Good morning and welcome to Nevada Weekly. I'm Judy Drews and with me this
morning is my co-host John Marschall. What's up, John?
Marschall: First up is that we're in
an election year as everyone knows, and there is both good news and bad news for
the candidates, from the papers and other media. And some questions of course are
left pretty much up in the air. Recently we talked to Don Driggs, UNR
professor of political science, who is trying to help us understand student
attitudes-- that electorate of 18 or over, uh, as well as the validity of some of the
polls to which the candidates often refer. Our reporter Greg [unintelligible] filed the story.
Interviewer: Dr. Driggs, as one of the senior members
of the political science department, you've seen a lot of changes in,
in, attitudes of students over the years. This current election, has, has, the
attitude of students been more active or passive than in past elections?
Dr. Driggs: Well I think it's, uh,
it's varied. Actually, the election on which I found the most
excitement among the students was 1960-- goes back 20 years ago. As far as the, uh,
there being considerable interest fully in both candidates both at
Kennedy and Nixon at that time. And they had their, uh, supporters and organized
groups on campus. Of course, uh, 1968, there was a tremendous interest, uh,
from the standpoint of the anti-Vietnam movement and student involvement from
that standpoint. Uh, this year I don't sense a great deal of, uh, enthusiasm by the
students for either of the candidates who appear to be ready to take the
nominations in the major parties. Uh, there, there, is... perhaps a little more
excitement on part of certain groups for the independent candidacy of, uh, John
Anderson. But, uh, as compared with elections in the past I wouldn't rate this as one
in which the students are, are, heavily involved.
Reporter: How do you think John
Anderson's third-party candidacy will affect the presidential race?
Driggs: It's hard to say at this point, uh, his, uh, his standing in the polls... uh, makes him look
like a, a viable candidate as an independent, because he is running as
high as 22 percent in terms of the, of the national polls. And this is, uh, higher than
than any, uh, independent or third-party candidate at this stage since they
started, uh, public opinion polling. Wallace wasn't running that high in terms of his
percentage in 1968. Uh, the question is now that he is declared as an independent,
uh, will he start to... lose some of that, uh, support and as the, uh, campaign goes on and
you get the nominations, the two major parties, will people start gravitating
back, uh, to the party with which they are associated, and, uh, away from Anderson's
candidacy? It's too early to tell... what's going to happen in that area.
Interviewer: You cite polls quite often in referring to elections... How accurate are the polls as
a yardstick and measuring public opinion?
Driggs: Well I think the, uh, polls have, uh, proven to be
accurate, uh, for the situation at the time the polls are taken. But in this, uh,
presidential year especially we've had a tremendous amount of volatility, in terms
of public opinion, with shifts because of events and, uh, sometimes it just takes one
faux pas on the part of a candidate, and the public opinion polls go down as far
as that person is concerned. So, uh, I think the polls generally have been accurate
at the particular time that the questions are asked, but, uh, events and,
uh, things that the candidates come up with during the campaign can certainly change
things rather rapidly.
Interviewer: Okay along that line then what kind of
job as the media done on this election as compared to last elections?
Driggs: I think what you have today because of the importance of the presidential primaries,
vis-à-vis former years when the parties played a greater role in terms of
nominating process, uh, that the, the, media is becoming almost all important. It's
becoming a media event and, uh, candidates who, who, project well in terms of
image on television are the ones who are most likely to win in the presidential
primaries. And also of course it's those, those, early primaries which have come to
be very important, which are deciding things and here the media is focusing on
those early primaries even before the primaries start, such as the caucuses in
Iowa. And, uh, even before that, some non-binding meetings in Florida and so
on, uh, so that, uh, the media is, uh, coming to be really the thing in terms of deciding
who the presidential candidate is to be.
Interviewer: Um, political columnist Ted Knap suggested
revising the primary system. Do you agree with his suggestions or do you have any
suggestions of your own?
Driggs: Well I think where I disagree, uh, or might have a little
different viewpoint than Ted Knap is that, that, I think, uh, perhaps the most fair
way-- even though it has some of the drawbacks of its own-- would be a national
presidential primary, as opposed to the regional primaries of which he spoke.
Because, uh, once more, the first, uh, regional or second regional group of primaries would
probably decide it, in terms of the individuals' popularity and the chances of
winning the nomination. And, uh, perhaps the most fair approach would be to have, uh, if
you're going to have such an emphasis on primaries, to have it on a, on a, national
basis, have a national election, and if necessary a runoff, uh, primary.
