Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 25

A Thursday January 22 1998 Star-Telegram Section Page 11 Kneelariift news The end of a life devoted to improving TV journalism Cecil Johnson Cloning: killing the mystery of humanity One could tell the thousands of people who have become alarmed at the prospect of human cloning and the politicians responding to their concerns with panic-driven bursts of legislation that they have no real reason to worry But one would be lying The physicist who has asserted his intent to make man cannot be dismissed as just another ego-inflamed researcher screeching "Eureka!" He can probably do it And because he can he thinks he possesses the inviolable right to do it Molly Ivins want to establish a culture where information and ideas come from the ground up and then get acted on I wanted our newsroom to be a democracy" She instituted a system of team decision-making that is nothing short of remarkable Do you wonder that the people who worked for her loved her? Her emphasis on training both reporters and producers has made a KVUE credential on a resume pure gold The only other TV journalist in Kneeland's class in Texas is the legendary Marty Haag of WFAAChannel 8 in Dallas Kneeland was WFAA's Capitol bureau chief for 10 years Haag himself said: "Once I was asked to name the best journalism schools in the country Well I said one certainly has to include Carole Kneeland University in the top five That was not a flippant answer I meant it Few leaders have left such an indelible mark on young journalists" Kneeland had two strikes against her when she started in journalism: She was real short (5-foot-l) and real cute (just as pretty as speckled pup) People who used to see her on television in Houston Corpus Christi or Dallas were apt to assume at first that she got her job by being so good-looking Blonde and airhead are practically synonymous when it comes to TV reporters Kneeland was so good-looking in fact that she once competed in the Washington state Miss America Pageant and won Miss Congeniality about which her friends teased her for years But she also graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Washington Her entire professional career was in Texas where she soon became a genuinely legendary reporter Ask former Gov Bill Clements if Kneeland was a cream puff Her questioning of him at news conferences was like watching a great matador take on a bull people used to come from all over the Capitol just to watch In a famous performance in 1987 she was so persistent that she got Clements to admit his role in paying off athletes at Southern Methodist University on camera Kneeland also recorded former Agriculture Commissioner Reagan Brown sticking his arm into a fire ant mound for her camera footage that helped convince the people of Texas that the man was too dumb to hold office And when Brown denied reports that he had referred to Booker Washington as that "great black nigger" guess who had film of him doing just that? Kneeland and her camerawoman Paula McCarter were an awesome political reporting team The tiny Kneeland and the taller McCarter who was twice pregnant in those years would wade into the worst media scrums without flinching and they always wound up within camera-shot of the source On election nights during those long waits while returns trickled in Kneeland could go on camera and "fill" flawlessly off the top of her head with pertinent information about the candidates the race and the voters She was the best To note that Kneeland was smart pretty and just a darling still doesn't begin to convey what a delightful human being she is "Oh Carole you're so together" her friends used to tease her in chorus Of course she was just as subject to the occasional foul-up as anyone else and no one enjoyed telling those stories more than Kneeland One much-relished tale involved the time Kneeland showed up late for a news conference She flew up to the source a dignified advertising director scrabbling in her purse for notebook and pen and apologizing simultaneously She located the pen and as she kept talking and searching for her notebook she noticed a very odd expression on the man's face as he focused on the hand waving the pen She had pulled out not a pen but a tampon Neither of them actually died of embarrassment but it was a close-run thing Kneeland has fought valiantly against breast cancer for eight years and now it is almost over She is 49 Her wonderful parents Lorraine and Sandy Kent are with her as is her husband Dave McNeely political columnist for the Austin American-Statesman The Carole Kneeland Endowment for Television Journalism is being established to carry on Kneeland's work in making TV news a better and more significant resource in people's lives The address is 1907 North Lamar Austin TX 78705 Molly Ivins is a columnist tor the Star-Telegram Her e-mail address is: mollyivins star-telegramcom pregnancies in conflict with the right of fetuses to become babies teens and adults Against those who can see only the woman's right to control her body most of us see a legitimate contest between mother and child The pre-Roe days in which many women suffered or died at the hands of illegal abortionists should be deplored as should the clinic bombings and the several murders of abortionists in recent years But what about the uncomfortably large number of women who have been mutilated and even killed by legal abortionists not to mention the estimated 35 million whose lives have been destroyed in the past 25 years for the perceived needs of their mothers? Some commentators have chided Republicans who wanted to impose the "litmus test" of opposition to partial-birth abortion on party candidates but they fail to criticize President Clinton's extreme promise to appoint as federal judges only candidates who support unlimited abortion on demand Although I am pro-life on this silver anniversary of Roe vs Wade I challenge pro-choice partisans to join me in proposing that we use the division detailed in that decision (without its verbal escape clause permitting abortions until birth): Favor the woman's right to choose during the first few weeks but allow protection of fetal life during the final months of pregnancy Any takers? Don Erler of Hurst is president of General Building Maintenance in Fort Worth You