Disagree, but don’t leave the debate

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot

be limited without being lost.”

Thomas Jefferson

It always pains me to hear of a reader who cancels his or her

subscription to the paper because of a story they don’t agree with.

It’s not so much because I don’t believe they have a right to

spend their money as they choose, but because much like our Founding

Fathers like Thomas Jefferson, I believe deeply in the 1st Amendment

and the essential guarantees of the freedom of the press.

So I was reminded of those guarantees last week as at least two

readers called to say they canceled subscriptions because of a story

we ran on the front page on Thursday, Dec. 5, under the headline,

“Teaching peace.”

The story chronicled an anti-war demonstration at Orange Coast

College and featured prominently on the front page a photo of a woman

dressed in Middle-Eastern attire identified as Aliah Aboul-Nasr, a

member of the Free Iraq Foundation at UC Irvine.

Aboul-Nasr was quoted in the story, as were other OCC students,

making both pro and anti-war statements. The callers complained that

we had given too much publicity to the demonstrators.

“These are Muslim fanatics that are against our country and that’s

all they are,” said one caller to our Readers Hotline, who only

identified himself as Art and said he was canceling the paper.

A letter writer, who did not say she was canceling the paper, did,

however, lament the coverage also and accused us of engaging in the

same propaganda that was prevalent in the anti-Vietnam War 1960s.

“The Pilot’s over elaborate front-page presentation of the views

of an obscure Iraqi student, oddly but comfortably ensconced at UC

Irvine, brought back painful memories of the unremitting

media-sponsored blitz that brought down our troops in Vietnam and

delivered that nation and her people to communism and slavery,” wrote

Reba Williams of Newport Beach. “It was our yesterdays all over

again, and all in the name of peace and, of course, freedom of the

press. And it all serves to remind us that we can be destroyed when

those freedoms are used by our enemies as a prime weapon against us.”

I’ll skip trying to argue the myriad political reasons for the

fall of Vietnam, but I would like to make an argument for our

front-page coverage and freedom of the press.

The potential war in Iraq is undoubtedly big news.

United Nations weapons inspectors are right now searching that

country for evidence that could well escalate the United States and

many more countries into a lengthy and deadly conflagration.

Regardless of how the editors or reporters feel about this looming

war or any others, our duty should always be to make sure the other

side gets its voice heard, even when they are in the minority. If we

were to bury the OCC demonstration story on page 10, what message would that send?

News stories must meet tests of newsworthiness, like timeliness,

broad interest in the subject and uniqueness. The decision to run

this story on the front met those tests, reflected the timely nature

of the war discussion and gave this national and international issue

a local feel.

Readers may not like what local college students think about the

war, but that doesn’t mean we should decide it isn’t newsworthy. And

staging a demonstration over war is not an everyday occurrence at

OCC.

But bigger than that, the 1st Amendment guarantees of a free press

go hand in hand with such demonstrations. The second half of that

amendment warns that government may not abridge “the freedom of

speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to

assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of

grievances.”

All vehicles for the government to hear the voice of the people, a

freedom I’d like to remind our readers and the students at OCC that

does not exist in Iraq today.

Protesting against the government and against war did not start in

the 1960s, but has taken place throughout the history of our great

nation.

The Boston Tea Party, which was the first strike of our

forefathers against the tyranny of British rule, wasn’t exactly a

friendly get together.

Much later, in 1846, a young congressman from Illinois made a name

for himself by opposing the President James Polk’s intentions to go

to war with Mexico, questioning the power of the president.

That young congressman, one Abraham Lincoln, angered many with his

bold proclamations against the war. Let’s just say he got a lot of

bad press at the time. One of those he angered was his Springfield,

Ill law partner, William Herndon. Below is an excerpt of a letter

Lincoln wrote to Herndon to explain his reasoning:

“Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he

shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do

so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such

purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure,” Lincoln wrote.

“Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect,

after having given him so much as you propose. If today he should

choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the

British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him,

‘I see no probability of the British invading us’; but he will say to

you, ‘Be silent: I see it, if you don’t.’ ”

Lincoln knew then that war with all its tragedy should not be the

first remedy for a nation but the last.

Of course, that was a lesson he would all too painfully experience

firsthand in his role as president during the Civil War, which

remains today as the worst bloodletting our nation has ever seen.

As for newspapers, we must often must publish information that

makes readers uncomfortable or in which they may disagree. That’s

just part of the free marketplace of ideas, some we like, some we

don’t.

A recent case in point is happening in Mississippi, where local

newspapers are lambasting Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott for

comments he made that resurrected the old wounds of segregation and

racism.

With polls showing some 67% of Mississippians supporting Lott, the

newspapers haven’t backed down but instead forged on with their

criticism of the senator, losing many a subscription and answering

many an angry phone call.

That’s just part of life in the free speech business. But it’s no

reason to stop reading a newspaper, an essential piece of our puzzle

of liberty and freedom.

*

Last week I wrote that I had contacted a 1st Amendment lawyer in

regard to the Costa Mesa City Council’s apparent behind-the-scenes

maneuvering to appoint Karen Robinson as mayor, surprising many who

thought Gary Monahan was going to get the post.

I asked if such maneuvering could be a violation of the Ralph M.

Brown Act, the law that governs open meeting laws.

First, I want to clear up something. Robinson was elected after

Councilman Chris Steel nominated her and Councilwoman Libby Cowan

seconded the nomination. Robinson later admitted she had called Cowan

prior to the meeting to ask for her support.

Since Steel made the nomination, it all smelled of a set up.

But Robinson called me after my column ran and assured me that she

had never spoken to Steel beforehand, and in fact was shocked when he

nominated her.

Even still, for those looking for a smoking gun, it wouldn’t have

mattered anyway if Robinson would have called Steel and every member

of the council. Here’s why:

“They were not creating policy with the city per se, they were

rearranging deck chairs,” said Jim Ewert, the legal council for the

California Newspaper Publishers Assn.

Ewert said that the Brown Act does not apply to pure political

posturing.

“Anytime the Brown Act goes against the right to political

association, the Brown Act is going to lose big time,” Ewert said.

Ewert noted that if the council members were to call among

themselves to create an alignment of votes for a city policy or other

type of council action, this would clearly constitute what is known

as a serial meeting and in turn a violation of the Brown Act law.

Even if they did do something like that, it is very hard to prove,

he pointed out.

Either way, the council probably should have put the mayor

appointment up for discussion to at least give the public the

impression that their opinions matter.

Hopefully, that’s a lesson that Robinson will take with her as she

takes on the mayor post.

I’ve heard from many people who are counting on her and to do a

good job. Count this editor as another one in that camp.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. If you have complaints or

compliments on news coverage, please e-mail at

tony.dodero@latimes.com or via phone at 949-574-4258 or on the

Readers Hotline at 949-642-6086.