UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
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VOL. LXIV NO. 53 MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1971 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
Inside This Issue	A
How the Daily Trojan operates	Page 2
Students rate DT	Page 2
Faculty airs gripes about DT	Page 3
We really do try harder ... editorial	Page 4
The black press ... a new consciousness	Page 4
Past editor recalls headaches of DT job	Page 4
The News Media and the Pentagon	Page 5
Photo Critique	Page 6
Controversy still surrounds Free Trojan	Page 7
Author says news media favor conservative views	Page 7
New photocomposition equipment	Page 8
Courts have all but repealed libel laws	Page 9
University studying communications school	Page 9
The college press- on road to independence	Pages 10,11
Objectivity in sports reporting hit	Page 12
A look at sportswriting on the Daily Trojan	Page 12^
The DT looks at itself and the media
The news media have recently found themselves under heavy fire on all fronts as criticism of the press has become a focal point of public discussion. From Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew to Abbie Hoffman to John Doe. average American citizen, grumblings and complaints are being heard right and left.
Criticism of the press, however, is no new phenomenon. But because in the past the media had ignored any criticism thrown their way so effectively, almost nothing adverse about the news industry was discussed.
Indeed the industry has shown itself to be reluctant to accept, let alone encourage, criticism of the press. Even self-criticism from within the ranks of the press has been mostly shunned.
The press prides itself (as it should) on the vigor with which it exposes, complains and praises on behalf of all other institutions in society, but its own inadequacies have escaped both its censure and notice.
“The real long-range menace to America's daily newspapers, in my judgment, lies in the unshatterable smugness of their publishers and editors. Of all the institutions in our inordinately complacent society, none is so addicted as the press to self-righteousness. self-satisfaction and self-congratulation." wrote A.H. Raskin in a 1967 issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine. Raskin was asking the press the reevaluate its standards and practices.
His suggestions were virtually ignored as has been the case time and time again.
The classic example was the reaction of the press to the recommendations of the Hutchins Report (Commission on Freedom of the Press) in 1947. The blue-ribbon commission studied the press for almost four years and made 13 recommendations, one of which was that “the members of the press engage in vigorous mutual criticism."
The report concluded. “If the press is to be accountable—and it must be if it is to remain free—its members must discipline one another by the only means they have available, namely, public criticism."
Most of the media responded to the Hutchins Report with either outrage, charging infringement upon the First Amendment, or by shrugging off suggestions that their product was second-rate.
Now. almost 25 years later, the first signs of progress are becoming evident. More and more people in the media are beginning to reckon with the numerous doubting comments about their performance. They can no longer afford not to. for a credibility gap undeniably separates them and the public. At least now they acknowledge that the gap is there and must be dealt with.
For example, some newspapers have assigned editors to serve as ombudsmen to investigate complaints from the public, and have appointed house critics to undertake self-analysis.
Also, the recent proposals for press councils (made up of news media personnel and representative members of the community) to make the media more democratic have received good response from some working journalists.
These are indeed good signs. For the press has a responsibility to deal with criticism just as any institution does. The press should listen to criticism, weigh and examine it and answer the critics.
Today the Daily Trojan is publishing a special edition of self-criticism and media criticism in an endeavor to meet its responsibility and to create a dialogue with its readers. This issue was inspired by two supplements published earlier this year by the Southbridge (Mass.) Evening News, entitled "A Newspaper Looks at Itself and the Press." The Evening News, as does the Daily Trojan, looks upon such editions as a form of education to its readers, a way in which a newspaper can explain its strengths and weaknesses.
As Loren Chiglione. editor and publisher of the Evening News, said. “Newspapers as institutions must decide that it is their responsibility to encourage self-criticism and make it available to their own readers. Newspapers must expose their readers to the questions, criticism, and debates about the press
RIVIAN TAYLOR