Interviewer: Do you suggest any revisions for the... Electoral College system?
Driggs: Well, my, I've long felt that we should move away from the Electoral, uh, College
system as it, it, now operates. It doesn't operate the way that the Framers, the
Constitution intended it to operate anyway. And we're, uh, I think risking a
situation where we could end up-- as which could even be a possibility this year-- in
an unrepresentative group really choosing the president that goes into
the House of Representatives. Each state would have one vote. Uh, you would have a
situation where, uh, Nevada with its, uh, 700,000 people or a
better example perhaps, Alaska with its 300,000 would have the same weight as
California with around 25 million people. And so we, we're getting, uh, the thing really
slanted and in that type of direction. Plus all kinds of complications that
could come in, for instance, uh, you, there be voting by States in the House of
Representatives. Right now there are nine states where the delegation is tied
either one-to-one or two-to-two or... four-to-four and, uh, in one case. And in those cases it, it, might end
up a stalemate. They couldn't really vote for one or the other, and, uh, you have to
have 26 states support one candidate before you have an election, and it could
be a long drawn-out process with all kinds of wheeling and dealing behind the
scenes. And, uh, I think that there's, uh, a better way... And, uh, we've ESCAPED from some of these,
uh, problems in the past, but, uh, it could well be that one of these elections in the
future, uh, there could be that situation. I think maybe that's what it will take to
go to a direct election.
Interviewer: Mhmm. Could this year be the year with Anderson's third-party candidacy?
Driggs: I think where the Anderson, uh, candidacy might, uh, possibly throw the
election into the House of Representatives would be if Anderson
would take a state like New York with it's 41 electoral votes. Uh, because right
now he is probably running... pretty close maybe even ahead of the major party
candidates in New York. And, uh, he is especially, he is pulling a large, uh,
percentage of the Jewish vote in the polls and this, uh, Jewish vote is very
important in New York State. And if, uh, he took just that one state, and the
election were close, in terms of, uh, Reagan and Carter, it, uh, it could deprive either one
of them from getting a majority of the electorate votes and therefore sending
it into the House of Representatives.
Reporter: Mkay, now turning to the conventions the upcoming
Democratic Convention is in Elko I believe. The recent Republican Convention
showed that they weren't going to tackle many specific issues, just to get broad
base support from their platform. Do you expect the Democrats to do pretty
the same thing?
Driggs: Well there, there, might be more of a clash at the, uh, Democratic
Convention in Elko. I think the, uh, Republicans this year decided that they
didn't want to, uh, set up a platform which was going t-to take some, uh, strong positions
on divisive issues and issues on which the candidates, the various candidates,
would have a difficult time running. And so therefore they in effect ducked,
taking a strong stand on many of the controversial issues. The Democratic
Party in the past has, has, tended to take, uh, such stands, and therefore some of the
candidates, especially some of the more conservative Democratic candidates, have
gone out of their way to disown the platform, saying they can't run on it. Now
as I understand, it the, uh, platform coming out of Clark County this time was, uh,
similar to the, uh, Republicans in the Clark County Democrats are not taking very, uh,
divisive stands on, on, some of the major issues, uh, such as, uh, uh, question six and, uh, issues
such as the, uh, Family Protection Act and, uh, so on, some of the pro-life... issues. I think
you'll find a, uh, uh, perhaps battle going on at Elko between a more... liberal group from
Washoe County who have a more liberal platform, uh, and a more conservative, uh,
platform coming out of Clark County. But, uh, Clark County has the votes if they, uh, if they
stay together, uh, because they have the majority of the Democrats in the state.
Interviewer: Do these, uh, general platforms have the effect of eroding the two-party system,
in this state at least?
Driggs: Well they, I think the truth of the matter is that, uh, the
platforms are ignored for the most part by the active politicians. The
legislators, uh, really are not affected much at all by the, uh, by the platform planks.
It's, uh, it's a kind of thing where individuals are, are, able to have their
say at the various meetings that are held from the precinct meeting on up to
the state convention to fight for their positions they want. But in terms of the
fact that the platform calls for a certain position, uh, doesn't really affect,
uh, things much at all in terms of getting those, those, planks enacted into law
Interviewer: Thank you very much for talking with us, Dr. Driggs.
Driggs: Thank you, Greg.
John, it may be summertime and it may be warm. But people don't think about energy and heat too
much, but solar energy is important all the time.
For heating hot water, swimming pools, whatever.
