{"id":23410,"date":"2019-11-12T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T06:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=23410"},"modified":"2019-11-12T05:11:33","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T11:11:33","slug":"daily-northwestern-nothing-apologize-except-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2019\/11\/12\/daily-northwestern-nothing-apologize-except-apology\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Northwestern has nothing to apologize for \u2014 except its apology"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> The Daily Northwestern<\/p><\/div>\n

Someday the young editors of The Daily Northwestern<\/a> will look back on this episode in their lives with regret and shame.<\/p>\n

But for now, let\u2019s just think of it as a teachable moment for some misguided college students who need to learn that journalists don't apologize for doing their jobs. Otherwise they shouldn\u2019t be journalists.<\/p>\n

On Sunday the student newspaper of Northwestern University in Evanston posted a bizarre, embarrassing editorial signed by senior Troy Closson, editor in chief of The Daily Northwestern, and eight other editors on staff.<\/p>\n

It's important to note that The Daily operates independently of Northwestern\u2019s Medill School of Journalism \u2014 although many of its staffers come from the renowned school. Unfortunately, this incident already seems to be giving a black eye to both the paper and Medill.\u00a0(Disclosure: I am a Medill alumnus but I never worked on The Daily.)<\/p>\n

\"Addressing The Daily\u2019s coverage of Sessions protests,\"<\/a> was the innocuous headline on what turned out to be a sniveling,<\/a> abject and totally unnecessary apology to readers. \"We could not be more sorry,\" the editors wrote, groveling over how the paper reported on an appearance by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions at a College Republicans event and the protests that ensued. (Here is the text of the editorial.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Afterward some of the protesters complained about The Daily posting photos of the event, finding them be \"retraumatizing and invasive.\" In their astonishing mea culpa, the editors agreed that the photos should not have appeared.<\/p>\n

The editors also apologized for reporters using Northwestern\u2019s directory to obtain phone numbers for students and asking if they\u2019d be willing to be interviewed. \"We recognize being contacted like this is an invasion of privacy,\" the editorial said.<\/p>\n

For the most part, reaction of the journalism establishment on social media has been blistering and unsparing. Here is a small sampling:<\/p>\n

Glenn Kessler:<\/a><\/strong> How is it possible that a newspaper at what is allegedly a top journalism school would apologize for the basics of reporting? This is a travesty and an embarrassment.<\/em><\/p>\n

John Aravosis:<\/a><\/strong> Dear God. Northwestern University\u2019s student paper just disciplined student journalists for covering a protest of Jeff Sessions on campus. This editorial is a disgusting un-American betrayal of the tenets of journalism. Their sin: Covering a protest and asking for interviews.<\/em><\/p>\n

Maggie Haberman:<\/a><\/strong> One of the biggest problems US journalists face in this day and age is how few people understand what standard news-gathering process looks like. A student newspaper saying normal process is somehow a bad thing is incredibly troubling.<\/em><\/p>\n

Derrick Blakley:<\/a> <\/strong>The Daily has got it seriously twisted. You don't ask permission for those involved in news stories whether they want to be covered or not. The protesters decided on their own to disrupt a public event. If they wanted to protect their identities, not be photographed or interviewed, they could and should have stayed home. For the Daily to cowtow to such \"grievences\" is to flush the basic principles of journalism down the toilet. As a embarassed Medill grad, I now know what slogan The Daily should run under their masthead: \"None Dare Call This Journalism.\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Casey Toner:<\/a> <\/strong>I have a ton of patience for college newspaper mistakes having been a foolish and bullheaded journalism student myself, but this is humiliating. What is going on at Northwestern?<\/em><\/p>\n

Stephanie Zimmermann:<\/a><\/strong> Good grief. This is ridiculous. Protesters protesting in a public place have zero expectation of privacy. If they don't want to stick their neck out, they should stay in their dorm room and write a letter. Journalists at @thedailynu should not apologize for DOING THEIR JOB.<\/em><\/p>\n

Neil Holdway:<\/strong><\/a> Looking up names in the directory and *asking* if they'd be willing to be interviewed is about as professional as it gets \u2014 would it be any different stopping them around campus and asking for comment? And posting photographs of protesters \u2014 I'm not seeing much problem there.<\/em><\/p>\n

Richard A. Harrison:<\/a> <\/strong>These idiots are literally apologizing for committing journalism. God help us all. . . . It just reflects the sorry state of today\u2019s \u201cjournalism.\u201d In fairness to these student journalists, it\u2019s not much of a leap from sanitizing language for political correctness (see, e.g., AP Style Manual) to apologizing for hurting people\u2019s feelings for no apparent reason.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jim Romenesko:<\/a><\/strong> What are they teaching at @MedillSchool these days?<\/em><\/p>\n

Katie Herzog:<\/a> <\/strong>This is the best satire of an obscenely woke college newspaper I\u2019ve ever seen. Kudos Daily Northwestern! You all deserve jobs at the Onion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dan Balz:<\/a><\/strong> College journalists are under new pressures. Witness what the Harvard Crimson just went through. Rather than jumping on the Northwestern student journalists, we all need to help explain to other students the basic practices and values of good journalism and why it matters.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mara Gay:<\/a> <\/strong>To my fellow professionals trolling student journalists, save it. Did your college paper get it right every time? Ours didn\u2019t. So close the app and make yourself available for friendly advice offline. Be an adult.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Someday the young editors of The Daily Northwestern will look back on this episode in their lives with regret and shame. But for now, let\u2019s just think of it as a teachable moment for some misguided college students who need to learn that journalists don't apologize for doing their jobs. Otherwise they shouldn\u2019t be journalists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23410"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23433,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23410\/revisions\/23433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}