Bizarre editorial from the Northwestern student newspaper

I said it was thoughtful. And it was - and I understood the intent of it. Very kind. I appreciate how you try to put proverbial arm around the field, and you're in a spot where doing that is a nice olive branch.

For me, I reverse the politics of the speaker and the protester, and I don't think the apology happens, because the issue at hand wasn't about calling people and asking questions. The Northwestern students did that. Then - and this is my theory - they apologized for it because:

A. They were shamed and bullied into doing so.
B. The bullies had politics on the "right side of history."

I think it's a campus political issue - the coded language about trauma and sensitivities and privacy - that just happened to trample on journalism because journalism was in the way that day.

My theory is this: If the politics were reversed, and the Daily Northwestern students took the exact same actions and received the exact same bullying from conservative activists, the editorial would have been roughly five words: "Kiss our ass. That's journalism." And we all would have applauded, as we should.

 

You're 100 percent right.

But I blame the current campus culture (not just at Northwestern) more than the student editor specifically.

The language he used in the apology -- so ridiculous but so familiar to anyone who has spent any time recently in a higher education setting -- isn't his own. It's been taught by others. And he used it because he thought that's what would garner the most favorable feedback from those he looked up to in his campus bubble.

So I imagine he was caught off guard by the criticism when he had been expected to be hailed as some sort of hero for his sensitivity.

 

Well stated Alma. Nailed it.

 

Is that anything like "re-aggravating"?

 

This character has really run its course.

 

News or ‘Trauma Porn’? Student Journalists Face Blowback on Campus

 

My theory is that the status quo is already corporatized and profoundly conservative, and that many of these kids are smart enough to see that.

 

So you support the apology? Agree with it?

If they’d been that kind of “smart” in the first place they wouldn’t have reported anything.

 

One could argue a few characters have - and a few of them might agree with your politics. Gonna call them out or just criticize laundry?

 

Nope.

Nor do I think, however, this is quite as one-sided as it's been made out to seem.

 

How so?

 

It's not unreasonable to ask reporters to take photos out of their personal Twitter feeds. That's why I keep asking if photos were taken out of the story, or off individual Twitter accounts.

Nor is it unreasonable for students to be upset when they learn their contact information is in the college directory without their knowledge.

The apology was a mistake, but not a big one. It's a college paper. It's the place where young journalists get to make mistakes.