can write him at 3201 Airport Freeway Suite 108 Bedford TX 76021 AUSTIN -Carole Kneeland the finest television journalist in Texas and easily one of the best of her generation is dying a matter of days at most Although this is heartbreaking for all who know and love her to the wider world she leaves a legacy that stands in proud defiance of all the cheap easy cynicism about what is the most easily dismissed of all forms of journalism: local TV news "If it bleeds it leads" is supposed to be the motto of local TV news Kneeland who had been a superb TV reporter took over as news director at KVUEChannel 24 in Austin nine years ago and she led the station to rethink its definition of news Coverage of crime dropped dramatically as Kneeland insisted that her reporters find news that impacted people's lives rather than just titillating them And KVUE's gradually became the top-rated news program in Austin To make quality journalism a ratings hit is something that many people even those in TV journalism believe is impossible But Kneeland did it for nine years winning innumerable awards and national recognition along the way At KVUE crime stories have to meet the following criteria: Is there an immediate threat to public safety? Is there a threat to children? Do viewers need to take action? Is there a significant community impact? Is it a crime prevention effort? Although deliberately de-emphasizing crime coverage was Kneeland's best-known innovation there were other important contributions as well She introduced "truth tests" for political advertising taking political ads and "deconstructing" them on the air for accuracy Because so much of the impact of political ads lies in clever use of video footage seeing these ads analyzed on TV enables viewers to see how they are being manipulated more effectively than print analysis can Other stations and newspapers around the country copied KVUE's "truth tests" and they are now a standard part of election coverage As a newsroom manager Kneeland introduced ideas and procedures that were almost revolutionary in the business In a recent interview with the Poynter Institute for Media Studies she said: "I had observed managers who weren't as in touch with people in the field as they could be I knew I wanted to bring grass roots out-in-the-field iMnking into the newsroom I attacked two things when I first arrived at KVUE: logistics and the bigger picture the newsroom culture That push for fairness made me Take another Twenty-five years ago yesterday all 50 states had moderate abortion laws That is although availability of abortion varied significantly from state to state none adopted the extreme position of either permitting or prohibiting all decisions to terminate pregnancy But 25 years ago today the Supreme Court changed all that Roe vs Wade removed abortion from the moderating influence of democratic control substituting one of the extremes as the unified law of our land The decision read more like a legislative statute than a legal opinion It seemed to divide pregnancy into three parts permitting all abortions during the first trimester but allowing state-imposed restrictions (and even proscription) as the baby neared birth But a legal "escape clause" permitted a woman and her doctor to terminate her pregnancy whenever they deemed it advisable making a mockery of the apparent moderation of the opinion's careful division of the gestation cycle Of course many feminists see the decision as eminently reasonable a simple matter of a woman's constitutional right to do what she wants with her body Columnist Molly Ivins recently recalled that "we cried and thanked God" when the decision was announced because we "thought that the ruling was as important to us as the Civil Rights Act to black people" Perhaps it was But the pro-choice arguments were as different from the civil-rights rationale as chalk is from cheese The 13th 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution freed the slaves them Cal Thomas Netanyahu's talk of conviction The latest round of talks between -Israeli Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu and members of the Clinton administration produced nothing new because the president and his top advisers continue to rely on an unfair outdated and one-sided formula: Only i i a 1 1 wnat israei aoes aiiects me peace State Madeleine Albright and other administration officials tried to pressure Netanyahu into relinquishing more land TT A il 1 AJ1 'i- lasser raiai raiesunian auuiui -uy without any reciprocal action by Arafat who has failed to live up to agreements he's already made to end terrorism and repeal the Palestinian Covenant calling for Israel's destruction The Clinton formula (and the Bush administration's before) is the modern equivalent of giving land to Adolf Hitler in hopes that he wouldn't make war It didn work then and it won work now XT a 11 ll 1 1il 1 1 3J11 li 1 1 UI1U 111C LLlUli CUUIVUEUI 11V -J did make an offer to relinquish a small percentage of land Qess than the double-dieit percentage Clinton reportedly wanted but more than the 3 percent ouiiic ji itpui to cuiu iiMuijuiiu i uni iitit in i cruu uin run irruiuiMr givj iuiuvi tl uu another square inch until Arafat starts making good on his promises Netanyahu seemed to be suggesting that a stalemate between Israel and her Palestinian and Arab neighbors may not necessarily be bad Noting an analogy with the often tense but "peaceful" relationship that the United states had with tVip fnrmpr Snvipt Union the nrime minister told me: "You achieved it because you were wise enough to understand that a peace opposite a nondemocratic entity must be a peace based on vour strength and that if vou sacrifice vour strength in the course of negotiating and then talked with the Soviet Union you would have no peace at all We're prepared to negotiate with the Palestinians We're prepared to make certain moves difficult moves We're not prepared to weaken ourselves We're not prepared to jeopardize our security That will neither serve the cause of peace nor the cause of Israel's future" A a rnrvrl qq -Viq ATcf 'c preoccupation with the formula that only what Israel does affects the "peace process" is the lingering attitude that people who do bad things can be encouraeed to do eood thines if onlv i shown the way (a philosophy thoroughly