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Hemme Wy WE EE EE NET EE EERE Ree EEE ERT YY YT EW Wy Tw ted VW %YtTtw MEE J PE APN > r~ 6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, September 20, 1988 Editorial Comments GOING TOO FAR It was not too many years ago when a couple of young reporters working for a large Washington newspaper be- gan looking into a break-in at the headquarters of the emocrat Party's national campaign office in the Ameri- can capital. The rest of the Slory is history. The name of the apart- ment building where the break-in took place was Water- gate. The two reporters were Woodward and Bernstein. Il three names would soon come to be known synony- mously with the largest political scandal ever in the United Stas which eventually led to the toppling of the Presi- ent. Watergate was a watershed, not only in American poli- tics, but also in the relationship between the media and politicians. In retrospect, of course, there can be no denying that the Watergate and subsequent related entanglemets were scandals of a major proportion that deserved to be exposed and presented to the American people, today, some 15 years later, one wonders about the fall-out. Watergate launched the press (radio, TV, newspapers and newsmagazines) into investigative journalism, scram- bling to uncover scandal and corruption in high places. After all, if Woodward, Bernstein and the Washington Post could become household words, the stuff of which books and movies are made, so could others, If there was scandal and corruption in the Oval Office that needed to be sniffed out, so it must also be at every level of government. And a lot of enterprising and hard working young editors and reporters set out to uncover it and in doing so, make a name for themselves. What happened in a lot of cases, was that their efforts to uncover the muck in high places proved fruitless. There wasn't any. Gradually, there was a transition. If there was no legit- mate muck to be found on the skins of politicians, the press, hungry for headlines, began to dig into the person- al lives of those in office or seeking office. Their sex lives, their marriages, their affairs, their habits, their likes, dis- likes, their finances, their health and medical history, their spouses, their children, their school records, everything was deeemed to be "on the record" when a man or wom- an stepped into public life. The line has come full circle in 1988, and there are many people who believe that line has come far too far. The Canadian media, just a step behind their Ameri- can counterparts, are looking at nook and cranny in the lives of national politicians. There have been un-authorized books about the three leaders of the main political parties, the latest by a news- paper reporter on John Turner, called "Reign of Error." The title tells you what the book is about and to say that it is unflattering is something of an understatement. How much do the voters of the country need to know about the private lives of politicians and their families? Do the voters need to know how many shoes Mrs. Mullroney owns, how much she spends on jewellry? Does (Turn to page 8) TRACKS, / THE NEXT GENERATION Chatterbox by Cathy Olliffe Port Perry Go rir? . STAR gg (=| 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO Phone 985-7383 P.0.Box90 LOB 1NO J. PETER HVIDSTEN Publisher Advertising Manager Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Community Newspaper Association. Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd., Port Perry, Ontario. J.B. McCLELLAND Editor Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for cash CATHY OLLIFFE payment of postage in cash. News & Features Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 i (aT : Subscription Rate: In Canada $20.00 per year. ' 7rd 3 0 "Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50° © COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver- tising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. STUPID THINGS I'VE DONE LATELY Thursday, 8 a.m., and there's no coffee or filters in the office kitchen. | really wanted a coffee. Needed a coffee. So | headed over to the IGA to buy some, where | was confronted by a myriad of choic- es. After scanning the multitude of brands, and eliminating anything decaffienated or instant, my eye was caught by the Maxwell House pre- mium brand display and the matching coffee bean grinder. What a treat it would be, | thought, to actually grind some beans on this sunny day. What an "absolute pleasure, to fully awaken by smelling deeply the wonderful aroma of fresh ground coffee. Yes, yes, yes. | picked up one of the Maxwell House brands, quaintly named Morning Blend, and read the directions on the grinder. "Open the package," it said. "Simply pull top apart." Sounded easy. | grabbed the top of the vac- cuum pack and pulled. Nothing budged. | pulled again. Ditto. | pulled again. And broke a fingernail. | contemplated cursing, but re-read the di- rections instead. "Simply pull top apart." Okay already. | yanked on the foil for the umpteenth time and looked around to see if anyone was watching. No one was. Thank goodness. Frustrated beyond belief, | grabbed my x- acto knife from my purse and viciously cut the top off the package of beans. Great! Finally! Except, lo and behold, there were no beans in that package. No beans. Just plain old ordinary pre- ground coffee. I'd just spent 10 minutes fooling around with the wrong package. Is that stupid, or what? OTHER STUPID THINGS Yes, there's more. Not too long ago Doug and | went to the Uxbridge fried chicken outlet to get two snack packs to go. | didn't want any dumb legs or wings, so | asked for white meat only, something that rattles me. You see, | don't like making a fuss. | particu- larly don't like hassling cashiers in fast food joints because | once upon a time worked in a fast food joint, and was hassled frequently. Thus, | go out of my way not to be a pest. | felt real bad asking this teenaged girl for white meat only, and thus got nervous and red-faced, and started stuttering and such. But | made it through, and paid the girl, and she rang off the cash register, and everything was fine until | realized I'd ordered three shac packs instead of two. | didn't want three snack packs. | didn't need to eat another whole entire meal. So | stam- mered and cleared my throat and babbled ceaselessly about how Sorry | was while the cashier fussed around with the machine and returned my money. Alas, | had unwittingly hassled the sales clerk, a mortal sin, and walked out of the store feeling like a complete idiot. Although | am capable of doing stupid things all day and all night long, | am most prone to stupidity in the morning. | am not a morning person, and am therefore clumsy, ir- ritable and generally obnoxious. No matter how good a mood | was in the night before, no matter how much sleep | got, no matter if the sun is shining and the birds are twittering madly, | still find myself in a foul mood most mornings. | just wake up feeling real ugly. It happens the moment | open my eyes--passionately hateful thoughts fill my head as | stumble into the bathroom and trip over a towell, as | at- tempt to fill the coffee maker and dump water all over the counter, as | realize | don't own one clean pair of socks. With my body running on automatic pilot, | bump into walls, get shampoo in my eyes and generally get feeling even uglier. Naturally, Doug, who IS a morning person, takes the brunt of my anger. | mean, he drives me nuts in the morning! He's just so darn hap- py about life--singing in the shower, smiling all over the place like he hasn't got a care in the world, and lavishing all sorts of endearments on me. | can't stand his cheery ways when I'm feel- ing so ugly--so | insult him and criticize him and generally act like a boor until he loses his tem- per and Jiis mad at me. And the second he gets mad at me, all my anger flies out the win- dow. | become happy. | don't have a care in the world. | become a moming person. Is that stupid, or what?