sweet Smell of
Success." a damning portrait of abuse of
power. with Burt Lancaster as a Broad-
way columnist who demolishes everyone
in his path.
After Watergate, our crusading im-
age flickered back to life, thanks to “All
the President's Men” and “The China
Syndrome." but by the 1980s. as in
“Broadcast News." critiques of hollow
careerism were in vogue again. In recent
years, the movies are largely focused on
journalistic excess and ineptitude. from
the portrayal of plagiarist Stephen Glass
in “Shattered Glass” to a variety of TV
news buf‘foons. like the one Jim Carrey
plays in “Bruce Almighty."
There's a good reason Clooney had a
hard time finding anyone to finance
“Good Night. and Good Luck.“ Murrow's
rectitude is out of sync with today's cyni-
cal attitude about news-gathering. If you
asked young moviegoers to cite a typical
let-century journalist. they'd probably
point to the doeeyed young Vanity Fair-
style scribe played by Alison Lohman in
“Where the Truth Lies." which opened
this weekend. Lohman is uncovering a
murder mystery about a 19503 showbiz
team -- think Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis -- whose career is derailed when a
beautiful blonde turns up dead in their
hotel suite. Her investigatory methods
include doing drugs and posing as a
schoolteacher. It‘s probably fortunate
that Murrow and Capote died young.
Murrow of lung cancer. Capote of booze
and pills. They would've had precious lit-
tle good to say about their heirs. especial-
ly the ones so enamored of glitz and
celebrity. Esquire magazine. once the
hallowed home of Norman Mailer.
Michael Herr and Gay Talese. is now
crammed with fashion advisories. While
Capote is guilty of all sorts of unscrupu-
lous behavior in getting his story. once
he put pen to paper, he left the stage. a1-
lowing his characters to have the spot-
light to themselves. What makes “In Cold
Blood" so sobering. now that the movie
has allowed us to see its author at work.
is that it undermines many of our bro-
mides about good journalism. Though a
pivotal work of reporting. it is also a fas-
cinating test of our eternal “do the ends
justify the means" debate: Do you judge a
writer by his brilliant work or by the de-
ception that went into creating it?
As Joan Didion warned three
decades ago. “Writers are always selling
somebody out." They are usually selling
a point of view too. “Capote" and “Good
Night, and Good Luck“ demonstrate how
little the hallowed journalistic notion of
objectivity applies to their central char-
acters' work. Battling McCarthy. Murrow
is clearly a partisan voice, willing to risk
his reputation -- and his job -- by taking
up the cause of a man who was kicked
out of the Air Force for supposed com-
munist ties.
If Murrow comes off as more ad-
mirable than Capote. his righteousness
trumping Truman's narcissism. it's be-
cause we see that while Capote's work
took a huge emotional toll -- he never fin-
ished another book after “In Cold Blood"
-- Murrow‘s courage was in support of a
greater cause. our freedom of speech.
Standing up to a bully always earns big-
ger applause than empathizing with a
killer.
Still. it is Capote who turned out to
have the larger influence on modernday
journalism. Murrow‘s quiet authority is
completely out of fashion in a TV news
world that has become a carnival of
noisy attention-seekers. And too many of
today's writers seem to have learned the
wrong lessons from Capote. soaking up
the reporter-as-celebrity persona of his
later years rather than studying his ex-
acting. imperturbable prose. The seduc-
tion of his subjects was only one of
Capote's many gifts. but today it is often
the raison d'etre of celebrity journalism.
When I asked “Capote" director Ben-
nett Miller if he was worried that the
film made Capote appear too unsympa-
thetic. he answered. "The truth is that
good people do horrible things and terri-
ble people can be surprisingly kind. The
tragic thing is that Capote didn't just be-
tray Perry Smith. he betrayed himself."
The same thing goes for journalists
today. It's not our subjects I’m worried
about. it's our souls.
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