You still have a few hours to make deadline.....
I'm beginning to feel like the embittered editor of the New York Sun in the 1994 movie "The Paper," a sharp-tongued codger who is largely ignored by his reporters and editors when he crows "Doesn't anyone around here respect a deadline anymore?"
Commies, today is (or, if you're reading this after the 12th, was) the deadline for opinion and feature articles. No excuses; I know today is a Saturday and school is not in session. Articles are submitted via e-mail anyway, so why should the day of the week make a difference? I know the sex column controversy has sidetracked everyone. We're on a tighter leash and under more scrutiny, so that should motivate us to meet our deadlines, put out an earth-shatteringly good newspaper and silence our critics.
Deadline day doesn't officially end 'til midnight, so if you're reading this before then and you have a feature article or column due, you know what's expected of you.
I'll accept opinions and features Monday with no penalty. Any later than that, and you and I will need to have a serious talk.
posted by Corey at
8:20 PM
4 Comments:
It's very interesting that you expect newspaper staff members to be responsible, yet your publication as a whole seems determined to act irresponsibly.
Quite paradox.
By
Anonymous, at 11:01 PM
Irresponsible? Not according to the Daily Spectator of Columbia University and the dozens of other prestigious and Ivy League college newspapers that run sex columns far, far more explicit than "Between the Sheets."
Not according to the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla., one of the world's most respected journalism schools, which posted an article to its online Poynter Ethics Journal reading "Journalists need more sex (in their stories, that is.)"
Not according to the powerhouse Raleigh law firm that represents the News & Observer, which has risen most admirably to our defense and has condemned the censorious actions of Craven Community College.
And another thing, your pithy sign-off should read "Quite paradoxical."
"I disapprove of what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
--E. Beatrice Hall
By
Corey, at 11:35 AM
Ah! You nailed me on a typo. Perhaps I should eat a little crow - with feathers, of course.
I do not necessarily question your right to publish such an article, but I do question the wisdom. Craven Community College is not an Ivy League school. Its student population is more demographically diverse and includes a considerable number of "non-traditional" students. Have you considered that many of those people might have sensibilities quite different from yours? You may think an article on sex is a good idea, perhaps even cute or funny. (Hmm...was your motive in publishing the article truly based on a perceived need of your readership, or was there some element of wanting to be provocative?)
You have to consider your readership. And your readership is a broad group of people who simply may not want to read a sex article in a community college newspaper.
By
Anonymous, at 11:17 PM
Your concerns and mine are the same, and if I'm not much mistaken, we now find ourselves on the same side.
Based on the total lack of reader outrage over similar content -- Genevieve Barr-Pontiff's "G's Spot" column, a monthly restaurant review sprinkled with overt sexual innuendo that ran for about four months in 2003-2004 -- we predicted our readers would react as benignly to "Between the Sheets."
We were wrong, and that is why I publicly announced in early March that the column would be discontinued.
Our readers are our paramount concern, and I yanked the column because it upset and offended so many of our readers.
A newspaper is naturally regulated and restricted by the sensibilities of its readers, who will let it be known when the publication has pushed the envelope too far. Any administrative oversight would only meddle with this successful, time-tested process.
We don't defend the decision to publish "Between the Sheets," but we do defend our right to leave content decisions to student journalists -- not to college administrators.
By
Corey, at 2:59 AM
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