A student newspaper’s full-page apology: In 2008, the Northern Illinois University campus struggled mightily after a deadly shooting on campus killed six (including the gunman) and injured 21. The entire campus stayed strong after the shooting, but three years later, they’ve suffered a setback, in the form of a crudely-drawn editorial cartoon in the Northern Star, the school’s student newspaper. The drawing seems to make light of the incident. The result? This cover, a full-page apology that published yesterday. “We know you’re angry,” the editorial board wrote. “We know you’re hurt. We know we messed up, and we feel awful about it.” Is that enough of an apology? Do we need to give student journalists still learning the craft a break? Would love to know your thoughts. (thanks Charles Apple)
At the time of the shooting, I was an editor at a school newspaper just 65 miles from NIU. In the shooting’s wake, every school in Illinois published memorials to the victims. Our paper contained, I believe, six full pages of coverage of the shooting, with much of the content coming from the Star’s reporting. We also wrote a staff editorial reflecting on the nature of mass shootings and the public’s reaction to these. Just a few days after the shooting, the Illinois College Press Association awards ceremony was held in Chicago; it was the most somber event I’ve attended.
I thought back then, and I still think today, that the staff of the Northern Star did the best job out of any of the media outlets covering the story. I was particularly struck by the fact that the Star’s editor-in-chief followed the strategy of the EIC at Virginia Tech’s student paper, someone he had conversed with numerous times prior to his school’s shooting.
In a matter of hours the Northern Star converted their front page to enable live updates; their staff adviser was out taking pictures, some of which appeared in national press; they obtained press passes, to ensure that the authorities couldn’t keep them away from covering the story, as had been done at VT; they were the first to report the shooter’s death; when they learned that one of their own had been killed they kept reporting.
My point being, student journalists are learning how to do their trade, but so are professional journalists. There’s an understanding that what you’re doing can carry great weight with readers and a responsibility to do it properly. Sometimes this role is done well, as in the Star’s case in 2008; and sometimes it is not, as publishing the cartoon shows.
I’m glad that they offered an apology, but I’m disappointed that they’ve likely fractured their relationship with the student body.
(via shortformblog)