Marschall: Right, and here on the
University of Nevada, Reno, uh, we've been trying to do our part to save on fossil
fuels... and have installed what turns out to be the largest solar water heating
system in Northern Nevada. And where does it sit but on top of Nye Hall, a UNR
dormitory. Reporter Chris White, took a look at the installation, talked with
Buzz Nelson, engineering chief at UNR, and Dr. Bob McKee, professor of mechanical
engineering, all about it.
White: The solar water heating system has been in full
operation since September 1st and is expected to provide the school a savings
of 55 percent or 5 thousand dollars a month on fuel bills for heating water in Nye Hall.
Currently the system is actually saving the school close to 40% on its
fuel bills. The solar system, which cost a hundred and seventy thousand dollars to
install, was partially funded by a grant from HUD for a hundred and thirty
thousand dollars. The availability of this money was one of the prime reasons
for the school installing the system at this time. One of the men responsible for
the installation of the solar system is Buzz Nelson, the engineering chief here at UNR.
Nelson: Uh, the system consists of 180 collectors. It's approximately thirty-four hundred
square feet of collector area. Uh, we've got two 3,000 gallon storage tanks
in the basement and, uh, associated, uh, plumbing and, uh,
pumps to go with the system.
White: Have you encountered any problems with the system?
Nelson: Uh, basically the, uh, installation of the system went quite smoothly and we have had, uh, a
great deal of success in the operation of the system. We've had a few problems
with... instrumentation, uh, because we've instrumented it, uh, through our computer
system in order to take accurate data. But, uh, outside that it's been operating quite satisfactorily.
White: What happens on cloudy days and at night?
Nelson: Well the system comes
on automatically when it senses, uh, the sun's rays on the collectors and it also
shuts off automatically at night. Uh, the, uh, system on a cloudy day-- for example today--
is, uh, producing approximately two hundred thousand BTUs an hour even with, uh, the cloud cover.
White: Mkay. About how warm does it get on the cloudy days?
Nelson: Well, today we're
looking at approximately hundred and twenty degree water coming off the collectors.
White: Okay. What is the projected payback period for this system?
Nelson: Well... the, uh,
overall system, uh, payback period is probably somewhere in the neighborhood
of twenty five years. Uh, as far as the university's... contribution to the, uh, system,
we're looking at probably around a six or seven year payback right now. Uh, that's
not taking into account the escalation of fuel costs.
White: On a large scale, the
system seems to be working. But what does this mean for the average homeowner who
doesn't have a hundred and seventy thousand dollars or a two hundred and
seventy foot roof to install a solar water heating system? Dr. Robert McKee, a
professor of mechanical engineering at UNR says that solar energy IS workable
on a smaller scale and is a good investment for the average homeowner.
Dr. Robert McKee: Compared to... investing money and almost everything else that, uh, one can invest, uh,
a couple of thousand dollars in, uh, I think the best of savings accounts now
yield nine or ten percent interest. And a... home solar water heating system
will yield, oh, 15 percent perhaps. That's pretty good.
White: Mhmm. How does the solar water heater work?
McKee: Well it's, uh, simply a matter of a panel which is placed up there where
the Sun can hit it, and you circulate water through the panel, then the water
is warm. In milder climates than ours, where freezing isn't a problem, it's
possible to just run the water through the panel before it goes to your hot
water tap. Uh, here, where we can expect freezing temperatures through... six months
of the year, uh, we have to be a little more complicated.
White: Where do the savings
actually come in for the average homeowner?
McKee: Well the savings come in and
not having to buy 90 cent 90 cent, haha, dollar a gallon fuel oil, or... uh, four and a half
dollar a therm, 45 cents a therm natural gas. Uh, the solar system... will require some
maintenance and of course you have to, uh, justify the investment. But... you don't
have to buy fuel. A system in which the... solar is a preheater for the, for the,
conventional water system. It's probably the most common breed. And that's nice
because... well, all the day like today again if you recall we had a little sun
and we had a lot of clouds and some mixture. Uh, in a day like today, the water
heater will function when the sun hits it but of course when the Sun goes
behind the clouds it stops. And... we... wouldn't be able to collect enough
energy to really, uh, take care of our hot water needs. But if the solar water pre, uh,
heater is a preheater to the regular heating system, uh, then the regular heating
system instead of raising water from 50 degrees at the main to 120 degrees... only
has to raise it from 80 or 90 or a hundred degrees to the 120. Now the other,
there are solar water systems in which the solar heater does the whole job, and
you don't have... and uh, and a good day you don't have any
convention heating at all. And... which one a person uses really depends on what is in
existence... in the house before the solar heater goes in-- and how a person wants to... operate it.
