(no subject)
I had my first encounter with a potentially libelous article this week and because of it, I know a little bit more about how important fact checking can be and how powerful all those stupid little printed words can be. I'll elaborate behind an LJ cut so the non-newsies don't have to be bothered.
I'm the managing editor for the Pleiad right now, which means I'm not responsible for any content editing during the editing process, I just make sure things are moving and I'll sometimes step in if I see a major problem with an article that no one else is catching. Last week the news page was a wreck. Two news editors were hired this semester in the hopes of relieving some of the stress that comes with that page. Instead of the desired effect, the two positions have created a news circus where everything is chaotic for the four of five process days and then somehow, they miraculously throw together a page around 2a.m. on Wednesday morning and we're all left wondering what the hell just happened to us. After trying numerous different ways of getting these two editors (well, one is really more of the problem, but that's not the point) communicating with each other, their writers, myself and our EIC, we decided that for the last two issues each one would get a chance to be the only news editor and the other got to take a break. Last week, the problem child, Andrew, was wearing the editor hat. I saw none of the news stories until Monday or Tuesday (they're due Friday morning at 8 a.m., mind you) and what I did see was short, untimely, and pretty boring. We've created a destination piece on the news page called "food for thought" where we interview a speaker/VIP visiting campus and run the Q&A on the front page with a head shot. Last week, our interview subject was a Dr. James Wilson, a respected geneticist who also happened to be an Albion alum and trustee. Mikki, one of our newer writers (who is fabulous) was conducting the Q&A. Unfortunately, Dr. Wilson was apprehensive about the interview and for some reason thought he was going to be shown in a negative light but Mikki assured him that was not her or our intention and finally got him to agree to the interview. When the news page was being laid out, Andrew found he was short on content so we needed to expand somewhere. Our advisor had mentioned during an earlier meeting that she thought Dr. Wilson was the same man someone wrote an opinion piece on last week, a geneticist who was caught up in a controversy regarding supposed racist statements he made when presenting a study he had done linking race to intelligence. It was suggested that someone add something about that to the Q&A's introduction to fill some space. Mikki didn't feel comfortable with it and preferred it to not be mentioned considering Dr. Wilson's apprehension. This is where the details get sticky and I'm not really sure who did what or when, but anyway, a small paragraph about the controversy was scribbled into a margin to be inserted into the piece. Andrew got his edits back, punched in the graph without thinking about it and by the time he got his page out for final review, it was 3 a.m. and the only people left in the office were me, him, and our EIC, Ed. At this point, I am assuming that everything has been checked by the copy editor, the writers, other page editors, etc etc. I had gone home for a few hours on that particular night because I was really sick, so I had no idea that no one had seen this paragraph. It was sent to the printers and was on newsstands late Thursday night. Friday morning after I was done with our 8 a.m. meeting and my 9 a.m. class, I come back to an inbox flooded with red envelopes. Dr. James Wilson never made any statements regarding race and intelligence. It was a Dr. James Watson, who later retracted the statements due to the huge backlash he received after publishing his findings. Soooooo needless to say, I spent the better part of my Friday afternoon sending and reading e-mails, drafting apology letters and corrections, trying to figure out the best way to handle this situation as quickly as possible and forcing myself not to throw up. We haven't heard back from Dr. Wilson, and I don't know if he'll respond to our apology. I do know that I hope that never happens to me again or to the Pleiad while I am on staff. I do, however, feel like I earned a journalism stripe (not saying that all real journalists are involved with some sort of libel drama, but it happens) and learned a valuable lesson.
In other news, it's semi-formal this weekend. Schmidty is still passed out in my bed SNORING like mad and hogging all of my blankets. Good thing I have plenty of work to do instead of properly nursing my hangover. We're going to be '80s tonight because I didn't feel like trying hard to find a good outfit (the theme is "through the decades") and when I say '80s, I really mean drunk. This semester has been draining, and I'm terrified of what it's going to be like next semester. Justine is going to be back to fill the hole in my heart she left when she went to Australia. Hopefully she doesn't decide to hate me when she gets back. Impossible, we're soul mates. I turned in my application for next semester, I'm going for EIC, managing editor, and news editor again but I'll probably kill myself if I get that last one. I'm scared for all three because this semester has been so awful and of course I will blame myself for everything before looking at what the real issues are. I'll be taking a full course load again, which is going to rock my world on it's own since I've gotten used to a cushy 2-3 class lifestyle thanks to some savvy scheduling and that class I dropped...but whatev. Everyone is going to be turning 21 and it's the seniors' last semester and I know I'm just going to want to play all the time. I think next semester I will truly figure out how to properly manage my time, I'm going to have to. I'll die otherwise. Finally, I need a job for my infamous six week winter break, any suggestions. Preferably somewhere that allows me to hide from the holiday masses which undoubtedly hold all of those people I DON'T want to see. Good luck on that one, right? I'll probably end up at Target, looking awful in red, selling holiday goodies to everyone whose heart isn't three sizes too small.
