Daily Cgl Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXVI, Number 57
Los Angeles, California
Thursday, December 13, 1973
MIRROR, MIRROR—Jacque Tuntur, one of the merchants in the Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair, admires some of the wares on sale, which included
plants and hand-crafted mirrors. The fair will continue today in Alumni Park. DT photo by Paula Daniels.
TV Newscaster Claims Local News Is Tasteless
BY ELLEN NORMAN
“It is television's limited independence and lockstep- mentality that makes it a sleeping giant.” said Joseph Benti. anchorman for KNXT-news.
Benti. who hosts the 11p.m. Newsroom show, spoke to a group of Urban Semester students Wednesday in the Religious Center.
“We're always fighting a battle that is never realized by the viewer,” said the 41-year-old broadcaster. “It is difficult for me to keep my head above water, in order to keep a sentence in a news report.”
BENTI has also served as a reporter for KTLA (channel 5) and as anchorman for ABC news.
Benti said that he did not approve of reporting local
news on an “eyewitness” basis.
“There has been an appeal to ingratiate the anchorman or news team to the audience which shows absolutely no taste,” Benti said. “There should be a clear division between news and information. and ‘shucking' the customer.”
Benti said that this ingratiation shows the audience’s willingness to be had.
“THE IDEA ofthe Federal Communications Act is to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity,” he explained. “This act has been almost totally inoperative in public broadcasting during the past few years.”
Benti cited the example of the energy crisis, saying that most local news stations would not feel compelled to
do a story on it, but would leave it for network coverage.
“We want to upgrade the level of information in local commercial broadcasts and purify it,” he said. “It is my chosen task to bring a kind of network quality to local news.”
Benti did. however, stress the problems in covering a story such as the energy crisis.
“I'D HAVE to go through hell to do a story on the energy crisis,” he said. “I’d be fighting a battle that I’d give up on before I started fighting it.”
(Continued on page 10)
FILMS RAISE DOUBTS
Trustees Raise Tuition by $2 i 0
BY PETER WONG
Managing Editor
The Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to approve a tuition increase of $210 for 1974-75.
This means that full-time students next year will pay $2,910, instead ofthe current $2,700. The rate per unit will be $97. up $7.
In its action W ednesday, the board accepted the recommendation of its Finance and Budget Committee, and the resolution Dec. 3 of the University Council, President John R. Hubbard's chief advisory body.
FOLLOWING the board’s action. Hubbard said in an interview, “Wre can operate within our budget for the current fiscal year if the enrollment for the second semester meets our projections.”
Ifthe enrollment is lower than expected, he said, "we intend to effect internal economy measures.” The current budget is about $130 million.
The latest tuition increase will generate about $4.2 million in additional revenue, university projections show. Yet the estimated minimum new expenditures for 1974-75 total $8 million.
Will the university be able to get the rest of that money?
“WE CAN'T know that for certain because ofthe condition of the stock market, the energy crisis, and other economic factors that are subject to change,” Hubbard said.
Much of the board's discussion, Hubbard reported, dealt with the effects ofthe energy crisis on the university and such countermeasures as computerized car pools, reminders to turn off the lights, and schedulingclasses in central locations.
Hubbard said the university has cut its use of electricity by 11% since conservation measures were put into effect —slightly ahead ofthe cuts of 10% to 33% suggested for the city.
He also said the university was worried about the proposed regulations ofthe federal Environmental Protection Agency, which include stiff taxes on parking in urban areas.
“ALTHOUGH the EPA has temporarily backed off the parking proposals, the basic idea has not been abandoned.” Hubbard said. Like other institutions, including the University of California. USC is suing the agency to reconsider the regula -tions.
Since about 50% of the student body commutes, restrictions on parking would inevitably affect enrollment.
(Continued on page 10)
Warren Report Questioned
DOUBTFUL—Terry Fraze, a cinema graduate student, spoke yesterday on the findings of the Warren Commission, which he claimed remain doubtful. Fraze tried to destroy the appraisal of the Warren Commission through a film presentation. Fraze is currently making a documentary on the assassination of JFK. DT photo by Michael Sedano.
BY BRIAN ROBINETTE
Staff Writer
Alleged incongruities in the Warren Commission Report were examined Wednesday by a student documentary film maker who contended that the commission's findings remain a matter of reasonable doubt.
Through a multi-media presentation, Terry Fraze. a cinema graduate student, attempted to level several of the pillars upon which the commission based its appraisal of the events surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Fraze. who is currently making a documentary on the assassination and its heretofore unresolved questions, showed films and hundreds of slides as he lectured to about 300 people in Hancock Auditorium.
IN EXAMINING the lingering puzzles, Fraze displayed a more exacting and scholarly scrutiny in his criticisms of the seven-member Warren Commission than had Donald Freed a week earlier.
Freed, coauthor of Executive Action and its subsequent screenplay, told students here last week that the assassination could be traced to a secret conspiracy.
Fraze. however, told the audience that he was more concerned with the specifics of the assassination than Freed.
Through a series of slides. Fraze attempted to graphically illustrate that President Kennedy was shot first in the back, rather than the neck as the Warren Commission reported.
THE SLIDES revealed bullet holes in the President's coat and shirt indicating that
(Continued on page 10)
C DT Features^ Ski Section
The Daily Trojan features a special section on skiing today starting on Page 5.
The section serves as a guide to the slopes in Utah. Colorado and Wyoming as well as a look at the USC Ski Team and Vski Club._________________y