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4/07/2003 01:43:00 AM | Timothy SpecAlert There is a new blog at Columbia called SpecAlert, but the purview of the site aims to wider than criticizing the Columbia Daily Spectator (the "Spec"). SpecAlert says that Columbia lacks a progressive viewpoint, and specifically mentions The Dartmouth Free Press (Merlin aslo speaks kindly of my posts here on De Genova). But what stuck me when reading SpecAlert and The Filibuster's commentary, is the differences between the political environment nationalwide, at Columbia, and at Dartmouth (at least when I left two years ago). It was fairly easy to hash out a simple mission statement when we first started the Dartmouth Free Press, which included a line about the line "a forum for liberal and alternative viewpoints at Dartmouth" and another mentions bringing students "progressive" perspectives while informing and educating. I think the free press has gone more left than it was under my tenure, and that may be part of the reason the paper is more often referred to as 'progressive'. But that ambiguity helped it galvanize a lot of different people, as did a strong dislike for the often inept daily paper and The Dartmouth Review. But I think it is wrong to say that Columbia does not have outlets for 'progressive' students if you mean those on the left (if you mean 'moderate' left, that may be so, but it does not strike me the blog is advertising itself like that). Columbia seems to me to be far more to the left than Dartmouth's campus (big suprise). I think there are many groups with different ideological viewpoints, such that you couldn't smooth over the differences like we could at Dartmouth. We had one regular column called 'a socialist perspective', but unlike here he was one of the only socialists on campus-- he wrote his column as he wished and the paper was edited as the editorial board wished. Plus, leftist voices ARE heard here at Columbia. Maybe not in print media, but no one can pretend they are not a force; the same was not true (at least 3 or 4 years ago) at Dartmouth. So uniting 'progressives' or those on the left is a problem I thought long and hard about, but it was one that did not materialize to a significant extent at the Dartmouth Free Press. Perhaps some just do not join, but Greens and Democrats get along fine. Another example of how the perspective changes from different political environments is that The Filibuster is called the best lefty blog by instapundit, but I don't see anything strikingly liberal about its tilt, and its affilitated magazine, the Columbia Political Review, is backed by a non-partisan group. I am not sure I would have started the Free Press had there been a vibrant non-partisan opinion publication at Dartmouth, simply because I knew starting a paper on the left would be hard work! But I suspected (correctly) that a non-partisan effort could not likely be sustained by a small group of people at a small college like Dartmouth. Giving liberal or progressive students a voice was a great rallying cry and people were willing to put a lot more effort into that. So SpecAlert may face different problems, and it will be interesting to see how they are dealt with. This may be my Dartmouth experience talking but I don't think it is too sophisicated of SpecAlert to say that the Spec has a neo-conservative bias. Maybe it has a conservative bias, but save the word 'neo-conservative' for something more specific and when they get really crazy. I knew the Reviewers here (Andrew Grossman: you never blitzed me for drinks this weekend!). Adam Kushner at The Filibuster thinks that SpecAlert may be misguided, saying that the Spec people are training to be professionals. I have sympathy for reporters' plight, but that's no reason to think something like Spec alert isn't valuable. Shouldn't the reporters become accustomed to being criticized when they get quotes wrong, and rightly so? Better to learn that lesson here than later: the media has a lot of power and they need to be held accountable. I mean, we are talking about basic reporting skills they need to internalize. Part of their training should be to learn that criticism will come when they mess up, and Kushner does allow this can be a benefit. I hate to say it, but even aside from whether they get it right or wrong, reporters eventually will have to learn to deal with readers hating them and criticizing them rather than esteeming them. Within limits that can be part of the training. If SpecAlert makes new reporters quit who would otherwise develop better skills, I can see a problem, but a mere blog is not that big of a deal. But I gather that people's criticism is not confined to newbies at the Spec, and presumably after a term or a year at the paper, you have gotten your sea legs. Good intentions and dedication may be a good excuse in the beginning, but not forever. A friend told me how a trustee of Dartmouth College, who also works at the Boston Globe, once told Dartmouth students that he thought college journalism was a waste of time. If they don't learn these skills, it pretty much is. Reporters and editors have a responsibility to get it right and should be called on it when they don't. (whether Merlin will continue to find it worth his time, I don't know, but then we all love blogging, right?). perma link |
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