The Black & White online posted a story Sept. 20 about the arrest of two seniors — one for illegal possession of prescription ADD medication and one for distribution — and the possible involvement of five other seniors. The story, which also appears in this print issue, generated numerous comments from community members, many of whom questioned the Black & White’s decision to publish the article.
As a student-run school newspaper, we follow guidelines on what constitutes news and which stories to publish. When deciding whether to publish sensitive stories, we make an effort to balance the public’s need to know about the issue with the individual’s right to privacy. A police car pulled up to school Sept. 20, and police escorted two students into the car. In this event, as we have in the past with similar incidents, we reported only the facts from the administration and did not name the students involved in the arrest. Our goal for the story was not only to inform the community, but also to dispel any false rumors among the student body about the incident.
As administrators and police continue to investigate, we will report any further developments, again with the utmost care and respect for students’ privacy, balanced with our obligation to report news.
Danny McClanahan • Oct 17, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Allowing anyone who wants to to submit a story would in fact sharply cut down costs and the amount of effort required to get an issue together, so I have no clue where you got the idea that it would cost more. If it’s a dumb article, then just don’t publish it. It’s not like every idiot in the school is going to send in an article; in fact, the people who can’t write well are exactly the kind of people who wouldn’t be interested in submitting an article to a school newspaper.
Also, what are these mystical “guidelines,” as iggy asked? You can’t write a passive-aggressive “apology” or whatever this is (which was entirely unnecessary in the first place since the only people who objected to the original article are idiots) without actually clarifying what guidelines you’re using. If we don’t have the definition of the guidelines (or, as is more likely, there are no “guidelines” and you’re just judging each story on a case-by-case basis), you can say anything conforms to them, and we’ll have no clue whether you’re right.
Ridikulus • Oct 2, 2011 at 5:20 pm
That’s utterly stupid.
First of all, Black & White does not have the funds to let everyone who wants to write be on the paper. They don’t recieve county funding; all of this is paid for by advertising and subscriptions.
And second of all, there’s a real legitimate reason that Black & White restricts who can write. U wudnt want bad writurds whu cudnt spell
iggy • Oct 2, 2011 at 12:05 pm
What are these “guidelines” to which the authors refer? I presume they are written down somewhere but where? If we could read them ourselves, it would allow us to judge whether the BW is conforming to the guidelines or if the guidelines are in need of updating.
To respond to a comment from someone else, in this day and age of twitter et al where anyone can ‘publish’ news, it’s disingenuous to claim that lack of reporting staff is an excuse for not covering more events. I’m not saying we should give up editors. But the school should encourage more student reporting. However, Whitman policies are precisely the opposite – for example, by sharply restricting who is allowed to write for the BW.
Jean • Sep 28, 2011 at 8:53 am
Perhaps you can expand on the problem of prescription drugs being shared. Is it a felony if one simply gave the pill to someone other than the intended consumer?
Jeremy K • Sep 27, 2011 at 9:18 pm
Anon,
I seriously disagree with your entire point. Basically, you’re saying because other things like drug busts happen at Whitman that go unreported or unnoticed B&W shouldn’t cover any of them because that is unfair. This, my friend, basically defeats the purpose of all journalism. Journalism is not fair. Journalism is not intended to report equally on every event; it is meant to give the news that matters to an audience in the most effective, efficient, and accurate manner. Drug busts occurring on a school property – especially for ADD drugs (which has become a huge problem in the past decade) – is something the community deserves and has a right to know about.
The fact that other drug busts occur and go unreported is, to be frank, a non sequitur.
Just because there was an armed robbery in South East that goes unreported does that mean we shouldn’t report other armed robberies? Just because there are innocent people we will never know about being killed in the Darfur genocide does that mean we shouldn’t report about the thousands of deaths we do know about? If there are Senators taking bribes from lobbyists but only is uncovered is it unfair to him if only his scandal is reported while the public and the press remains ignorant of the other scandals?
The answer to these questions is, of course, no. Journalism is about reporting what we know. In this case, the BW knew about these students getting busted (I’m in college now so I’m not quite familiar with the specifics of the story) and reported it. You would be correct in saying their coverage was unfair if they had known about 10 drug busts and reported only this one, but this is, of course, not the case.
The fact that you say other drug busts occur ( by the way, I’d be interested to know just how many other drug busts happen at Whitman that go unreported. probably a tiny number) at Whitman and no one knows about them is not the Black and White’s fault.
Your argument that the BW has no grounds to claim it’s their journalistic duty to report this story because there is much that goes unreported is also unfounded. It is physically impossible for the Black and White to report on every single thing that happens in the halls of Whitman. The lack of money, people, and time to report make it so that the BW, unfortunately, often misses out on many stories that deserve to be shared. But citing this inability to be everywhere at all times as a disregard to their journalistic duty is an absolutely ridiculous argument.
Would it be more ideal or fairer if every drug bust story got equal coverage? Sure. But is this possible? Of course not. So to complain that it isn’t fair is to ignore the journalistic responsibility of the B&W to report the information they have on the stories they know about.
It would be awesome if there were some magical way to be able to know about and report on all drug busts or fights or cheating scandals at Whitman. But this just isn’t possible. Until then, the BW has the right AND responsibility to inform the community about ALL drug busts it’s aware of because drug busts on school grounds without a doubt constitute as newsworthy.
That said, you should read The Spectator because it’s infinitely better.
Anon • Sep 27, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Look, I get the idea that you’re trying to make here, but the fact of the matter is kids get arrested and cited at Whitman more than we know about. Drug busts are no stranger to whitman, and can often times take place on school grounds without any coverage by B&W. It’s hard to understand your point about your journalistic duty when I know how much goes on that doesn’t get reported. Just because it happened to people that people on B&W know doesn’t mean it’s anymore relevant than what happens each week at Whitman. Consider this next time before you bother making a statement like this.
anonymous • Sep 27, 2011 at 6:52 pm
well handled response, ladies!!