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Editorials
Friday, November 10, 2000
Mahalo to many
for saving newspaperThe issue: Plans announced more than a year ago called for the closing of the Star-Bulletin.
FOR more than a year, the staff of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin has been working with considerable uncertainty, wondering how soon we might be writing our own epitaph. Now we can paraphrase Mark Twain and report that our imminent death was greatly exaggerated.
Reborn at the age of 118 under the new ownership of Canadian publisher David Black, we plan to continue our presence in your home for as long as we are welcome.
In September 1999, Liberty Newspapers announced that it would cease publication of the Star-Bulletin in return for a payment of $26 million from Gannett Corp., owner of the Honolulu Advertiser. The paper's employees were given 60 days notice, in accordance with state law. While some staffers were offered jobs by the Advertiser, most faced the unhappy prospect of retiring early or leaving Hawaii to pursue their careers in journalism.
A citizens group called Save Our Star-Bulletin or SOS quickly formed. SOS and state Attorney General Earl Anzai filed lawsuits challenging the newspaper's closure. The suits, which were consolidated, alleged that the shutdown of the newspaper coupled with Gannett's proposed payment to Liberty would violate an antitrust law aimed at protecting competition beneficial to consumers.
Apparently to bolster their position in court, Gannett and Liberty offered the Star-Bulletin for sale. Various news industry experts said the paper's impending demise was inevitable, given the deaths of many other afternoon newspapers in the United States.
Gannett sought an end to the joint operating agreement with Liberty in which the two newspapers share printing, circulation and advertising functions. Under an agreement to sell the Star-Bulletin to Black, the JOA will end March 15 and the Star-Bulletin will publish with entire independence for the first time in 38 years. Our rebirth bucks the trend of afternoon newspaper closures.
The Star-Bulletin owes much gratitude to faithful readers and advertisers, to the SOS citizens group, which included crucial involvement by the Hawaii Newspaper Guild, and to Governor Cayetano, who authorized the lawsuit that resulted in a federal court order that kept us from being shut down. Sign-waving, bumper stickers, petitions, hundreds of letters to the editor and other forms of encouragement within the community contributed to extraordinarily upbeat staff morale during a stressful year.
Our goal is to produce a newspaper that will make all those efforts worthwhile.
Bulletin closing archive
Don’t tamper with
Electoral College
THE first split in more than a century between the nation's presidential popular vote and electoral vote was bound to result in calls for abolishing the Electoral College. Opponents of the system complain that it violates the principle of one man, one vote. However, so does the allotment of two seats to each state in the U.S. Senate, deliberately created to protect the interests of smaller states. The same holds true -- and should continue -- with the Electoral College.
The founding fathers created the Electoral College in 1787 as a compromise between directly electing presidents and leaving the choice up to Congress, which is the practice in parliamentary systems. A state's electoral votes are based on its number of members of Congress -- or delegates, in the case of U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.
On three occasions in the 19th century, the winner of the popular vote failed to garner a majority in the Electoral College. The 1960 and 1968 elections nearly resulted in similar splits. If Texas Gov. George W. Bush prevails in the Florida recount, he will win the presidency based on his electoral vote total while finishing runner-up to Vice President Al Gore in the popular vote.
Harvard law professor Laurence H. Tribe calls the Electoral College "a train wreck waiting to happen" and a constitutional amendment to end the system of state-based electors is pending in Congress. "The people would decide. A majority would rule," says Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a co-sponsor of the proposal. "The point we're trying to make is that this is no way to run a country."
"This is not the federal republic of America," responds Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J. "It is the United States of America. Our sense of union, and everyone's inclusion, has now been based on this Electoral College."
Scrapping the system would likely result in presidential campaigns totally ignoring states that already receive all-too-scant attention. In addition to having only four electoral votes, Hawaii gets even less attention than other states with small populations because of distance. While the Bush and Gore campaigns focused on the so-called battleground states of Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Missouri, some smaller states -- New Mexico, Nevada, West Virginia and New Hampshire -- drew some attention in the campaign's final days.
The founding fathers were careful in protecting the rights of the vulnerable against domination by the powerful. The fragile balance they struck should not be disturbed.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
