But unthinking adherence to a motto like "we are not in this to be nice" makes it too easy to brush aside criticism that may be legitimate. Each issue of a newspaper includes not only the news, but also the editors' and reporters' personal judgments about what is interesting and important. Consequently, news people are not always willing to take criticism. To question an editor's judgment, they think, is paramount to questioning a bloodhound's nose. When news is the topic, few journalists will readily admit they are wrong, especially when non-journalists are raising the questions.
Yet when newspaper editors fail to consider public criticism, they are abdicating their responsibility to the community. A newspaper that ignores its readers isn't looking out for the community's best interest, but for its own.
The novel The Porcupine, written by a decidedly more famous Julian Barnes, chronicles the fictional trial of a toppled Eastern European communist leader. A conversation between the book's two protagonists, the toppled leader and a prosecutor appointed by the new regime, turns to the subject of newspapers. The former leader will only read the old communist party newspaper; he shrugs off any suggestion that the new newspapers are any more free or independent.
"[T]he Party they represent is the worst of all, the party of egoism," he says.
A newspaper falls into this cult of egoism rather easily. In the past, some Crimson editors were cocky and dismissive of community criticism. People who complained that their programs were not covered were pegged publicity hounds. Events that only drew small crowds were considered unfitting for front-page news
Yet the privileges granted to newspapers not only command editors to make their best judgments on what is important; responsible newspapers must also listen to criticism and respond to it. At The Crimson this year, we have tried to become better listeners.
Last spring, minority groups complained that The Crimson's emphasis on events with large audiences often meant that cultural programs went without coverage, leading to the perception that the paper only was interested in "white" news. This was probably some of the strongest criticism leveled at the paper. Most minority groups make up a relatively small percentage of the student population. Their events may attract sizable turnouts from within their own ethnic groups, but they do not draw large numbers in absolute terms Under out old system, that meant the groups could go uncovered, remaining largely invisible to the greater part of the campus. This fall, we adopted a new standard of judging whether public events are worthy of mention in our paper. If an event attracts a high percentage of a minority group. we now consider it newsworthy.
Newspapers have a responsibility to ensure that their news columns represent the diversity of their readers. They must also ensure that their newsrooms reflect their readership. The Crimson staff's failure to reflect accurately the diversity of Harvard-Radcliffe is a problem we have long acknowledged. Without a diverse staff, our coverage of underrepresented groups lacks depth and nuance. If we had a more Black editors. It is undeniable that we would publish more news about Black students. As it is now, our ties to the Black community are weak.
The high number of Jewish, students on our staff makes us sensitive to issues that are important to Jewish students kosher toasters and the appearance of Leonard Jeffries and we give those issues coverage. The problem with The Crimson is not too many Jewish students but too few Black students. This fall, with the help of DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nieman Foundation Curator Bill Kovach. we began a renewed recruiting drive. We visited student groups, held a minority recruiting meeting and hosted a conference on minorities and journalism. The results were mixed, but The Crimson is committed to continuing and expanding our recruiting efforts.
While diversity is necessary, the idea that only minorities can accurately report and write about minorities is wrong. The Crimson is committed to increasing out diversity through vigorous recruiting, but we do not find it productive to judge a reporter on the basis of race. At the conference this fall, Kovach reminded the assembled students and journalists that a bad reporter, regardless of his or her ethnicity, will do a bad job "A good reporter of whatever background can do a good job reflecting an alien reality," Kovach said. "This is so because the best reporting is transparent. It lets the people and the events and the context within which they interact speak directly to the reader or the viewer."
That is the real strength of a newspaper. At its best, it gives people an opportunity to listen to voices they may not usually hear. It is a vehicle that educates the community and brings its disparate members together. That is the newspaper we want to be. The goal is elusive, but still one The Crimson strives to achieve. If more people read and criticize the paper, and if more people come to 14 Plympton St. and join the paper, we can move closer to that ideal
Joseph Pulitzer thought journalists had a duty to protect the afflicted from the tyranny of the comfortable.
On a college campus in the 1990s, reporters and editors face different responsibilities--and different challenges.