◆ SpookStack

, AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE factors are the assumptions that the police are always in the right, that anyone who is on public assistance is a cheat, a chiseler, a bum, etc. In our coverage of foreign news, the basic assumption is that there are "strange and ominous happenings in the world"-- which 1s true. A secondary, but equally important assumption is that, whenever the government chooses to take measures with respect to these happenings, it is perfectly all right; the only reports on the government action are whether it has succeeded or not. In the areas in which the government has no interest, the press is made to assume that the public also has no interest, as witness the People's Republic of China, cited as support for his claim that there is distortion in the U. S. press of the Congo crisis of November 1964, At that time, he said, there arose a conflict between the Tshombe regime and the Congolese rebels, White settlers in the Congo, threatened by the rebels, necessitated military intervention on the part of the United States, Great Britain and Belgium. contends that the "mercy mission" undertaken by the United States and Belgtum was, in reality, an attempt to occupy Stanleyville and turn it over to the central regime at Leopoldville. In other words, it was not a mission of peace, but an act of war. Since that time, the United States and Belgium have been providing funds, arms, etc., to the Tshombe regime for the support of his white mercenaries, At the same time that the Western nations were intervening in the Congo —aiainem said, there were - negotiations in progress in Kenya for the extradition of the whites, and, indeed, the whites were not the only ones in danger of being killed. The fact that the American people have not been told (a) of the Kenya negotiations or (b) of the millions of native Congolese in danger, is ample proof .of news distortion. . a: opened his remarks with the statement that distortion in a report, be it oral or written, is almost inevitable in human terms. The event is seen through the human eye which, like any lens, can distort even when the