White: What can the homeowner expect to spend for installing a solar water heating system?
The... price of solar systems... like
the price of everything else, nowadays, tends to change, and the direction is
always up, isn't it? Uh, the late- some of the latest figures I hear are... typically, uh,
$2,600 for an installed solar water system. Um, the reason why you can't give one
firm price is because all houses are a little different, and the contractor who
installs it, uh... if he has to spend a half a day with some... extra difficulty because
of the way the house is built, it's going to cost more.
White: OK... And what about tax incentives that the government's offering?
McKee: That's pretty nice, uh... it needs to
be emphasized that what is being offered is not a deduction from income.
Uh, which means a reduction from income, of course depends on what your tax rate is,
how good it is. Uh, what is offered is... a... deduction from the taxes paid, so if a...
family ordinarily would pay, um, six thousand dollars in income taxes this year... and
they spend $2,600 on a solar water heater, they can deduct thirty percent of
the first two thousand directly from that tax bill. So thirty percent, that's
six hundred dollars they can take away from the six thousand they ordinarily
would pay. And I think they can deduct twenty percent of, um, the funds above two
thousand they spend. And I think the total deduction is in the order of two
thousand dollars. But it's a direct deduction from taxes, that's nice.
White: What kind of maintenance is required on a solar system?
McKee: That depends on the system.
Uh, some systems on the market now are guaranteed in a fairly uncondi- unconditional way
for five years. And that means that the installer for five years will come out
and fix whatever needs fixing. I think that's very nice for the buyer.
White: Solar energy is working and is helping to save money and energy for those who have
taken the time to investigate and then invest in it. Solar energy could be
considered as a long-range investment for the homeowner, which begins to pay
dividends back immediately. Reporting for Nevada Weekly, this is Chris White.
Marschall: Two weeks ago at UNR's... commencement exercises we feted... the Class of 1930...
group that was here fifty years ago, and, of course, most if not all of them expressed
pleasant surprise or shock at the enormous changes that have taken place on his
campus. We have however instituted... what it's called Alumni Action Day, which
allows us to bring back alumni on a regular basis back to the campus every
year on a special day. This past year was April 28th. There was a banquet, which was
followed by alumni presentations to classes, uh, conducting special seminars,
workshops, panel discussions for both students and faculty.
Drews: Our special guests for the banquet this year was Frank McCullough,
who's the managing editor of the Sacramento Bee and on the board of directors
for the McClatchy Newspapers. He is a graduate of the University of Nevada and
he's done very well and been very successful. The journalism department
thoroughly enjoyed his company. Uh, reporter Jim Gandy talked with him about the role
of media as a force in the community and the effects of TV and radio versus the newspapers.
Gandy: Is the... relationship between the press and the public as good as it could be?
McCullough: No, I don't think so. Not as good as it could be nor as good as it should be.
And I think, uh, I think... sensibly, we have to assume most of the burden for that,
most the blame for that. Uh um.. essentially I think, mm, until very recently, certainly, as a
general rule American press has been both unresponsive, uh, to provide limited if any
access, uh... to the public, and in general has treated the public of what really
amounted to somewhere between indifference and arrogance. I... I think all that needs
badly to be repaired, and I think it's probably the process of being repaired
very slowly. But because of that, no the the relationships aren't as good as they should
be nor do we have the public support that we need.
Gandy: Well, you've mentioned the, the,
arrogance perhaps of the press. Uh, why is it that people seem to be more concerned
about the performance of the media, today?
McCullough: For two basic reasons. One is that obviously, uh,
thanks to the meeting we're on now largely, but thanks to do all sorts of
information, we are dealing with a better informed public: a public it has access
to other means of information, other than simply the conventional press. And
secondly and maybe most importantly, the... American public has largely lost
confidence in all its institutions. Its churches, its government, its corporations,
the Free Press, its universities. Uh, we have all, uh, suffered an erosion of faith and
confidence in those things and the press is shared very widely in it. So I think
there are two reasons for it.
Gandy: Does the public have a right to expect that the...
media is going to be responsive to their criticisms, or should the media maintain
a certain amount of aloofness and act in what the media sees as the public interest?
