One of the brilliant features of this job is the learning opportunities it creates. Because it creates situations I’ve never faced , I don’t always have the answers – but the exercise isn’t about getting it right the first time, every time, anyway. It’s about learning from imperfection.
This is how I’ve always thought of the student press – as a group doing what they can with what tools and skills they have.
It’s not just the student press, though. Student politicians go through the same thing. I would never be able to do the union politics scene so I give those who do a lot of credit. Ultimately, student politicians, like student journalists, are just that – students.
Last week, the Aquinian ran the story “Choose your STUSU” on the front page as part of our election coverage. The first line of the story talked about student president Ella Henry and her plans. As you may have noticed at theaq.net, a clarification note has been posted, as Henry came forward a few hours after the papers hit the stands on Tuesday saying she never said she would be “possibly moving to the more activist Canadian Federation of Students.”
Before making any calls, I wanted to consult everyone involved in the process. I spoke at length with the news editor, the reporter and the business manager who edited the story. The conclusion we arrived at and the logic we used in issuing a clarification as opposed to a correction was that yes, Henry never said the words “I will move to STUSU to CFS” but her record indicates that’s a possibility. That’s why we used the qualifier and never suggested the first line of the story came from her platform or an interview. It is true – Henry has never said “STUSU will move to CFS if you re-elect me.” But her actions on student union tell a different story.
And that’s important. When you run in an election, you don’t just run on a platform;you run on a record.
And when someone has been saying CASA is broken, who has been talking about “reviewing membership status,” who toyed with the idea of moving down to associate member and who has had a CFS poster in her office , it’s a fair comment to make.
Our job as a student newspaper is not simply to echo election platforms and policy statements; our job is to inform students about the choices they have. The candidates for president had distinct visions of what they wanted the student union to accomplish. It was important to make that clear.
I don’t want to be hard on Henry, though. In an effort to clarify the issue as much as possible, I did everything I could as an editor to give her a chance to say whatever she wanted to say on the issue. It’s fair that she thinks we got it wrong and that we’ve misinterpreted her stance on the issue. But allI can do to make that right is clarify her views, and I can only do that when
people are willing to share them in the spirit of transparency.
And that’s why I’m writing this note today: because I believe in being transparent. As an editor I believe it’s important for you, the readership, to know you can count on your paper to be honest with you, even if it means admitting to faults. When it comes down to it, that’s what’s important –
making sure we’re honest with you and that you, the reader, know we’re looking out for your interests.
Because our job is to keep you informed, not act as a public relations machine.
