OREGON SEPTEMBER, 2004 VOLUME XXI ISSUE XIV & XV A JOURNAL OF OPINION Summer Issue A Tale of Two Lincolns Plus: Tater Awards Staff Farewells and Year in Review MISSION STATEMENT The OREGON COMMENTATOR is an independent journal of opinion published at the University of Oregon for the campus community. FOUNDED SEPT. 27, 1983 • MEMBER COLLEGIATE NETWORK Founded by a group of concerned student journalists Sept. 27 1983, the COMMENTATOR has had a major impact in the “war of ideas” on campus, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF PUBLISHER Tyler Graf Erin Flood providing students with an alternative to the left-wing orthodoxy promoted by other student publications, professors and student groups. During its nineteen-year existence, it has enabled University students to hear both sides of issues. Our paper combines reporting with opinion, PRODUCTION MANAGER Jeremy Jones humor and feature articles. We have won national recognition for our commitment to journalistic excellence. The OREGON COMMENTATOR is operated as a program of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO) and is staffed CONTRIBUTING EDITOR solely by volunteer editors and writers. The paper is funded through Dan Atkinson student incidental fees, advertising revenue and private donations. We print a wide variety of material, but our main purpose is to show students that a political philosophy of conservatism, free thought and individual liberty is an intelligent way of looking at the world — contrary to what they might hear in classrooms and on campus. In general, editors of the CONTRIBUTORS COMMENTATOR share beliefs in the following: Jeremy Berrington, Ben Brown, Matt Haulk, Dave Kirk , Matt Misley, Olly Ruff • We believe that the University should be a forum for rational and BOARD OF DIRECTORS informed debate — instead of the current climate in which ideological Tyler Graf, Chairman dogma, political correctness, fashion and mob mentality interfere with Dan Atkinson, Director, Olly Ruff, Director academic pursuit. ALUMNI ADVISORY BOARD Thomas Mann ʻ88, Charles H. Deister ʻ92 R.S.D Wederquist ʻ92, Scott Camp ʻ94 • We emphatically oppose totalitarianism and its apologists. Ed Carson ʻ94, Owen Brennan Rounds ʻ95 Mark Hemingway ʻ98, Andrew Oberriter ʻ98 • We believe that it is important for the University community to view William Beutler ʻ02 the world realistically, intelligently and, above all, rationally. BOARD OF TRUSTEES Richard Burr, Dane Claussen Robert Davis • We believe that any attempt to establish utopia is bound to meet with failure and, more often than not, disaster. The OREGON COMMENTATOR is a conservative journal of opinion. All signed essays and commentaries herein represent • We believe that while it would be foolish to praise or agree mindlessly the opinions of the writers and not necessarily the opinions of with everything our nation does, it is both ungrateful and dishonest not this magazine or its staff. The COMMENTATOR is an independent publication and the Oregon Commentator Publishing Co., Inc. to acknowledge the tremendous blessings and benefits we receive as is an independent corporation; neither are affiliated with the Americans. University of Oregon nor its School of Journalism. And, contrary to popular, paranoid opinion, we are in no way affiliated with the • We believe that free enterprise and economic growth, especially at the CIA, FBI, or the Council on Foreign Relations. local level, provide the basis for a sound society. The OREGON COMMENTATOR accepts letters to the editor and commentaries from students, faculty and staff at the University of Oregon, or anyone else for that matter. Letters and commentaries • We believe that the University is an important battleground in the may be submitted personally to Room 205 EMU; placed in our “war of ideas” and that the outcome of political battles of the future are, mailbox in Suite 4 EMU; or e-mailed to editor@oregoncomment to a large degree, being determined on campuses today. ator.com. The OREGON COMMENTATOR can be found on the world wide web at http://www.oregoncommentator.com. We reserve the right to edit material we find obscene, libelous, • We believe that a code of honor, integrity, pride and rationality are the inappropriate or lengthy. We are not obliged to print anything that fundamental characteristics for individual success. does not suit us. Unsolicited material will not be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Submission • Socialism guarantees the right to work. However, we believe that the constitutes testimony as to the accuracy. right not to work is fundamental to individual liberty. Apathy is a human right. Tim’s Farewell TheTater Awards Our former editorʼs final words before leaving us with little more than empty whiskey bottles Page 8 and this rag. Page 14 Year In Review Sho’s Ferewell After seven long years, Sho has finally said Page 17 goodbye. Page 16 A Tale of Two Lincolns Olly Ruff and Courtney Sweet evaluate the