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MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2012 • OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY CORVALLIS, OREGON 97331

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Beavers undefeated Streak ends with loss to Huskies

VOLUME CXVI, NUMBER 35

Major General talks military, media Major General Jeffrey Buchanan recounts experience as US Military spokesman during the Iraq war By Amanda Antell The Daily Barometer

Courtesy U.S. Army, I Corps| CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan has served in the U.S. military for over 35 years.

Friday, Oct. 26, Maj, Gen. Jeffrey ‘Jeff’ Buchanan gave a presentation on the relationship between the media and the United States Military. Buchanan is the Deputy Commanding General at Joint Base Lewis-McChorrd in Washington. Buchanan started off his presentation by introducing himself, and announced his two main points of discussion: free press in democracy and the media coverage in Iraq. In addition, Buchanan included the importance of the media, veterans and the importance of the attending audience. After his introduction, Buchanan moved on to the topic of the discussion: trust, and the importance of establishing and maintaining trust between the media and military. “The [Vietnam] media coverage created a big rift between the military and media,” Buchanan said. Buchanan went onto say that when he joined the military in 1977 all of his instructors were Vietnam veterans. During his first 10 or 15 years in the military, Buchanan was taught not to trust reporters, but instead to avoid them. “They were not be trusted, and our secrets

were not to be entrusted to them,” Buchanan ence from the media side, providing him a full-perspective view of the relationship. From said. The first step to mend the rift between the that, Buchanan formulated his own prescripmilitary and the media was taken over the years tion to mend the rift between the media and 1990 to 1991 during Operation Desert Storm, the military. “Understand the culture, forge a relationwhen the military embedded reporters in actual military units. The reporters would stay ship, admit mistakes and lastly, maintain your with a unit, and report activities from the unit’s values,” Buchanan said. Just like there are different point of view. This approach cultures for each of the difexpanded greatly after 9/11. ferent branches of the miliThe embedded reporters tary, there are also many difUnderstand the greatly benefited the miliferent cultures in the media. tary because they established culture, forge a According to Buchanan, the trust between the members to a trusting relationship of the media and the milirelationship, admit key is to first understand the diftary. In consequence, howyour mistakes and ferent cultures; dissimilar culever, media members had tures must try to understand grown too close to their units, lastly, maintain one another. and didn’t give full coverage, Forging personal relationcultivating suspicion once your values. ships increases understandagain. Despite this, the miliing and alleviates anxiety, tary endorsed the embedded automatically breaking down Jeffrey Buchanan project. communication barriers. Deputy Commanding General “We got the truth out there, Admitting mistakes is cruwe didn’t just get the first 15 cial, and according to Buchanan, if mistakes second snapshot,” Buchanan said. While the media coverage has certainly aren’t confessed, then the trust is destroyed. Lastly, values must be maintained, and must improved since Vietnam, the tension is still not be compromised. Personal values must present, especially concerning Iraq. Buchanan was chosen as the U.S. Military spokesper- be respected; otherwise, compromise will meet son because of his firsthand experience and with conflict. An example he gave was the attempt of the U.S. Military to organize an eleccredibility. This position allowed him to gain experiSee BUCHANAN | page 2

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hannah gustin

| THE DAILY BAROMETER

Left: LaSells Stewart Center was oufitted to imitate “Harry Potter” locations, including “Diagon Alley” and “Hogsmeade.” Right: During the concert they had actors dressed as members of the Harry Potter world read the winning letters for the Letters to Harry Writing Contest. An announcer dressed as Professor McGonagall.

OSU-Corvallis Symphony revives ‘Potter’ through a musical tribute n

The ‘Halloween with Harry’ concert transformed LaSells Stewart Center with creative sets, music from the films, composed by John Williams By Hannah Johnson The Daily Barometer

Albus Dumbledore, in J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” calls music “a magic far beyond all we do here.” The “Halloween with Harry” concert allowed fans to relive that magic through a rendition of whimsical score that accompanied the films On Sunday, Oct. 28, the Corvallis-Oregon State University Symphony performed at the LaSells Stewart Center. They performed music from the composer John Williams, who wrote the music for the Harry Potter movies. The symphony was conducted by Rob Birdwell, a guest conductor. Although the concert didn’t start until 3 p.m., the doors opened at 1 p.m. for people to experience a creative interpretation of Diagon Alley, put together by Michelle Maller. Not only was Diagon Alley and the musical performance part of the experience, but letters from Potter fans were read and actors read excerpts from the series on stage.

Many people contributed to making this event a success, including Birdwell, Dr. Marlan Carlson, Erin Sneller, Marion Rossi, Tina Green-Prince and Michelle Maller. Birdwell enjoys being surrounded by many creative and talented people. “The Corvallis-OSU Symphony is an amazingly talented group of musicians who perform at the very highest level,” Birdwell said. Birdwell is a fan of John Williams and was excited for the opportunity to conduct this performance. Beth Ray was part of the planning committee. “This event is a great [opportunity] to see people, especially the children adoring the lobby display, dressing up and enjoying the symphony,” Ray said. The idea of “Halloween with Harry” came to because, like many orchestras, they wanted to connect with their audiences, especially newer audiences who may not normally attend events like these. “Marlan Carlson, the music director, and [the OSU] Symphony Board recognized that such a concert would not only be a lot of fun, but would also connect with a very wide audience,” Birdwell said. Michelle Maller was responsible for putting together Diagon Alley.

“I love being a part of hosting an event that is so unique and interesting, especially when there are so few family events in Corvallis,” Maller said. Maller said she enjoys the looks on kids’ faces when they enter and see how the building has been transformed into the wonderful world of J.K. Rowling. Since Maller is a Harry Potter fan herself, she loved being a part of making this event a success. “I really love being able to spread my Harry Potter nerdiness to others,” Maller said. “It’s been pretty fun to try to stick as closely as possible to the integrity of the books and films.” They realized they wanted to do an event before the concert, but still want it related to the musical performance. “We were not expecting the turnout we had last year,” Maller said. “[It] sold out and that made it a very easy decision to repeat the event this year. Guests were blown away by the event.” Because of the success they had last year, they decided to expand it past just Diagon Alley, and also had a Hogsmeade in hopes of accommodating the crowds better this year. Hannah Johnson, news reporter news@dailybarometer.com

hannah gustin

| THE DAILY BAROMETER

A “Magical Creatures” booth sponsored by the Humane Society featured this dog among other animals