discredited in the case of the Soviet Union) People who accept this doctrine think that a visit to Washington's Holocaust Museum will somehow penetrate Arafat's stone heart and "convert" him Trouble is Arafat has a lot of Jewish blood on his hands and is not likely to share in the lamentations Each time Israel turns over land Arafat expands the Palestine Liberation Organization police many times beyond limits to which he had agreed as part of the hand-over arrangements Now Arafat is threatening Israel with new acts of violence unless his surrender terms are accepted Netanyahu reacted: "What kind of peace is that? If he says Unless you succumb to my diktat we will have another round of terror and violence' this is not a Deace strategy this is a coercion and extortion strategy We of course will not be impressed by that It is important to understand that Israel is the party that brings stability democracy human rights a real affiliation with the United States and its values in the Middle East We have a right to demand as you do that signed contracts are kept You demanded compliance from the Soviet Union We demand compliance from the Palestinian Authority And we're absolutely right to do so" Some will call that statement hard- lit- Tf cAiinlc TYifMa IiVa fV-t -iftinn onrl ilt tJVUAlVL- llVrl Ull 11VI11 11IA principle something Washington thinks is negotiable but which Israel knows is paramount since its very existence is at stake Cal Thomas' column is distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate You may write him in care of the syndicate 218 Spring St Los Angeles CA90012Z Moreover he is not alone either in having that capability or in believing that the advancement of scientific knowledge demands that he demonstrate it Sooner or later then it's likely to happen No matter what obstacles government imposes to prevent human cloning the Dr Frankensteins of this age will openly or in concealment pursue their quest to transcend the natural process of reproduction Some almost certainly will succeed The challenge confronting the human community must be to prevent them from substantially superseding both ordinary reproduction and the laboratory embellishments of it It is not a hysterical reaction to suggest that unrestrained human cloning and the moral acceptance of the practice could lead to the utter devaluation of the individual human being And that could open the door to all manner of depravity exploitation repression and degradation or even the ultimate destruction of the species Most people in this world even most of those who profess atheism operate on the fundamental assumption that God (by whatever name he is called by adherents to various faiths) created original man and continues to participate in the propagation of the species From the involvement of the godhead in the reproductive process the soul is assumed to come And it is the soul that gives each human being his or her special value It is the impenetrable mystery that is at the core of every human being that gives human life in general its being One wonders if the clonists presume that they also can replicate the soul Or must they deny its existence? In that case they would produce beings of no intrinsic value mere machines made of flesh and bone What cause then would restrain powerful people or companies or organizations or governments from putting creatures of no special value to any uses that serve their ends? The temptation to eliminate the randomness from human selection to create physically perfect specimens and to custom-design people to fit society's economic social and cultural roles could become irresistible Earlier in this century some madmen seized control of one of the world's most advanced nations Some of them had visions of such genetic engineering One shudders to think what might have happened had not their imperialist designs been thwarted Obviously the prospect of human cloning is particularly disturbing to people with strong religious beliefs those who believe in the singularity and immortality of the soul others who believe in reincarnation and still others who believe in some pantheistic or cosmic soul to which the essences of all beings return Nevertheless one doesn't have to be a religious person to share legitimate concerns about cloning Whether or not he or she believes in the soul every human being has a gut feeling of uniqueness Whether or not people are capable of articulating their reasons for it they take pride in their individuality ie in knowing that there are no other individuals on the planet exactly like them They see their individuality as product of the union of their parents and the blood lines that fed into them lines leading back through thousands of years branching out in many directions They view themselves as descendants of complex interconnections of heredity culture geography and history Human cloning however could take away all that complexity and produce cookie-cutter humanity That must not be allowed to be When men and women are manufactured in that way human life will lose both its mystery and its meaning look at Roe vs Wade guidelines Don Erler 1 equal rights and granted them the right to vote The South's Jim Crow laws were manifest efforts to deny African-Americans due process of law equal protection and free access to the voting booth No such constitutional basis existed for the 1973 ruling that a woman's right to abortion overrides any claims of legal protection for pre-born human life Unlike the claims of African-Americans in the 1950s and '60s the asserted right to abortion was invented out of whole cloth by the justices Pro-choice activists are fortunate that the court substituted its opinion for the judgment of the American people Indeed a New York TimesCBS News Poll reported last week that 67 percent of Americans would either restrict or ban abortions altogether Yet the same poll revealed that 61 percent support a woman's right to choose abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy compared to 15 percent who would allow that choice in the second three months As is often the case on this issue we the people are more sensible than the ideological extremists Americans see the agony of women facing unplanned Cecil Johnson is a Star-Telegram columnist and editorial writer His E-mail address is cecilstar-telSgramcom.