Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 28, 1993 TAG: 9306280245
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
We need the news media - newspaper, television, radio and magazines, to perform this vital service for our society. It is, or at least should be, a journalist's prime directive.
So when the president of the United States is repeatedly bashed in the media for being a draft dodger, just what does that mean? The media do not clarify this. In their failure to clarify, they thereby encourage the general public to apply their own interpretation as to what is a draft dodger.
By the way, what is a draft-dodger? Since the media fail to explain, perhaps some young people who were not around for the Vietnam blast might conceivably think Bill Clinton used to play in the minor leagues.
That is derogatory. What is more derogatory is what most people think: that a draft dodger is the lowest form of scum there is on this Earth. Except somehow through a popular vote he became the highest man in our society.
Since the media are leaving the title of draft dodger as an definition-less blob, I offer a little light on the subject.
The draft was initiated in previous times of war whereby this society could - in a fair manner - drag unwilling participants into running onto a beach and getting blown up. The key to this statement is "times of war."
Since the Vietnam War was never declared officially by act of Congress to be a war, many young men tried to refuse the draft on the grounds that it was illegal. The question of legality of the draft has yet to be addressed - except that it sort of was when some draft dodgers were allowed to return from Canada with a pardon.
But the question continues to fester. And the media do not try to clear it up. Rather, they choose to use it in such a sour-grapes way to tear down the president and the presidency. They may very well succeed.
Last week, a high-ranking military man got bounced for thinking he had freedom of speech. The media has freedom of speech, too. I think they misuse that freedom. For their freedom is a freedom of responsibility, and it should not include open season on everything that breathes.
That's the IRS's job.
WOODROW RILEY\ ROANOKE
by CNB