Record Searchlight from Redding, California • 13

Opinion Wednesday December 11 1991 Redding Record Searchlight B-5 Editorial Letters to the Editor Strange contradictoiy life of Robert Maxwell Stories on crosses show silliness The powerful press lord used the threat of libel suits to keep the glare of publicity away from his greedy financial dealings Editor: The news is often filled with interesting opposites but some recent news is almost unbelievable A case before the US Supreme Court is now determining if a city can ban the burning of crosses as a or if maybe this type of display is protected by the Constitution as a form of religious expression On the other hand the city of San Diego may soon be required to tear down two crosses on properties it owns since a court has ruled this to be an illegal lack of separation between church and state The crosses were both on the properties when they were donated to San Diego over 40 years ago and were built by private individuals So a burning cross on your front yard as a sign of racial hatred may be ruled OK but a cross as a historical monument may not be OK? While we are at it why don't we ban trees on public property (Druids worship them) ban five-pointed stars on the flag (witches use them) and ban the use of water in public (Christians use water in baptism) The Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of religion not freedom from religion Let's see if our courts can use a little common sense Unlikely but we can always hope I would say that the courts use common sense but of course public prayer has already been banned 2nd Amendment has been distorted The Second Amendment does not guarantee every person the unfettered constitutional right to have a machine gun a story that could only be dreamed up by a spy novelist or perhaps by one of those overly imaginative reporters on the sensationalistic tabloids that Robert Maxwell delighted in owning But the scandal surrounding death is all too real and grows more bizarre with each revelation Actually the international press life was already intriguing even before his body was found floating alongside his yacht off the Canary Islands on Nov 5 He fled his native Czechoslovakia for England and became a staunch leftist even as his homeland was swallowed by communists A stalwart of the Labor Party he could be notoriously rough in bargaining with unions A publisher who thrived on freedom of the press he brought libel suits against journalists who dared criticize him He was a socialist who earned billions through private enterprise Or so everyone thought At death accountants and regulators began picking through his empire which included the Macmillan book publishing house and the New York Daily News Though debt load was rumored to be heavy nobody was prepared for what was found: Debts totaling $4 billion by one estimate The plot thickens Apparently Maxwell devised crude but effective ways to stay one step ahead of his creditors Auditors are concluding that in his last months Maxwell transferred hundreds of millions of dollars from pension fluids and other publicly held portions of his empire to his privately held companies in part to bolster their stock prices a sophisticated fraud like one analyst said referring to another massive financial scandal guy was basically grabbing Transatlantic authorities have a duty to see that those who abetted Maxwell are exposed certainly their number is large given the breathtaking dimensions of the scandal British legislators also might want to rethink their outrageously severe libel laws manipulation of those laws discouraged reporters and others who sensed early that something was fishy within his accounts A less fettered press could have saved millions for those defrauded by this press lord By Warren Burger For The Associated Press FRANK SAYLOR Anderson Sequoia students provided great event ever There is no support in tht Constitution for the argument that federal and state governments are powerless to regulate the purchase of such firearms so that they do not get into the hands of persons with significant criminal records or mental impairments or people who are engaged in criminal activity By analogy although there is not a word or a hint in the Constitution about automobiles or motorcycles no one would seriously argue that a state cannot regulate the use of motor vehicles by imposing licensing restrictions and speed limits based on such factors as a driver's age health condition and driving record and by recording every purchase or change of ownership Of course some of these observations will be challenged by weapons and ammunition manufacturers and other members of the so-called That there should be vigorous debate on this subject is a tribute to our freedom of speech and press but the American people should have a firm understanding of the true origin and purpose of the Second Amendment The Second Amendment very briefly provides that since a regulated is necessary to the security of the state the people's right to and bear is guaranteed Few things have been more vigorously debated and distorted in recent times than the meaning of this clause and very few subjects have been as cluttered and confiised by calculated disinformation circulated by special interest groups To really understand what was intended it is necessary to look back and recall that in those days people had a great fear of a standing national army They knew that the mon-archs of Europe had held power at the expense of the people by having standing armies to preserve the status quo In addition before the Constitution the 13 colonies were not really the we know today but 13 wholly independent sovereign nations For example before the Constitution was adopted the state of Virginia was virtually as independent of the other states and of the union established by the Articles of Confederation as France was independent of all the other countries of Europe Before the adoption of the Constitution each state could and did have its own army and each state could also maintain its own navy as some of the seaboard states did The real purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that the would be maintained Our legislators for the defense of the state In order to do that it was necessary to grant each citizen the right to maintain arms Of course 200 years ago the musket which was the principal military weapon in use was a common fixture in most American households because many Americans depended on hunting game for food Today the that were prevalent in the 18th century have effectively been replaced by the National Guard and hunting has basically become a recreational activity The very language of the Second Amendment reflites any argument that it was intended to guarantee every citizen an unfettered right to any kind of weapon he or she desires In referring to well regulated the Framers clearly intended to secure the right to bear arms essentially for military purposes In the late 18th century the was the aggregate of all able-bodied men