So I guess only Rowan-approved writers can write about the cartoon fiasco in The Recorder? In this week's issue, a staff writer penned a decent article about continued fallout, although she clearly sides with the Pres, who of course supports First Amendment rights to the exclusion of all other rights. (Curious....) But Kari Sledzik's intelligent article on Jena 6, while published, has been cleansed of any connection between racism in Jena, LA and racism at CCSU. (You can find the original article and the excised content at the devil's advocate.) One might argue that Rowan & co. were doing their jobs as editors ... but it appears that the "editors" really didn't want to connect the dots and are ashamed and embarrassed to admit that what they published is not much better than hanging a noose in a tree. Racism is racism, crimes are crimes, and the right to free press is not a free pass to print any ol' thing. With rights come responsibilities, yet no one wants to hold people responsible for their actions.
Of course, real journalists are not afraid to ask the question, Is Jena America? Good for Kari, who at least tried to make the connections. Too bad her efforts were censored, and in her own newspaper.
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I wanted to let Kari know that I received her Jena 6 article to copy edit and I thought it was a great piece. The information was correct and justified, as was the connection to the comic strip; I can understand why you added it in there. I edited the article and sent it straight to Mark. We questioned whether or not we should print the article 1. because, for once, we were tight on space, and 2. because while we enjoyed the article and felt it had merit, we have been receiving more opinion articles than most other sections and we can't allow it to become an opinion-based publication. While we reconsidered the article due to these reasons, we had no conscious political agenda in requesting that it be tweaked; then again, if someone wrote an article condemning something you did and tarnishing your name weeks after the event happened, just when you're finally starting to forgive yourself and seek the forgiveness of others, would you be cautious to allow it to print, or would you hope that everyone could forgive - not forget - and move on? Dr. Martin has told us that newspapers are supposed to be focused on news, and we know we have a hard time getting staff writers to write news for us. Everyone wants to voice their opinion, and I believe they should be able to. Unfortunately, though, it is a newspaper - the Jena 6 article would have been a great news or opinion article, and choosing not to discuss the comic further would not have taken away from that. We understand your discontent with what was published, and I think we are learning our lesson. I hope that we can continue to work together to make the newspaper a better educated and more interesting piece to read. I also hope that Kari, Wes, and everyone else who has recently contributed continues to do so because I think their writing is very well done. Please accept this comment as a reasonable and sincere explanation and not an attack. (No one even knows I'm commenting on this, and I might get in trouble for it later.) I hope we can all work together to make more people happy, for the benefit of those writers who take pride in what they write but get looked over because of a few bad decisions along the way.
"Unfortunately, though, it is a newspaper - the Jena 6 article would have been a great news or opinion article, and choosing not to discuss the comic further would not have taken away from that."
I apologize, that was meant to say "the Jena 6 article is a great news and opnion article, but choosing..." I apologize again, I was just looking over my comment and realized my mistake.
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