I'm the managing editor for the Pleiad right now, which means I'm not responsible for any content editing during the editing process, I just make sure things are moving and I'll sometimes step in if I see a major problem with an article that no one else is catching. Last week the news page was a wreck. Two news editors were hired this semester in the hopes of relieving some of the stress that comes with that page. Instead of the desired effect, the two positions have created a news circus where everything is chaotic for the four of five process days and then somehow, they miraculously throw together a page around 2a.m. on Wednesday morning and we're all left wondering what the hell just happened to us. After trying numerous different ways of getting these two editors (well, one is really more of the problem, but that's not the point) communicating with each other, their writers, myself and our EIC, we decided that for the last two issues each one would get a chance to be the only news editor and the other got to take a break. Last week, the problem child, Andrew, was wearing the editor hat. I saw none of the news stories until Monday or Tuesday (they're due Friday morning at 8 a.m., mind you) and what I did see was short, untimely, and pretty boring. We've created a destination piece on the news page called "food for thought" where we interview a speaker/VIP visiting campus and run the Q&A on the front page with a head shot. Last week, our interview subject was a Dr. James Wilson, a respected geneticist who also happened to be an Albion alum and trustee. Mikki, one of our newer writers (who is fabulous) was conducting the Q&A. Unfortunately, Dr. Wilson was apprehensive about the interview and for some reason thought he was going to be shown in a negative light but Mikki assured him that was not her or our intention and finally got him to agree to the interview. When the news page was being laid out, Andrew found he was short on content so we needed to expand somewhere. Our advisor had mentioned during an earlier meeting that she thought Dr. Wilson was the same man someone wrote an opinion piece on last week, a geneticist who was caught up in a controversy regarding supposed racist statements he made when presenting a study he had done linking race to intelligence. It was suggested that someone add something about that to the Q&A's introduction to fill some space. Mikki didn't feel comfortable with it and preferred it to not be mentioned considering Dr. Wilson's apprehension. This is where the details get sticky and I'm not really sure who did what or when, but anyway, a small paragraph about the controversy was scribbled into a margin to be inserted into the piece. Andrew got his edits back, punched in the graph without thinking about it and by the time he got his page out for final review, it was 3 a.m. and the only people left in the office were me, him, and our EIC, Ed. At this point, I am assuming that everything has been checked by the copy editor, the writers, other page editors, etc etc. I had gone home for a few hours on that particular night because I was really sick, so I had no idea that no one had seen this paragraph. It was sent to the printers and was on newsstands late Thursday night. Friday morning after I was done with our 8 a.m. meeting and my 9 a.m. class, I come back to an inbox flooded with red envelopes. Dr. James Wilson never made any statements regarding race and intelligence. It was a Dr. James Watson, who later retracted the statements due to the huge backlash he received after publishing his findings. Soooooo needless to say, I spent the better part of my Friday afternoon sending and reading e-mails, drafting apology letters and corrections, trying to figure out the best way to handle this situation as quickly as possible and forcing myself not to throw up. We haven't heard back from Dr. Wilson, and I don't know if he'll respond to our apology. I do know that I hope that never happens to me again or to the Pleiad while I am on staff. I do, however, feel like I earned a journalism stripe (not saying that all real journalists are involved with some sort of libel drama, but it happens) and learned a valuable lesson.
In other news, it's semi-formal this weekend. Schmidty is still passed out in my bed SNORING like mad and hogging all of my blankets. Good thing I have plenty of work to do instead of properly nursing my hangover. We're going to be '80s tonight because I didn't feel like trying hard to find a good outfit (the theme is "through the decades") and when I say '80s, I really mean drunk. This semester has been draining, and I'm terrified of what it's going to be like next semester. Justine is going to be back to fill the hole in my heart she left when she went to Australia. Hopefully she doesn't decide to hate me when she gets back. Impossible, we're soul mates. I turned in my application for next semester, I'm going for EIC, managing editor, and news editor again but I'll probably kill myself if I get that last one. I'm scared for all three because this semester has been so awful and of course I will blame myself for everything before looking at what the real issues are. I'll be taking a full course load again, which is going to rock my world on it's own since I've gotten used to a cushy 2-3 class lifestyle thanks to some savvy scheduling and that class I dropped...but whatev. Everyone is going to be turning 21 and it's the seniors' last semester and I know I'm just going to want to play all the time. I think next semester I will truly figure out how to properly manage my time, I'm going to have to. I'll die otherwise. Finally, I need a job for my infamous six week winter break, any suggestions. Preferably somewhere that allows me to hide from the holiday masses which undoubtedly hold all of those people I DON'T want to see. Good luck on that one, right? I'll probably end up at Target, looking awful in red, selling holiday goodies to everyone whose heart isn't three sizes too small.