[Peace-discuss] Fwd: multiple errors in Council story

[Jim Buell]

I've sent in the following to the DI. Odd to say, but the News-Gazette 
story was far more balanced and factually correct. Kudos also to Kim for 
posting an excellent story to the IMC site - just spotted that. Ben snapped 
the perfect picture, too!

Jim

>Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 19:34:43 -0600
>To: opinions at dailyillini.com
>From: Jim Buell <jbuell at uiuc.edu>
>Subject: multiple errors in Council story
>Cc: heineman at uiuc.edu, leventis at uiuc.edu
>
>The Daily Illini article on the Urbana City Council's resolution against 
>war in Iraq contained several major errors. As someone who was present for 
>the entire meeting Monday night, and who subsequently reviewed a videotape 
>of the session, I would like to set straight these aspects of the record:
>
>-       Names of 563 Urbana and area residents supporting the resolution 
>were turned in, not merely "more than 100" as was reported.
>-       It is not true that "half of the citizens addressing the Council 
>on Monday were against the resolution" -- twenty-five people spoke in 
>favor of the resolution; ten spoke against it.
>-       There was no "hissing at those who were against" the resolution, 
>except when one opponent accused sponsoring Council member Danielle 
>Chynoweth of "talking like Castro's daughter," and when a supporter 
>reported that Council member Joe Whelan had responded to email by calling 
>supporters "probably anti-American." Supporters in fact applauded some 
>opponents who offered heartfelt arguments against the resolution.
>-       Besides the military veterans and family members of active-duty 
>soldiers who spoke against the resolution and were quoted in the story, at 
>least four self-identified veterans spoke in favor of it, and still other 
>supporters told the Council they had family members and friends in active 
>service. Omission of this skewed the story toward one opponent's quoted 
>charge that the resolution somehow equates to calling local soldiers "baby 
>killer"; several supporters rebutted that charge directly.
>-       It is not true that emails were read of "many people claiming they 
>would 'never spend another dollar in Urbana' if the resolution passed." 
>Council member Jim Hayes reported on fewer than a dozen e-mails and 
>telephone calls the Council had received from opponents of the resolution; 
>two were said to contain such a phrase.
>
>Local cable television subscribers will have the chance to view the 
>meeting in its entirety when it is rebroadcast this Friday at 8 p.m., and 
>Saturday at noon, on Urbana Public TV Channel 6. Excerpts from the Council 
>deliberations should also become available on the Urbana-Champaign 
>Independent Media Center website, www.ucimc.org. A more accurate story 
>than the DI's also appeared in today's News-Gazette and is available on 
>that newspaper's website. As part of her education, the DI's reporter 
>would do well to take advantage of these opportunities for review.
>
>The Urbana City Council's decision to call on the Bush administration to 
>abandon its plans for pre-emptive war against Iraq enjoys wide support in 
>the city and the area. As speaker after speaker made clear, such an 
>unprovoked and unjustifiable invasion would have catastrophic ripple 
>effects on our local people, economy and society. The deliberations 
>leading to the Urbana Council's 5-2 vote Monday night, and to the Illinois 
>Student Government's 17-3 vote last week for a similar resolution, are -- 
>as several speakers and Council members pointed out -- welcome evidence 
>for the health of our much-battered democracy. This is also true of at 
>least 60 other American cities where councils have passed resolutions 
>opposing an Iraq war. God willing, those federal-level officials who are 
>pushing this country toward a pre-emptive attack will hear and heed those 
>voices.
>
>Jim Buell
>Graduate student in Education