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Free press i " ' Once again,a S. C. newspape in court to protect its rights A newspaper in Jasper County may face the most heinous c possibilities newspapers can face ? a judge will soon rule c whether The Low Country Weekly can continue publishing report from a grand jury hearing. Grand jury hearings are oy law closed to the media and tr public. But copies of the report were sent to Jasper Counl Council members and Jasper County school board member which are both public bodies, and any record in their possessio is a public record. It should be an open and shut case. Prior restraint is censo ship of the worst kind. In the '70s, the U.S. governmei prevented The New York Times from printing the Pentago Papers, but ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that to e: cercise prior restraint on a publication is a violation of the Fir: Amendment protection of the freedom of the press. The Pentagon Papers case is similar to this one. The Pentago Papers were stolen and delivered to a Times reporter. In Jasp< County, editor Grayson Smith of the Weekly heard about tt proceedings and made it known he'd like a copy of the repor And lo and behold, someone delivered a copy to him. This case should not have even gotten to trial. There are n circumstances where a judge or a government agency has tY right to tell a newspaper what they can or cannot print. Non< TV?/> Aiir nf in Un ilf />r? fV 1 lie CllllIC SUClCty, UU1 KJX 5^ V^llllIl^llL Id UUlll UI1 LI premise of an informed public with the right to say anything likes and to be informed on anything it likes. For most of tt public, the main source of information to stir the great nation; debate, which is supposed to sustain us and make us better tha other societies, is the free press. The purpose of the free pres someone once said, is to ask "What the hell is going on" an then report it. So the public can know what the hell is going c and act on it. If we are denied by government agencies and by courts froi doing that, then our entire way of life is threatened. This isn just The Gamecock blowing its "protect the media in our ow self-interest" horn. This is something recognized from the outsi as a vital part, a vital necessity to free and fair government in tl United States. If you don't believe The Gamecock, then believe Thomas Je ferson, who said: "The basis of our government being the opinion of the pe( pie, the very first object should be to keep that right; and, we: it left to me to decide whether we should have a governmei without newspapers or newspapers without government, should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." South Carolina especially needs to come out of its backwai stretch and realize this South Carolina is the state that nut man in jail this summer for writing a column expressing his op nion. South Carolina is one of the states that suffers from an e; tremely backward Freedom of Information Act, which has bee used in the past to keep the media in the dark, particularly t this university. Well, we can make no message that will get through to tl leaders in charge right now. They are old and set in their way But the students of this university are the leaders of the future, is for that reason above all others that The Gamecock continui to discuss these issues when to others it may seem a time 1 discuss other matters. In a few years, the leaders and the followers at USC will be tl leaders of industry, the politicians and the lawmakers. An some of us will be out in the many arms of the media trying t get through to these others. The student press must now mal these leaders sensitive to the public's right to know or we wi face leaders as backward and as stubborn in the denial of th; right as the media face today. For the record The viewpoint page in The Gamecock Wednesday contained two errors In the editorial, "Israel," Shimon Peres was named as the leader of Israel': conservative party. Actually, Peres is the leader of the leftist Labor Party Yitzhak Shamir is the leader of the conservative party, Likud. And in the first letter to the editor, a line was inadvertently not typed in ; to the second to the last paragraph. It should have read: '"It should b( understood in Europe and North America that foreign investment support! the present economic system and thus, inadvertently, the present system ol political injustice. We blacks are, therefore, not interested in foreign investment. If Washington wants to contribute to the development of a jusi * society in South Africa, it must discourage investment in South Africa. W{ blacks are perfectly willing to suffer the consequences. We are quite accustomed to suffering.' " The Gamecock Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief Datebook Editor STEPHEN GUILFOYLE JENNY SHARPE Copy Desk Chief Graphics Editor WAYNE YANG MICHAEL SHARP Assistant Copy Desk Chief Comics Editor KATHY BLACKWELL TRACY MIXSON News Editor Adviser U A T UII r ABO r, A -r- wr.VTT.r-T *7 uni. r/\ 1 MtlXCELI Assistant News Editor MARY PEARSON KELLY C. THOMAS Director of Student Media Features Editor ED BONZA SUSAN NESBITT Advertising Manager Assistant Features Editor MARGARET MICHELS TOM JOYNER Production Manager Sports Editor LAURA DAY KEVIN ADAMS Assistant Production Manager Assistant Sports Editor RAY BURGOS CHRIS SILVESTRI Assistant Advertising Manager Photography Editors BARBARA BROWN BRIAN SAULS TEDDY LEPP Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print letters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 to 300 words long. Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for style or possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. mr* r . r )I m a le :y s, n rlt n : Part 2: We hat 1C What can be said about Clemson University and ' the Tigers that hasn't already been said? ie Everyone hates them, their colors, their stupid it little Tiger paws everywhere in that town, that ie stupid rock they fondle before every game, their I 111111/111JT vuawii. But still, they sometimes make for a great Ln rivalry. Especially when we beat them. That's S, always nice. id It's the state championship game among the in state's powerhouse universities. And it accounts for one king hell time if you have the right kind of tailgate. 111 Last year, the group I normally tailgate (I call 't them Friends, they call me the phrase they came up n with, which I used in a Wednesday's column ? neophyte pandering weenie) had the best tailgate ever before the Clemson game. We had a tape with all the band's traditional game tunes, including the 2001 theme, and we played it over and over and f- over and over. As of today, I still don't know what I'm going to re do ? watch it on the tube or go, but I do know I'll be up in the Upstate come gameday. To mutate another oft-quoted line of one of my friends, Andy I Duncan, I'll be up in Spartanburg at the Guilfoyle Family plantation, d But we'll be thinking of the boys in black and a we'll b? trying to send them whatever spiritual kind ; Editor back fr ie Memo to the editor: Since you made me go up to Clemson Wednesday, you tyrant, here's a rundown on what happened. It Even the trees were orange. 2S Well, maybe it had something to do with the ;o season, but nonetheless, we could tell when we'd hit Clemson. It must have been the tractor. OK, so it was your basic standard lawn-tractor type. Still, it was surely Clemson. I had never had the pleasure of going. But the O opportunity to represent The Gamecock on a ;e "goodwill" mission knocked, and ? I'll admit it ? I really wanted to go. I was curious. (Didn't someone somewhere once say something about curiosity killing ... No, nevermind.) So here I was on a lovely, inconspicuous USC ]van with nine student leader sorts, three staff folks from Student Life/Affairs and a graduate assistant chauffeur, rolling into Clemson country. The ride over the river and through the woods had taken a bit over two-and-a-half hours ? with a preliminary Bojangles breakfast stop and the obligatory rest area break somewhere in the middle ? and finally at 10-something we had arrived for the Carolina/Clemson Exchange. There really are giant orange paw prints leading into the campus. ' We pulled up to the Alumni Center and were welcomed by Clemson Student Government President Jamey Rootes. We each got a neat little Clemson name tag and a slick brochure of facts ? "Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Clemson But Were. . . " They dimmed the lights and showed us a recruitment-type propaganda film, which was really informative, but just about put a few of us to sleep (we had been made to get up at a dreadful -I Coliseum stud To the tune of "Bill Bailey": Won 7 you go home, Bill Baker? Won 7 you go home? You know you've done me wrong! You gave me tickets, baby About one an hour! Why did you do me wrong? I remember that rainy evening You made me walk About 73 miles home! My loss is your gain Ain't that a shame! Bill Baker, won t you please go home! Let's face it. Columns about such everyday inconviences as parking are becoming a problem in themselves. I know; I complain as many of you do. But there always seems to be some new facet to a problem that again makes the problem columnworthy. I must take keyboard in hand to attack yet another violation of the rights of the entire university community. If my back was that of a camel, the straw that broke it fell Tuesday evening. I have a night class in the Coliseum, the only class for which I have no concern about finding a parking space. Most students have better sense than to take night ? classes, so the Coliseum lot is usually barren. J? e you Oemson ? < ^ I ] Stephen Guilfoyle BPjPS i ? ?^?? mL r... < (He's onty wearing the Clemson hat j|||| because he wore it last year and we '.-ilPS&X%"-? ( WON then ? honest folks.) j ???___-J I ( of encouragement a blasphemous heathen (that's one of mom s cute little names to for her firstborn ( son) like myself can send them. ( And, as a blasphemous, heathen Catholic in the i Protestant South, my spiritual vibes will probably be jammed in transmission. t But I'm not worried. Herschal Nielsson, the I Associated Press sports writer who picked us to I upset Florida State, still hasn't lost faith in the 'ol I garnet and black. He picks us as his first upset ( special. r And another thing, I just recently read The l Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy, who also wrote f The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline and * The Water is Wide, 'whicfi became the movie ? om USC-Moo 1 1 I w I ? ' * 1 c iJftJHHK7' c WKtKmm \ f hour to leave before 8 a.m.). When the film was over, we left the alumni center and found, where t we had left the get-away vehicle, two Clemson / shuttles. From the outside they didn't appear to be z particularly offensive, but the interiors were, you c guessed it, orange. Very or.ange. Too orange. We were taken on the Obnoxious Things On An j Extensive Campus Tour. We stopped at the t Rhodes engineering center for a