Articles, editorials and bias (Dec. 4)

Whoah, haven’t used this thing in a very long time. I’m sorry to those of you that have been on the edge of your seat checking it every day.

So I wrote a column today. We unveiled the new public editor column location, in the bottom of the editorial page where the third edit usually is. The plan for the spring is to have me write every-other week in that location. I’m not sure if we’ve decided on a day yet, but it will likely be Tuesdays or Wednesday. This should be “different” next semester as I tackle a much more regular column. I also will be blogging when I run my column, talking about what I wrote and things I didn’t have the space to say.

About today’s column. For a while now I’ve been told that I need to write something distinguishing the difference between news and opinion pieces. In fact I tried to write it a month ago, but it was too boring. Since that time though I’ve emailed a lot of people saying basically what I said in the column, the opinion page and its content do not a biased paper make. I decided to make that point the heart of my column and go with it from there. I hope you thought the column was at least worth reading.

I’m sure that many people are going to look at the column and be like, “No shit, the opinion pieces in the paper present an opinion.” I didn’t say anything Earth-shattering so I won’t be surprised if that happens, but the fact was people were frequently confused, and this needed to be addressed.

Now for some stuff that I didn’t have the space to say in the coumn.

In the column I talk about Editor-in-Chief Erin Zureick sitting on the editorial board. I seem to say that this is ok because she doesn’t vote on the board. However, I don’t think she should be on the board at all. Having talked to members of the board and the opinion editor and assistant opinion editor, I know that Erin can be heavily involved in the discussion/debate and will try and influence the opinion of the board. This just seems wrong, and it is a major encroachment on the separation that needs to exist between news and opinion.

From what I understand, it is only in the past four years that the editor has given up the right to vote on the board. I’m sure that this was a major step, but now I suggest Erin goes a step further in the Spring semester and remove herself from the board completely. This would set a great precedent for future editors to follow. If she doesn’t want to do this, I hope that Managing Editor Allison Nichols, or whoever becomes next year’s editor, makes not being part of the edit board part of the platform that she runs on.

The danger that the DTH faces is not that the opinions from the opinion page are going to spill over into its news coverage. Rather the concern is that the news writers and editors are going to, or are at least going to try to, influence the opinions of the board. This wouldn’t be as obvious to a reader, but it would still be very problematic for the paper.

The opinion page is probably the most popular page in the paper, and as such, everybody seems to want a piece of the action. Multiple times this year news editors have complained when the editorial board wrote some opinion and did not talk to their writers first. This is clearly an attempt by them to try and influence the opinions of the board. These reporters and editors need to be concerned with the articles they are placing in the paper and not the opinions of the board, even if far more people will read the editorial than the article. If the news side of the DTH is concerned with influencing the opinions of the editorial board then its possible their opinions will slip into their writings, something that would be terrible for the paper’s credibility.

The bottom line here is that the paper needs to step up its efforts to separate news and opinion operations. This doesn’t mean that they can’t be friends and party and black-out together on weekends. It just means that everyone needs to be conscious of what is appropriate and what is not. And for right now that means those involved with reporting on the news need to remain concerned with that job and not the opinions being presented on the opinion page.