Dr. Leo Jenkins continues to talk about his problems with the North Carolina press. BRATTON: But their [newspaper] policies have always been . . .
JENKINS: Well, they always look for a problem. They also have the unrepresented generalization trick. Now Greensboro pulls that more than Raleigh.
[End of Tape 1, Side A]
JENKINS: And they played it down as much as they could, but they had to have some compensating news. So a fellow came down here and went back and there was a four column headline on the front page, DRUGS PREVALENT AT EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY. So I called the editor and I said, "Look, if this is true, I want you to share your information with me, because I'm going to call the head of the SBI. I want him to come down in strength. I don't want to cover this kind of thing up. If it is prevalent here, I want him here in strength." He says, "Well, let me, hold on a minute." I said, "What's your evidence?" He said, "We don't have any evidence. We sent Joe Blow down," or whoever he was. "He talked to a student," now, don't forget, one out of 12,000, "he talked to a student there and this student said that he thought that about half the people there were on drugs." I said, "Is that the basis for a front page, four column headline?" He said, "Well, you know." I said, "You know better than that, don't you?" I said, "You're a graduate of journalism from Chapel Hill and you know better than that. That's not a representative sampling." I said, "That's really punksterism and you know it." He said, "Well, you know, you're too sensitive." I said, "I'm not sensitive. I'm just interested in fair play. I'm thinking of the parents of these youngsters who read this nonsense which you know is not true." Then you can't win that kind of argument, but that's the trick, you see, the unrepresentative sampling.
Then he came down, another paper and they grabbed different students, "What is there about East Carolina that you do not like?" One kid would find this and this and this. If they could do that in heaven and ask "What are the things you don't like in heaven?" you know.
So I called this man and I said, "What if we send someone down there now to your paper and I went through the press room, advertising room, and business office and I were to say to all of them working there, "What is there about this paper you don't like? I'd get a list of things, wouldn't I?" I said, "Would you make a big story on that? Because I'd be happy to do it if you'll make a big story out of it." He said, "Well." It was bad journalism and he knew it. That type of thing gripes you a little bit, you know, when they pull this nonsense of the unrepresentative sampling.
They'll do that even with statistics. To illustrate a point: They'll say, East Carolina has lower scores in teacher exams than does Davidson. Well, then you look closer. There'd be six kids that took the exam at Davidson and there'd be four hundred here who took it. So I told the press, "You think that's fair?" He said, "Well, it's percentages." I said, "Let's put it this way, I'll put our first six against Davidson's first six." That's their whole gang. We would have beaten them at that, because I checked before I brought this up. I said, "Do you want to do that? Our first six against their first six." "Oh, no, we can't play it that way. We go by percentages." Well, he knew what he was talking about.
It's like the boy, the chancellor at one of the colleges told me, that there was a youngster bragging about being salutatorian. He said that it just annoyed him because the kid was just dumb. He didn't even know if the kid could write his name, he was that kind of dumb. He finally got hold of him and he said, "Look, have you been bragging about this stuff?" The kid said, "Yes, sir. I'm not lying. I was salutatorian." Well, to make a long story short, he graduated from a little mountain school that had two students. So, of course, he was salutatorian.
BRATTON: He couldn't lose on that one.
JENKINS: Of course, he was. He wasn't fibbing one damn bit.
BRATTON: Well, from your experience and observation, why do you think there has been such an attack on East Carolina over the years?
JENKINS: Well, it really isn't East Carolina. I think it's the region.
BRATTON: We reflect [the region]?
JENKINS: We reflected a region that people considered backward. People would grow up here and then leave where opportunities were, the Piedmont. They would be successful and once in awhile come back and visit grandma or visit mama.
But the best way I can illustrate it. My very first experience in the legislature, way back, a friend of mine was my tent mate in Guam in the Marines. He had gotten in the legislature and we never knew we would ever meet each other in North Carolina. We were rather friendly. He called me aside, we had a request for $40,000 for an organ to be put in Austin. This fellow said, "Look now, you know that I'm going to vote for this thing, but tell me as buddy-buddy, you and me. What in the hell are they going to do with a damn organ down there?" He was very sincere. He was a North Carolinian. I said, "Well, Bob, you know darn right well they are going to do with it the same as you do up here. They're going to play it." I said, "I think frankly that they are going to play it better than you do up here." I said, "Because their Music School can top anything I've seen around Raleigh." He said, "Well, I'm just wondering."
They just didn't think that quality existed or anything worthwhile existed and the rumor was that they don't have shoes yet. They were emerging from a very, very bad press, if you want to. And yet, when I made speeches at Goldsboro and Winston-Salem and Charlotte, I'd always have to remind them that this is the birthplace of the nation. This is where Virginia Dare did her thing. I said, "They were writing poems here. They were writing books. They had commerce. They had military. They had transportation. They had all these things when you were a wilderness." Which is true, a real wilderness. I said, "Here you look upon them as real Tobacco Road and of course the play Tobacco Road didn't help any.
BRATTON: No.
JENKINS: You know that gave the picture that things were funny. I said, "But it isn't that way anymore. They're very sincere, lovable people." I said, "In some cases, some may appear unsophisticated, because they haven't been in your circles. They don't think it's cute to do some of the things you do. They are Sunday School folks, if you want to put it that way." And a lot of them were in those days and still are. I said, "That doesn't mean they're not deserving." I said, "Also the good things of life should never depend on geography. I mean, who do you think you are? They pay taxes, they pay their dues. The people far out west pay their taxes. Shouldn't they get the same as you have? Why should it be exclusively yours?" Well, that philosophy existed so long.
Another thing, politically, the East was taken for granted. A Republican was unknown down here, except down in Sampson County, that was a nest of Republicans, Sampson County. Therefore, they knew that they didn't have to do anything but come here. If a fellow wanted a primary in the Democratic Party, he could count on here. There would be no desertion of the party. So he would promise them roads. He'd promise them everything, but not fulfill it. So now, for the first time, we were seriously asking them to fulfill the dream, their promises, that we wanted party action. Now this annoyed a lot of people.
BRATTON: I guess also thinking that it would cut the pie in smaller pieces.
JENKINS: Oh yes, definitely they thought that.
