Editorials An occasion to clarify

Author: [no author name found]

This past Thursday, students flipped through their weekly editions of The Campus to find a single-sheet, illegally-inserted letter that displayed a shocking, though probably not uncommon, ignorance of society's most famous bastion of free speech: the newspaper.

The unauthorized insert referred to "biased coverage," and then proceeded to attack and debunk a single submission to the Opinions section.

In good faith, we recognize that the printed word does not enjoy the same stature it once did in today's world of Blogs and BlackBerries, and that perhaps it is necessary to clarify some universal newspaper policies and practices and dispel rumors about what goes on in The Campus's own newsroom.

The Oxford English Dictionary sheds light on some basic news definitions, to begin with.

Coverage: "The act of covering an event, subject, etc.; the extent of reporting by a newspaper, radio station, etc.; reporting."

Editorial: "Written, or ostensibly written, by the editor of a newspaper, as distinct from news items."

Opinion: "A view held about a particular issue; a judgment formed or a conclusion reached; a belief; a religious or political conviction… What is thought of a person by others."

The Campus's "coverage," includes any article for which reporting has been done by someone with a by-line identifying him or her as a Campus editor or staff writer.

The Campus's weekly editorial strives to reflect the collective opinion of the staff, as written by the publication's current editor in chief. For highly polarized issues, we actually take a vote. When endorsing the SGA Presidential and SCCOCC candidates, the vote takes place after a 15-minute session with each candidate.

The Campus's Opinions submission policy should not be a mystery: it is published below the editorial each week. The Opinions pages are where the newspaper fulfills its role as a public forum. Our in-house ad does not lie: even if your friends "tell you to shut it, we'll probably publish it." Any submission that does not contain libel, adheres to our word limits, puts forth an original opinion and is received by 5 p.m. on the Tuesday before publication will likely be printed. We even work with those who submit in order to help them comply with our publication standards.

The Campus staff was genuinely disappointed that it did not receive a single submission in support of junior Alex Stanton's candidacy, especially since support for both candidates was readily expressed by the staff during the endorsement proceedings at our April 16 editorial board meeting. Our policy, however, which is analogous to most major newspapers, is to avoid submission solicitation in deference to the belief that opinions must be formed independently and not forced.

The second disappointment of Election Day occurred when a message encouraging students to "vote to abstain" was sent to all students. The contents of the e-mail would have made an interesting Opinions submission, but as circulated, the e-mail was a gross misuse of the all-student function. The message should result in a clamp down on the number of students who have access to "all-student" in their address books.

The fact that 1,612 students voted in this year's elections - rightly celebrated as an all-time record - is overshadowed by the poor decisions that were made on Election Day.

Now you know how your newspaper works. Use it accordingly.