The Bullet: Sink or Swim

The Bullet: Sink or Swim

general works--newspapers--

An article about the proper responsibilities and attitudes of a newspaper in order to remain relevant to the students and faculty of the school campus.

Mello, Michael Allen

Michael Mello. "The Bullet: Sink or Swim". The Bullet (VA), April 17, 1979.

HIST 298, University of Mary Washington

1979-4-17

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300dpi

English

Fredericksburg, University of Mary Washington,

Let me begin by saying that the Bullet will be playing a role of increasing importance to Mary Washington College in the coming years.  MWC will soon face, I believe, a series of crises which will in large measure define the direction that the College will take in the future.  The crises will occur because of conflicts between dissatisfied male students and an Administration that refuses to change school policy in certain important ways.

The number of male MWC students has greatly increased over the last four years, and it appears that this trend will continue.  In the long run, the increase will benefit the College; it will lead to more realistic learning and living environment.  But there will be problems in the immediate future: because I don't think that an increasing male population will tolerate the anachronistic rules of this institution.  Further, there are signs that the sexual revolution that swept the nation in the late sixties might finally be reaching MWC; if so, then the women on campus will oppose certain policies of this school as vocally as will the men.  the classical example of MWC's refusal to accept the Twentieth Century is the College's visitation rules, but there are other, more subtle points as well.  And, as discontent festers, the administration will probably respond with still more rules and still more trenchant enforcement of those rules.  A more hard-line administrative policy might delay change for a little while, but eventually, the Powers That Be in GW will have to relent.

As this situation progresses, the Bullet must keep the College informed of events as they occur.  It must aggressively investigate the issues, and coherently define and editorialize on those issues.  As The Free Lance-Star wrote a few years ago, "the Bullet must be free to express controversial subjects, to challenge the Establishment or the Administration or whatever."  But the newspaper must always remember that if a publication is to be effective, it must be considered legitimate and credible by the community within which it exists---and the Bullet's community consists of faculty and administrators as well as students.  If a newspaper readership is distrustful of the publication's motives and intentions, the paper will be impotent as a force for change.  

The Bullet must keep three things in mind if it expects to be considered a legitimate voice of the College community.  First and foremost, its reporters and editors must do their journalistic homework.  News stories must be coldly dispassionate and objective. And editorials must also be grounded in solid research; personal cheap shots at the Administration, for example, can serve no purpose except to demean the quality of the paper in the eyes of everyone.  The recent experience of the Prometheus should stand as compelling evidence of what happens when a publication is taken over by a few hotheads who react to situations with passion and emotion rather than with calm reflection; nothing will destroy the credibility of a newspaper faster.  Now Prometheus is trying to change its stripes and become a Phoenix, but it probably will not be able to rise from the ashes of its history.  And MWC has a long memory; once lost, legitimacy is difficult for a publication to regain.  Next year's Bullet editorial board had better learn this lesson quickly.

Secondly, the Bullet must be acutely aware of the consequences that the material it publishes can have on others.  It took me a long time, but I am finally beginning to internalize the reality of this fact.  Arnold Rosenfeld, editor of the Dayton Daily News, put it well:  "we see ourselves as driven professionals, informed by good intentions and purposes.  Readers see us as moral vigilantes, driven only by the desire to sell newspapers.  We protest our meritorious intentions.  But the public does not understand.  We protest that we bear no responsibility for the consequences of our journalism.  It is a world, many of us feel, we never made.  We only report.  "Baloney.  As human beings, editors and reporters ought to be terribly burdened, haunted, by the very real consequences of our decisions to publish.  We ought to live uncomfortably with the fact that our journalism does damage.  It can only be redeemed by the knowledge that, on balance, it helped more than it hurt."

Thirdly, the Bullet must remain an integral part of the Mary Washington College community; members of that community must see the newspaper as their institution and their voice.  Rosenfeld argues convincingly that any newspaper must remain an "organic part of the community, rather than a brooding presence towering above it in judgment.  Newspapers need to be alert to community needs and failures, yet also be seen as institutions of fundamental goodwill, sharing pride as well as problems."

The Bullet can be a powerful voice in the future; given the problems MWC must confront and solve in the near future, it must be a strong voice.  But whether anyone listens to that voice and takes it seriously will depend on how much credibility the College community gives to its newspaper. And that will depend on how the Bullet handles itself in the months to come.  
                                                             MAM         

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