We’re So Sorry, Darling Students …

We’re so sorry if we caused you any pain (With apologies to the Beatles) because last week, The Daily was not the paper that Northwestern students deserve.

Apparently, on November 5, there was an utterly traumatic event perpetrated at Northwestern University in the US. The college newspaper The Daily sent a reporter and photographer to cover that event and another to cover the reaction from some students to the horrendous and traumatic happenings on campus.

We recognize that we contributed to the harm students experienced, and we wanted to apologize for and address the mistakes that we made that night — along with how we plan to move forward.

The photographer took photos of people in a public place, a perfectly legal thing to do.

One area of our reporting that harmed many students was our photo coverage of the event. Some protesters found photos posted to reporters’ Twitter accounts retraumatizing and invasive. Those photos have since been taken down. On one hand, as the paper of record for Northwestern, we want to ensure students, administrators and alumni understand the gravity of the events that took place Tuesday night. However, we decided to prioritize the trust and safety of students who were photographed. We feel that covering traumatic events requires a different response than many other stories. While our goal is to document history and spread information, nothing is more important than ensuring that our fellow students feel safe — and in situations like this, that they are benefitting [sic] from our coverage rather than being actively harmed by it. We failed to do that last week, and we could not be more sorry.

We're so sorry, Uncle Albert darling students
We're so sorry if we caused you any pain

Some students also voiced concern about the methods that Daily staffers used to reach out to them. Some of our staff members who were covering the event used Northwestern’s directory to obtain phone numbers for students beforehand and texted them to ask if they’d be willing to be interviewed. We recognize being contacted like this is an invasion of privacy, and we’ve spoken with those reporters — along with our entire staff — about the correct way to reach out to students for stories.

How absolutely intrusive: Fancy looking up phone numbers in a directory and then simply calling that number. They really should have asked for permission first. After all, asking for permission is simple enough, just look up their number, call them and ask for permission – it’s not rocket science, is it?

We also wanted to explain our choice to remove the name of a protester initially quoted in our article on the protest. Any information The Daily provides about the protest can be used against the participating students — while some universities grant amnesty to student protesters, Northwestern does not. We did not want to play a role in any disciplinary action that could be taken by the University. Some students have also faced threats for being sources in articles published by other outlets. When the source in our article requested their name be removed, we chose to respect the student’s concerns for their privacy and safety. As a campus newspaper covering a student body that can be very easily and directly hurt by the University, we must operate differently than a professional publication in these circumstances.

Ultimately, The Daily failed to consider our impact in our reporting surrounding [the horrendous and traumatic events that occurred that night.] We know we hurt students that night, especially those who identify with marginalized groups. According to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, “Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.” […]

The Daily

What was so damaging to these poor University students? A mass shooting? A small thermonuclear device? A toxic gas leak from the science lab? A killer truck running amok in the quad?

No, apparently the College Republicans hosted a talk by Jeff Sessions and he once worked for Donald Trump. Oh, the pain – the anguish – the hurt.

So, we have some ‘adult’ students who chose to protest, in public and they are crying foul for having names, that they presumably gave to the reporters, and photos taken in a public place published. And the college rag is falling over itself with grovelling apologies.

Gimme strength!