and' the word was defined as body of troops soldiers collectively" Moreover" even where the militia was concerned it is clear that the Framers contemplated that the use of arms could be If an 18th-century militia was intended to be surely the Second Amendment does not remotely guarantee every person the constitutional right to have a Night Special" or a machine gun without any regulation what How to get in touch with legislators representing Shasta Trinity Siskiyou and Tehama counties in the state Legislature and US Congress: Editor On Nov 15 1 had the privilege of attending a terrific function at Sequoia Middle School for the senior citizens of our community This event called the was attended at no cost by about 350 citizens The Sequoia student body was represented by 60 plus students from student government who put homework family and personal preference aside to spend many hours in preparation The teaching and administrative staiT also put in countless hours of personal time to assist The senior citizens came to the school to teach dance of days gone by and the Shasta College Big Band some 22 musicians donated an evening to provide the music Parents of students and students alike prepared a never ending bountiful banquet of finger foods This writer is troubled by the refusal of Redding's No 1 selling news publication to give recognition to those young people on a day that found the front page of said paper dealing with negative topics from violence to world problems These young people arc the (U: ture hopes dreams and health of this country A little recognition would go a long way US SENATORS Alan Cranston (D) 112 Hart Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-3553 or Fox Plaza 1390 Market St Suite 918 San Francisco 94102 (415) 556-8440 John Seymour (R) 720 Hart Senate Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-3841 or 250 Sutter St Suite 400 San Francisco 94108 (415) 905-1666 US REPRESENTATIVE 2nd District Wally Herger (R) 1108 Longworth House Office Building (HOB) Washington DC 20515 (202) 225-3076 or 2400 Washington Ave Suite 410 Redding 96001 241-9568 or 241-9473 This is one in a series of Associated Press articles on the BU of Rights and other constitutional amendments by Warren Burger the retired chief Justice of the United States who Is chairman of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution The columns appear on Wednesdays Editor STATE SENATOR 4th District' Mike Thompson (D) State Capitol Room 3057 Sacramento 95814 (916) 445-3353 or 1443 West St Redding 96001 225-2090 1st District Tim Leslie (R) State Capitol Sacramento 95814 (916)445-5788 STATE ASSEMBLYMAN 1st District' Stan Statham (R) State Capitol PO Box 942849 Sacramento 94249-0001 (916) 445-7266 or 410 Hemsted No 210 Redding 96002 223-6300 JOHN RAINEY Redding Commercials overtaking coverage of William Kennedy Smith trial notoriety of its principals pure and simple cumulation of evidence much of it trivial and at first glance pointless The television cameras are not in the courtroom to educate us but rather to exploit the sensation of the case and the notoriety of its principals On the previous day when the witness was presenting her side of the case for the first time CNN broke away with relative infrequency but when the ordinary workings of the law produced repetitious testimony and minute questioning CNN followed the natural instincts of television and broke off as often as possible Of course it all television's fault Those of us who cany note pads and lap-tops instead of microphones and cameras are also pursuing the case with hot-blooded intensity But the impact of a pictorial account is ordinarily so much greater than that of one in words as to be almost beyond comparison and the same can be said of the impact of a TV camera in the courtroom as compared say with that of the court stenographer This leads to the second point Yes it's true that the case has many of the usual ingredients of soap opera money sex fame Palm Beach but this does not mean as the customarily level-headed Walter Goodman wrote in The New York Times that trial of William Smith is proving to be a television Quite to the contrary in terms the case is a dud that's why CNN runs away from it so often No one save those directly involved can say whether or to what extent the camera has influenced the questioning by lawyers the testimony of witnesses or the direction of courtroom procedures But as anyone knows who has spent any time in front of one a television camera is an insistent obtrusive presence that can be ignored only by those with extensive experience in front of it if indeed by them By Jonathan Yardley The Washington Post Surely the least enviable assignment in American jour nalism these days belongs to Charles Jaco of the Cable News Network Jaco appears to be a conscientious and responsible reporter but as CNN's man at the trial of William Kennedy Smith he has little to do except stand outside the courthouse feed leading questions to the attorneys providing of the trial and announce every 10 minutes or so: have a break for these few commercial messages and then we'll return to the trial of William Kennedy commercial indeed! Have you ever tried to watch a movie on TBS the owned by boss Ted Turner? Well if you think the intrusion of commercials on TBS is stupefying try an hour with CNN at the Willie Smith hearing The first time I caught Jaco delivering the commercial line was Thursday afternoon it was fol-' The third conclusion to be drawn from the coverage of the Willie Smith case is that television has no legitimate place in the courtroom For years TV and its allies have argued that putting cameras in the courtroom would increase public knowledge of the law's workings The television cameras are not in Judge Maiy Lupo's courtroom to edify or educate us They are there to exploit the sensation gf the case and the No the only interests that televised coverage of court cases serves are those of television itself Otherwise it is merely degrading to the law and those who come before it in addition the possibility of unwanted exposure on television may well discourage victims of rape and other crimes from reporting them ried In so doing it inadvertently made several revealing and instructive points The first is that the marriage of the courtroom and commercial television is inherently incompatible Television wants entertainment but the courtroom demands the slow steady incremental ac- testimony by the woman identified by CNN as Willie testimony think CNN would have wanted to milk for every last ounce of melodrama and sexual explicitness But no the soul of a television network lies not in its news but in its bank account and it was thereto that CNN dutifhlly scur- lowed by nine commercials At 4:22 there was a break for seven commercials at 4:32 there was another for two local commercials at 4:34 yet another for one of those interminable Time magazine subscription appeals All of this came mind you during the closing hours of what had been extraordinarily powerful.