Show Friday May 10 1974 Page 2 editorial comment Poor Richard's Almanac There has been a change in editors at Student Life and with this change there will be a change in editorial policy Brent Harker is gone Richard Brady is in It is probably appropriate for this first editorial by a new editor to explain something about what you might look for from Student Life in the future Maybe should start with what you won't see You won't see much public relations "garbage" be it from the ASUSU government or from any other source that wishes to use the campus newspaper as its own personal I Essay on the rhetoric PR sheet You won't see Student Life turned into a mouth-piec- e of radicals regardless of which end of the fence they sit oru But what you will see we hope is a newspaper that is able to report the facts accurately and one that will work solely to inform the campus community of important issues As you can see Student Life will run two editorials per issue this year One will be writen by the editor and the - other by another member of SL's editorial staff Also we would like to run a weekly feature "Student In The News" which would give the student who doesn't belong to any campus organization or social clique a chance to stand up and be counted Another thing that we at Student Life would like to do is better inform the campus on the business community down at the bottom of the hill We'd like to be able to help students who have problems with their landlords or whoever if they think they've been wronged In short we would like to have Student Life be a tool that the studentbody can use to keep up on what's happening and find out on occasion what isn't happening that should be - Many a Hollywood photographer has lost his job' when the starlet he was photographing complained that the pictures he took of her looked "absolutely ghastly" Although there is some degree of technical skill involved in producing good pictures almost any photographer will agree that some people are just more photogenic than others As in the case of the harrassed photographer who is forced to rely on the defense that "the camera doesn't lie" many reporters have to answer critics by telling them simply that what they see is what was said We're not saying that there isn't a difference between true and false or that personal bias doesn't sometimes find its way into the news columns What sometimes does happen however is that what a spokesman thought he said and how it actually sounds and looks in print the next day may be" two entirely different things The obvious reaction on his part will probably be "I never said that" in utter disbelief The unfortunate aspect of all this is that in order to save face in front of associates he is then forced to resort to angry denunciation and retraction claiming that he was misquoted misunderstood and misused One of the responsibilities of authority is that of answering questions and providing information As demonstrated by various press secretaries there are good and bad ways to function in this capacity We suggest that those who give information and comment on issues and problems remember that the reporter is attempting to repeat the story as it is given making only those changes dictated by newspaper-stylThe reporter is not out to get you Don't mistake your own inability to verbally communicate with intentional distortion or prejudicial twisting or blame the failure to communicate on what you think is a personal crusade against student officials Charges of bias hurt our credibility We do everything possible to insure that the news is presented as objectively as possible at the same time our editorial rights under opinion headings exercising e 4 ' 4 v 's' t v" |