The Daily Free Press stands firm in our reporting and we will be steadfast if ever faced with controversy.
Two college publications, The Daily Northwestern and The Harvard Crimson, both made national headlines in recent weeks for their coverage of protests on their campuses.
We were keenly aware of these issues when we approached covering conservative pundit Ben Shapiro’s visit to Boston University on Wednesday and its corresponding protests.
Last month, Harvard student groups criticized The Crimson for reaching out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement following a protest on campus against their practices. Students were concerned their communication with the organization put undocumented persons on campus in harm’s way.
Last week, The Daily Northwestern’s coverage of an event that hosted former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and reciprocal protests on campus incited outrage by some students in the Northwestern community.
Protesters felt the paper’s use of photos of students demonstrating would result in university punishment for those depicted. There was also concern about reporters reaching out in advance to students potentially protesting using phone numbers obtained through the student directory.
In response, the editors of The Daily Northwestern expressed regret for their coverage in an editorial published on Sunday and apologized to their community for not being “the paper that Northwestern students deserve.”
We believe the editors were wrong to take back their reporting, but the professional journalism community was especially quick to condemn the paper for retracting their completely ethical coverage of the protest.
This is not the time to attack a student newspaper. It is not constructive to tell reporters they will never get a job because of a well-intentioned — yet ultimately misguided — response to student concerns.
We understand the editors at Northwestern felt pressure to respond to criticism of their reporting, but it is unfortunate they thought they had to apologize for following journalistic principles.
The purpose of a college newspaper is to deliver ethical and relevant reporting to the campus. In this instance, The Daily Northwestern’s editors felt the way to serve their community was to express regret for practices some students felt violated privacy. Yet the apology was not only unnecessary, but detrimental to reporters at the paper and journalists across the country.
Conceding to criticism of accepted reporting standards is an injustice in the same way not fully reporting the events would have been.
Reporting on protests is essential to creating a full image of public opinion. A protest that goes unnoticed is pointless. The purpose of a protest is to bring attention to something people feel is unjust. Without coverage by a news outlet, the noise made by activists can go unheard.
People should be educated on basic journalistic principles and procedure before getting offended by the methods reporters learned from educators and other professionals.
Campus journalism is meant to shine a light on issues that would otherwise be left in the dark. We believe this includes those inside and outside the event, both supporting and protesting.
We have reported on Ben Shapiro’s speech and related protesting the same way we would have had other student publications never come under fire for their reporting of similar events.
It has never been the goal of The Daily Free Press, and likely not of The Harvard Crimson or The Daily Northwestern, to upset one group or another with our reporting. The purpose of a newspaper is not to take a side. It’s to provide information to the public so they can take one.
We continue to work hard to inform the student body of what they need and want to know. While we are aware of student sensitivity to our reporting, we will not waver in our procedure.
The Daily Free Press was founded in 1970 to report on campus protests after the shooting of unarmed students by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University. We formed based on the need to inform the student body and we have worked to report fairly on all campus issues.
Nearly 50 years later, we are still working hard to serve the BU community with our reporting.
ok but I better not see yall getting ICE on the phone
Congratulations on completely missing the point. By the way, they’ve already published an editorial on this, in which they explained how and why reaching out to ICE is exactly what The Crimson should have done.
“The Crimson was correct to seek comment from ICE. In fact, it would have been irresponsible for them not to. It is The Crimson’s right and duty as a newspaper to contact both sides of a story. In this case, ICE was directly implicated and extremely relevant to the coverage of the event.” https://dailyfreepress.com/blog/2019/10/24/editorial-the-crimson-was-right-to-reach-out-to-ice/
neutrality helps the oppressor 😪
An individual’s neutrality helps the oppressor. A newspaper’s neutrality is good journalism.