College Journalism: A Vicious Realm

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This is kind of an odd situation, but here it goes.
I go to a college that is private and very conservative. There have been outright racist comments that have been made in a popular political publication (managed by students) that I have been in open protest to.

The people who were responsible for writing it have suddenly started being incredibly nice to me. Not like genuine nice, but like creepy nice. This morning when I was getting butter at the dining hall, one of the guys who tends to be the most vicious on paper (but a pure politician in person) starts talking to me out of the blue.

“Am I in your way?” The whole comment was ridiculous because he was nowhere near me. He smiles. He’s not unnattractive and quite charismatic. So are dogs after they’ve eaten your favorite shoes.

Even though I know who he is and I know he’s fully aware of who I am (most of our interaction has been indirect and through text on our school’s messageboard), we had never spoken in person.

“No. Not at all.” My response is sounds like sugar tastes. I tend to be nice even when I don’t want to be. I don’t make eye contact. Not because I don’t like this guy, but because I wasn’t making eye contact with ANYONE due to a particularly funky onion I had just consumed.

“You know, if I am in your way, you have permission to smack me around!” He smiles. I suddently remembered a black professor’s account of this guy once telling him:

“If I ever come off wrong in racial issues, feel free to correct me!”
The professor described the smile I see before me.

I chuckle politely and walk away quickly.

This guy is the most vicious person over the internet or on the schools publication, but in person he’s got this incredible amount of charm. He makes subtle attacks, and then come around with the “some of my best friends are (insert minority)” argument when someone calls him on it.

In addition to this, another writer for this conservative publication approached me to ask me about what I had felt about it. He said his “sources” told him that I hated the publication and he was just curious, as a friend, about why I was displeased. Did I mention this guy who was sent my way is the only black writer on the paper? Is it a coincidence that they sent him to talk to me?

In any case, I don’t want to discuss my stance on these issues. What I will say on that topic is that I’m anti-racism: not only in regards to minorities.

I just want to know if anyone knows what I can do about a situation that is potentially hostile. These guys are brilliant and have ruined many a journalist’s career at this school. I’m quite scared. Already no other publication on campus will publish my reply to their last horrific article (the use of Socrates to compare minorities on campus to pigs, among other things) because they fear this one (it’s powerful and well funded by wealthy outside sources).

Advice would be well appreciated.

2

How have they ruined other journalist’s careers?

When you say no other publication on campus will publish your responses, does that include the school newspaper? Or is the school newspaper run by the same people who run the political mag that gets published on campus?

If the two aren’t run by the same people, I would go to the paper and give them the whole “free and open press argument.”

3

I mean other school publications not under them.

4

Sounds just like the college republicans on the Roger Williams University campus - in fact, sounds like their leader could be the head of our college republicans, it’s really eerie. Are you sure you don’t go to Roger Williams?

5

LOL. No I don’t. Good guess, though. VERY similar to my college. I’m not quite sure if mine is as well known, however.

6

The Supreme Court has overturned laws requiring newspapers to publish responses from people they criticize. However, those cases involved privately-owned newspapers. A publication wholly owned by the school might be still subject to administrative rules on campus. Is the publication you talk about originally owned by the school, or is it independent? How about the other publications you replied to?

7

Is it me, or is everybody in college journalism miserable?
(I’m a journalism student, but I avoided the paper for the above reason.)

8

Here’s the problem. This combination tends to harbor racists, in my opinion. Why do you go there when you obviously abhor that sentiment?

9

ElwoodCuse, the publication is actually funded partially by the school and partially by wealthy alumns. The other publications have outside sponsors as well, but they are not nearly as affluent.

UncleBill The racism is not overt and I was but a babe when I first visited (although I’m still not too far out of the cradle)… and incidentally when I came down to view the college I was not exposed to the political ideology. Even then, I was not as informed about politics as I am now (though I still have a long way to go).

I don’t necessarily abhor private colleges or conservatives, it was merely a statement of the general atmosphere. In truth, it’s just not something I’m used to.

10

As someone who got neck-deep into more than one controversy in my salad days as a student journalist, I say don’t worry about it. The importance of things like this tends to be magnified in a young person’s head, since they lack a proper sense of perspective. These guys are not going to ruin your career. In fact, their sudden niceness is probably a attempt to head off the strong challenge to their moral authority your opposition represents.

A lot in the OP sounds familiar. When I was a prominent reporter for my (very large, very liberal) campus newspaper, the editors tended to let the Student Council President have it on a regular basis. One day, he struck up a conversation with me, and acted like we were buddies every time I saw him thereafter. It was strange, but it didn’t bother me. He was just working his angle, and saw him coming a mile away. As I found out when i became a pro, this stuff happens all the time. It’s an elaborate form of showing respect for the other person’s perceived power and influence.

I think you are being paranoid. “They sent him”? How do you know that? How do you know this guy was not simply being upfront with you? Without evidence to the contrary, he deserves the benefit of the doubt. I did something similar when in school, in asking a couple of protesting Women’s Studies majors what they had against the author of my columns. (They didn’t know I was that man) They unknowingly railed against one of the objects of their ire for 20 minutes. In the end, I got a better sense of what those opposed to my views thought by asking them in person. It added a human dimension to the whole debate.

And I would add that you have characterized your opponents as “vicious,” but you have given no example of their publicly voiced opinions that we in the SDMB may judge for ourselves.

11

Ah, the wacko-conservative publication that haunts many a college campus. Long may it live to make an ass of itself.

Like Lizard I was neck-deep in stuff like this when I worked at a large, rather liberal college newspaper. A columnist we fired (for reasons having nothing to do with his political views, but rather his short temper with readers who disagreed with him), launched his own conservative publication and somehow got his way onto a forum televised on C-SPAN where he dragged me, the opinion editor and the paper itself through the mud.

I thought it was a big deal at the time. I raised a huff when the conservative magazine National Review ran a quick note about his dismissal that repeated his lies. I complained to our paper’s board of directors, comprised mostly of journalism professors and professionals.

They told me to relax. They were right. In a few months he was expelled for carrying guns in his vehicle on campus, and his POS publication faded into oblivion. Ours is still around, as it has been since 1909. That was fun. :slight_smile: