GOVERNORS
STATE UNIVERSITY
To:
Governors State University Community
From:
Stuart Fagan, President
Date:
November 3, 2000
Subject:
LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE INNOVATOR
The
role of a free press is to present accurate and balanced reports of the news of
the day that impact the quality of life of its readers.
With few exceptions, the October 31st edition of the INNOVATOR
just did not measure up to accepted journalistic standards of professionalism,
which I have attached. I am fully aware of the journalistic license that
differentiates “feature” from “hard” news reporting. Even noting that
difference, the INNOVATOR still failed
to meet basic journalistic standards.
The
INNOVATOR did not enlighten nor did it
inform the GSU community through thoughtful, accurate and fair reporting.
Instead of fairness in reporting, the reader was presented with an angry barrage
of unsubstantiated allegations that essentially--and unfairly—excoriated some
members of the university faculty and administration (myself included).
The
“Senate Brief” column is an example. For the record, at the October 18th
strategic planning meeting referenced, there was never any discussion in which
GSU students were referred to as “punk kids” or to which my response was
complicit, conspiratorial laughter. That exchange just did not happen.
GSU
has an established forum to handle student grievances against faculty. This
provides students and faculty with an opportunity to resolve issues with
fairness and due process for all parties. There
is no indication in the INNOVATOR that
individuals made use of that forum. I encourage all GSU students to do so.
This
one-sided recitation of the issues in which the paper’s editors and writers
took on the role of judge, jury, and executioner, without cause, with the wrong
facts, and without due process, has an ugly name in the news industry. According
to the attached Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics,
journalists should be accountable to their readers, listeners, viewers and each
other. As a result, journalists should clarify and explain news coverage and
invite dialogue with the public over journalistic conduct and abide by the same
high standards to which they hold others. The attempts to balance the articles
in the INNOVATOR by interviewing
impacted parties were feeble at best or did not occur at all.
Newspapers
have always “taken on the establishment.” And, in the finest tradition of
the Fourth Estate, the media has been instrumental in toppling unjust
governments and has been a voice of those who have been made “mute” through
racism, classism, etc. I have—and will always be—a proponent of the free
press. I know the unfortunate possibility of what could happen when a free press
is muzzled.
I
am proud of GSU in its entirety. We have some of the best faculty in academia.
The staff is hardworking and dedicated. The students at GSU are serious about
getting the quality education that GSU provides.
I
respect the right of reporters to pursue the truth (as they perceive it).
However, I will not sit idly by, without comment, and allow the reputation of
the university to be sullied by newspaper reporting that is inaccurate,
insulting, and that might be driven, in part, by self-interest.
Let’s
agree to disagree: with honor and fairness.