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Show Editorial Deseret lews misrepresents Washington trip by students Being part of the media, we usually leave criticism of the press to the Vice President. Besides we understand the problems surrounding publishing of a newspaper. But the May 12 article in the Deseret News cannot be left unnoticed because it may ruin any progress of the trip of seven students stu-dents including Associated Students of the University of Utah (ASUU) President Randy Dryer to Washington to meet with Utah's congressional leaders and government officials. , The tone of the article implies that the seven students were dissenters - radical - and that they were hostile and rude to our senators and representatives. This is completely com-pletely false. The group consisted of students representing all aspects of the political spectrum, but all those sides were not presented to the congressional leaders. What was presented, pre-sented, in fact, was the result of the vote taken last Friday on campus and a first hand account of the events at the University during the last week. The congressmen were questioned on their various stands on Cambodia, Vietnam, firearms on campus, etc. The students were not there persuading per-suading the government officials to take a particular viewpoint view-point (because as mentioned earlier the viewpoints varied in the group) instead the group wanted to know the congressional con-gressional leaders' opinion. And members of the group feel it was successful in finding out the officials' stands. We also challenge the impression mat me siuuemo were rude to the senators and representatives. This is absolutely ab-solutely absurd. The senators and congressmen were cordial and received the students well, and the students were generally gen-erally pleased with their reception. The students visited with Sen. Frank E. Moss, Gov. Calvin L. Rampton, Solicitor Mitchel Melich, Secretary of the Interior Walter Hickel, Sen. Wallace F. Bennett, Rep. Sherman P. Lloyd, Rep. Laurence Burton, Secretary of the Treasury David Kennedy; Wayne Owens, administrative assistant to Sen. Edward Kennedy; and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development George Romney. The Deseret News reporter was only present in the meeting with Sen. Bennett and part of the meeting with Rep. Burton. Immediately preceding the University students' stu-dents' visit with Sen. Bennett he had been visited by a group of students who were Utah residents attending Yale University. Uni-versity. The Yale group had demanded that the senator vote specific ways on the Vietnam question, and had antagonized antag-onized him. When the University group later talked with Sen. Bennett both the group and Sen. Bennett had a hard time communicating all their ideas, but the meeting was friendly and courteous. What was reported from the meeting meet-ing was not a true representation of what happened. The Deseret News reporter was not present at the rest of the meetings and did not report on them. It is poor journalism to take an isolated situation and have it represent the whole. The Deseret News then failed to report the communication taking place at 99 per cent of the meetings. It also failed to report that a member of the group had a second conversation con-versation with Sen. Bennett the next morning and with the pressures of the previous day gone they had a good talk on the Cambodian situation. (By the way, the Deseret News reporter was present in Sen. Bennett's office at the time of the second conversation.) It also failed to report that the Secretary of the Treasury Kennedy took one hour and a half out of his busy schedule to talk on a personal level with the students, and this case was repeated elsewhere. The Deseret News article also said that one member of the group stormed out of Sen. Bennett's office during the meeting. This is not true. The member sat through all of the meeting with the senators, but she did not attend the last meeting with Rep. Burton. Also, no obscenities were uttered at our senators or representatives. The group is still trying to decide where the Deseret News reporter got that statement. The article is unfortunate. The group of students felt that it accomplished something worthwhile the students were talking on one-to-one basis with government officials about the problems facing this country and what students could do to improve the communication with the youth and their representatives in Congress. As Wayne Owens told the students, the visit of students with their congressmen has had a positive effect on Washington. It is an attempt ' to work through the system in a world where violence is a sign that students have discarded the system. The Deseret News article has damaged and tried to taint the efforts of concerned students who believe in working within the gov-I gov-I ernmental framework provided by this country. |