McCullough: Both. Absolutely both, and that, that, sounds contradicting
it isn't. But let, let, me express that we cannot reject what the public has... tells us
about ourselves. We cannot totally reject, uh, the public's criticism of our shortcomings.
We cannot reject, uh, what the public has to tell us about its own informational
needs. At the same time I can't do entirely what the public wants me to do
because I produce a newspaper, there would be no value to that very public. So
those are not contradictory, and somewhere there is that, that, balancing act that
is perpetual. And that's, that's, the name of the game!
But both have to be present. And that's very difficult. And we overstepped both ways.
Gandy: What have newspapers and the print media
in general, what have they been doing to improve their relationship with the
public in the last few years?
McCullough: Well again, I think goes back to the question of
responsiveness, of openness, of access... of credibility, of integrity. All those
things, and I think everybody has been... become first a good and more conscious about
that, about the necessity to do better in those areas. And secondly, I think is
begin to provide mechanisms... or structures by which those can be dealt
with, such as ombudsmen. And on lots of newspapers including ours, such as a
policy which leads a newspaper to make... corrections without being called. We
discover an error, we correct it ourselves. Uh, such as being certain to the
extent of our ability that both sides are always represented in any
controversy including legal actions. All of those structures have been
established because of the awareness group. And I think that that process is rather well underway.
Gandy: TV and... other electronic media have come in for a good deal of
criticism lately. What do you think that the electronic media could do to improve
their relationship with the public?
McCullough: I think... pretty much the same thing,
although, I, I'll, I'll be honest with you, I think that, uh... the TV and radio... in the net, in this
in, in, in the large... have suffered from the shortcomings less than print. Uhhh, and, uh, what,
uh, the basic improvement is a very difficult thing to, for, I think free the TV
or radio to, to, make which is simply to provide more information. I hate the word
in-depth, uh, the phrase in-depth. But, uhhh, more information in-depth. Now I, I, don't
know how to address the problem but you're not going to get anybody to look at
most of that. And I, I, really don't know the answer to
that except again it's, it's, it's that it's a sequential series of judgments
that we all have to make. And somewhere out in there there is a balance. But, uh... uh, I, I,
look at television and radio purely from the outside as a consumer. And, uh... it doesn't
look to me or sound to me quite as unresponsive, as WE were-- the print media were-- in the past.
Gandy: How do you tell if the media is doing a good job of improving its, uh,
relationship with its audience? Is it more than a question of ratings and circulation?
McCullough: Yeah. Uh... Let's start, though, with uh, that's to the test the marketplace. [Gandy: Mhm.] And
obviously without that we don't survive. There's no point in functioning in a vacuum.
So we must address ourselves to that first. Or we don't function at all! If, we,
you don't have the ratings and we don't have the circulation... we could
theoretically at least, become the best... television station and the best
newspaper on Earth and we go out of business. So we do must address
ourselves to that simply to get to where we must get everyone to the job. But
beyond that I think we can be reasonably certain when we aren't doing everything
we should, or we would have, we would not have suffered the loss in the
institution that the Free Press represents that we have lost. It's a fact though, that
follows. Although that's widely shared, and all institutions have suffered that,
if we had done an exceptional job, presumably, we wouldn't have lost that
competence. We did lose it, we must have failed.
Gandy: The media has, uh, been criticized and
has taken corrective actions for, uh, uhhh... maintaining too close of a relationship
to say the government, or to big business or other institutions. [McCullough: Right.] Is there a danger
of the media becoming TOO responsive to the public. Isn't a certain amount of
animosity absolute thing?
McCullough: Absolutely. There's a very real danger in that. I think the...
this is a deliberate oversimplification. But... it's a way of saying, "I think we have
an answer in this." I think it, practice doesn't, should be practice. Journalism
is what we're talking about, whatever the form it takes is an exceptionally
lonely trade. And... that means that, that, people in the news business must maintain a, a,
distance must be, uhhh, it'll actually remote from the people with
whom they deal. Otherwise the involvement... out of it, out of too much involvement
flows all the rest.
Marschall: Well thank all of you for being with us this morning and hope
you'll join us... next time, Monday, June 16th at 6:30 in the morning, at which
time we're going to be looking at the obstructed airway... technique. That's a
methodology for helping people who are choking.
Drews: John we're also going to take a
look at UNR's annual health fair and find out... methods of, uh, the causes and cures
for aches and pains, biofeedback, foot massage.
Marschall: Again, that's... Monday, June 16, 6:30
right here at KOLO-TV, Reno.
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