tour and presenta- c tion, where we got a pep talk about the Clemson r program and all its exciting technological stuff go- 4 ing on there that's not going on at USC. c From Rhodes, we were whisked away to the v stadium for lunch with the president. It was very impressive. The stands are awesomely steep, and 1 there are these happy little signs between the decks t that say (in what are probably 10- or 20-foot let- ? ters) "CLEMSON WELCOMES YOU TO DEATH VALLEY." t They really were happy little signs. First, we were allowed to behold the splendor from the press box, which was great. The view was y ent lot shuts < | 1 t t W Christensen Judy Collins was performing with the Atlanta Symphony that evening. I was crushed that I would miss her performance for a discussion of communist propaganda, but she nonetheless grabbed my attention. I tried to park, as usual, in the Coliseum parking 1 lot. You know, the one that Mr. Baker is constant- * ly telling us to make better use of? As I drove in the i lot, this guy tells me that I have to pay $2 to park s liere. I calmly make it known to him that I have a sticker for this lot, all the while thinking how good < tie would look under the wheel of my car. Not gain- < ng ground, I quickly dash off to the other en- 1 :rance, where no attendant has yet taken station, i i, we really do Con rack. The Prince of Tides is 'he greatest, best written book I've ever read. Anyway, it is a book about a South Carolina family. And one of the boys in the family comes up from the Lowcountry to attend USC, and he joins :he football team. This supposedly happened in 1962-65, but the only time he gets to play is in the '65 Clemson game, which Conroy says was at Death Valley. But the '65 game was in Columbia. 5o I think he was being a prophet.. So according to prophet Pat, we'll win thanks to 3ur kickoff returners and special teams. We've lever run a kickoff back against Clemson, at least A r i.i ea i ? . i . 101 one 01 iiiuic man dv yaras. it s nign time we lid. Also, last year, Todd Ellis, the USC offense and iur Black Death defense had the number of the irange chumps. Why should it be any different low? We can beat these clowns. Now for all of those who'll be wearing black at he game Saturday, begin to practice the cheer: * AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNEY * AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA DNEY * AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA DNEY Dnce again, the cheering sounds fade as the newspaper guy fades into the sunset. ? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA DNEY IAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA DNEY '.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAaaaaaaaadney aaaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaaa'aaaaaaaaAaaaAaaAaAaaaa dney . U. exchange perfect. (Stephen, can I cover Saturday's game, please?) Then we went to Clemson President Max Lenlon's box for the luncheon and remarks. We ate ind made polite conversation. i gui i?j su ncxi 10 Lennon ? iunny now i now enow Clemson's president better than USC Presiient James Holderman. Then Lennon and our very own James Franklin ind their very own Rootes (remember him?) got up ind made diplomatic speeches. The two student ?overnment leaders exchanged school sweatshirts ind promised that the prez of the losing school vould wear the winner's colors on the Monday "ollowing the game. After a nice lunch we drove miles out into the joondocks to the research park computer center. Mong the way we finally saw the much talked ibout cows. We saw all sizes and descriptions of :attle and were awed. Anyway, the computer center was just as imjressive as everything else we'd been shown. The jig guy in charge took us on a tour and lemonstrated the electronic mail by sending a nessage back to Lennon on campus that said: 'USC students are here and say 'Hi' from Presilent Holderman." We were sure Holderman vouldn't mind, much. From the computer center, we departed for our ong-awaited final destination: the Ag. Sales >uilding, home of the alleged World's Best Milkshakes. They were. Homeward bound, back on our own van, and he orange hadn't rubbed off at all. lTicuiu iu me r eariess reaiures r.aiior: uiaa 'ou're back and not orange. 9ut students and park. Later, I find that several of the girls in my class had to park way up Assembly Street and walk to class in the dark and that even teachers were prohibited from parking in their Blossom Street spaces, spaces they are very protective of. This isn't right. I paid $20 for a hunting permit, with a list of lots where my permit was valid. Prominently mentioned in this list is the Coliseum lot, and I can find no clause that says my permit is invalid under conditions that may provide additional profit to an organization whose coffers must be overflowing. And the further endangering of students in an area of at least one reported assault this semester is reprehensible. Students aren't just buying a decal, they are buying the security of having a nearby, well-lit place to park. This two-faced handling of Coliseum parking would seem to indicate that the lot is not the students' at all, rather loaned for student use on ion-Coliseum business days, effectively cutting student parking by several hundred spaces. It would be interesting if, on the next big concert Jay, all of the students filled this student lot to :apacity during the day and left the cars there all light, i would buy a ticket just to watch the esultii i fiasco. Wouldn't you?