From the yellow journalism that shoved the United States into the Spanish American War to fabrications and plagiarism by discredited New York Times reporter Jayson Blair American media have a scandal-plagued history. Meanwhile politicians’ unintentional admissions and embarrassing misstatements help keep a sinking newspaper profession afloat.
Given this backdrop it is natural for even the most seasoned statesmen to try to keep the press at arm’s length. But it is unwise undemocratic and ultimately unhelpful to everyone involved.
At the University level the Graphic watches the struggle play out every semester. Various student organizations with the best intentions ask to conduct interviews only by e-mail channel all members’ comments through a single representative or strike a particular statement from our final article. We push back with an array of arguments and the group concedes — reluctantly at first then realizing that our doggedness benefits them.
This semester’s first challenge came from the Student Government Association which tried to limit interviews to e-mails sent to SGA’s Public Relations director or vice president of administration and distributed to members by them.
We do not want to denigrate the representatives’ honest and admirable attempt to ensure that their thoughts were fully deliberated and accurately reported. Nor we do we believe the organization was trying to hide anything.
But SGA’s continued contention that interviews be funneled through a single person combined with the Student Programming Board’s new e-mail-only announcement and the recurring nature of this debate compelled us to publically clarify our position and the principles behind it.
The Graphic has a duty to communicate as directly as possible with those who impact Pepperdine as well as anyone affected or with an informed opinion. Sometimes those newsmakers will be freshmen senators with great ideas but little confidence in their “interview skills;” they would rather gather their thoughts behind a computer screen than gamble with the uncertainty of a live interview. And there’s always the fear that spoken words can be misquoted or taken out of context.
But a candid interactive interview actually lessens these dangers. By speaking face-to-face we can ask about unclear aspects of a statement. By listening to a broad sample of voices we can better gauge the essential elements of a story asking for elaboration or clarification without cluttering up the explanation with the jargon and woodenness that most of us instinctively insert into our writing.
(The Graphic always identifies e-mail interviews as such in our stories recognizing the different nature of the responses in them and the potential that someone else typed the message. But as readers can’t you already tell the difference?)
Furthermore individual senators — not unelected PR directors — represent their respective classes. SGA recognized this in March when it and 79 percent of the student body ratified a new constitution. “The duties and responsibilities of senators shall include but not be limited to the following: 1. Inform constituents of the affairs of SGA it reads.Senators have a duty to voice their own opinions of the legislature’s complex workings. And the Graphic has a duty to explain actions and their motives to the student body, without a PR filter straining out hard questions and revealing responses.
While we applaud the community focus that motivates SGA to speak with one voice, its method is not a recipe for responsible, responsive government.
Often, reluctant sources learn to consider the Graphic an important ally. Not because we ever shy away from our responsibility to report critically, but because open dialogue usually allows us to see — and report — that what looks suspicious at a glance is in fact virtuous. And because detailed, interactive reporting can spur quick action, an exposé detailing a problem one Thursday is often followed by an equally prominent story the next Thursday announcing that the issue is resolved.
This optimism that sunshine is the best disinfectant” does not stem merely from the Supreme Court or from standard journalistic practice. It is buttressed by Pepperdine’s mission statement: “As a Christian university Pepperdine affirms … that truth having nothing to fear from investigation should be pursued relentlessly in every discipline.”Perhaps this is why some of the Graphic’s freest and frankest interviews are with top administrators including President Andrew K. Benton and Provost Darryl Tippens. Although they are often disseminating complex and sensitive information they know that we — and therefore the student body — will understand it best after a discussion.The Graphic respectfully calls on all student groups including SGA to join that conversation.