Jeremy’s Farewell graffiti at a few local watering holes. The true story of the guy you all thought you Page 10 knew. Page 20 What I Learned in the J-School DEPARTMENTS The Wieden controversy left us with some EDITORIAL 4 mixed messages. Jeremy Jones helps us sort NOBODY ASKED US, BUT... 6 ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE 25 them out. SPEW 46 Page 23 April 29, 2004 Copyright ©2003 Oregon Commentator Publishing Co., Inc. More tighter means more better. Editorial Much Ado About MarissaWieden Jones and the ODE made a big deal out of the Dan Wieden workshop, insisting that they were breaking a huge story. But was it really an outrage or just a clever end-of-the-year fl ourish for the Emerald? s the 2003-2004 school year wound down, Dan Wieden, Itʼs possible. Wieden is one of the most infl uential advertis- co-founder of the world famous Wieden + Kennedy ad- ing gurus in the world. Who can forget the Wieden-created “Just vertising fi rm and a University alum, ensnared himself in Do It” Nike ads? – an ad campaign that took sports machismo Acontroversy over the values taught at his annual seminar, whose and elevated it to near-operatic heights of absurdity. This sense theme was confronting fears. According to Emerald columnist of absurdity, often played for chuckles, helped brand Nike as hip, Marissa Jones, who broke the story in a May 24 column, the work- inculcating it in the minds of the coveted 18-24 demographic. And shop forced students to sacrifi ce their personal code of ethics. it was a risky move, too. Students in the workshop were fi rst asked to admit their fears. So it is not hyperbole to call Wieden a true leader in his fi eld. The usual responses were given: public speaking, being nude in Many of todayʼs most popular ads have either been inspired by public, monkeys, etc. The students were then required to face Wiedenʼs work, or have been created by his fi rm. Wither Mt. their fears while documenting the event. Jones considered many Dewʼs ADHD-affl icted, soda guzzling skydivers/BMX bikers/ of the tasks to be degrading and unethical. In her opinion, Wieden mountain climbers, whose own catchphrase, “DO THE DEW”, was using his students as puppets for his own was screamed at such a plate-glass-window- enjoyment. shattering decibel that you could almost hear That should have been the end of the story, an entire nation pressing the mute button in right? One columnist, nettled by one instruc- unison, without Wiedenʼs “Just Do It” cam- torʼs assignment to do something deemed un- paign? And Iʼd love to believe that somehow ethical (in fact, the students were merely given Wieden inspired Slim Jim to have a splotchy- suggestions on what they could do), writes a faced Macho Man Randy Savage hawk its breathless column denouncing a class as crass coagulated lard and beef-anus-stuffed jerky and sleazy. One must remember that Jones was product by drunkenly intoning “Snap into the same columnist who denounced increased a Slim Jim! Oh Yeeeeaaah!” after bursting security at airports – security, mind you, that through a childʼs bedroom wall. prevents terrorists from killing us – because This, folks, is the world of advertising, it has taken all the romance out of fl ying. But where intensity trumps good taste, and where Jonesʼs Wieden workshop column was only the performing X-Treme acts of stupidity will be germination of the controversy. The Olʼ Dirty celebrated as good, clean fun. Emerald, sensing a good old-fashioned end of If you fi nd advertising obnoxius, as most year brouhaha, decided to use the story as its reasonable people do, then donʼt go into the 2004 capstone. In an article published on May fi eld of advertising and then complain that it is 28, the Emerald wrote: “When some students Above: Dan Wieden in a soul-stealing succubus. Wiedenʼs workshop raised concerns about the controversial assign- a publicity photo for the is not required, making Jonesʼs frustrations ments -- which require students to videotape with the class even more ridiculous. their activity, such as playing Twister with a Broadway revival of The And when the local media picked up the trucker or objecting at a wedding -- journalism Eyes of Doctor Mabuse. story (a version of the Emerald article ran in school faculty and administrators explained The Seattle Times and The Register-Guard, that the workshop is intended to get students to and two Portland TV stations ran segments think beyond the task.” about it) they conveniently focused on not just the heroism of a Who exactly were these other students? The only student student standing up to a well-respected, famous instructor but also quoted in the article was Joe Leineweber, the guy made momen- the bravery involved in writing about it. tarily famous for streaking through Laurelwood Municipal Golf Tim Gleason, dean of the journalism school, at fi rst defended Course for Wiedenʼs workshop, and whose bare-ass photograph Wieden, and then apologized for the workshop.