Some people don’t understand—they just don’t get it. Control of things in life is something people want, but is not often granted. With the press, for some reason people think they have a choice with what is run, and it’s bewildering to me.
You even see it on the national level at times. People shout against censorship until they, or their company or someone they know are involved in a possible story.
Don’t get me wrong, I think people should hold a paper accountable just as it holds a community. People should demand truth and honesty from a paper. Communities should mandate relevant stories to be printed, order integrities and expect facts.
I know this is a tough time for journalism. People are questioning if journalism ethics even still exist. Papers mess up and get facts wrong all the time, most recently the Rolling Stone piece in headlines over the past six months for it’s failures.
The free spirit that is a newspaper is powerful beyond gauge. But the power is only as strong as the trust people have in it. It has the power to change things, uncover things, show people what is proper and even perhaps upset a few people.
I think a paper that reports well is going to make a mistake from time to time. Obviously not as bad as the Rolling Stone piece, but no one is perfect 24/7.
From the time I came to Longwood in fall of 2011, I was always told the newspaper was it’s own entity. Yes, Longwood’s paper receives funding from the Student Government Association, but no matter what, it’s going to say what it wants…no one should put their hand over it’s mouth.
It’s a two way street. News outlets need you, and you need news outlets. Without readers, any paper would be pointless to print, and without news circulation, one could argue a community would be ignorant.
But the newspaper (especially a student-produced one) should do what the newspaper wants to do, not what someone else wishes they do.
If a newspaper or outlet never upsets someone, it might be because they aren’t doing their job, or are scared to. But that doesn’t mean someone should try to stop an outlet from writing something they don’t like.
You never should call a reporter, tell them how you feel about what they wrote and request they change it—that’s not only bad ethics, it’s bad protocols.
When The Rotunda published articles by infamous author ‘Candy Cane’ last spring, many people called The Rotunda’s office, or emailed our editor expressing their disgruntlement.
Though I personally didn’t find the articles tasteful, I would fight tooth and nail for The Rotunda’s right to publish them—that’s what the paper wished to do.
The Rotunda has done it’s job all year. People have been held accountable, whistles have been blown and hard stories have been written. Mistakes have occasionally been made, and people have been pissed off.
But we expected all of that, and look forward to telling your stories in the future.
