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| "Mexican News," by Alfred Jones, after Richard Caton Woodville (National Gallery of Art) |
That seems so simple. Though it requires a spine, which so many folk just don't have. And brains. Also often in short supply.
I'm thinking about the mess at the University of Indiana. Last week the administration abruptly fired the student media director and cancelled all future editions of the Indiana Daily Student, pretending it was a regular business decision to "align with industry trends."
The fired adviser told The New York Times that the move was taken because the college wants the newspaper to stop printing news, and only feature be-true-to-your-school boostry fluff.
Student journalists suspect they were angry that the newspaper wasn't chirping loudly enough about Homecoming weekend, and if they had to spike the 158-year old newspaper to amp up school spirit, so be it. It's only the students. It's not like something important. Like donors.
So what happens? The issue, that would have burned for a few hours on campus in Bloomington, is fanned into a national wildfire that goes on, day after day, in stories such as this one in the Washington Post.
And in one of those moments of selflessness that seal a story forever in the public mind, the Exponent, the paper at rival Purdue, two hours north and living in a different century, apparently, printed a special edition outlining the Indiana dust-up, then "crossed enemy lines" from West Lafayette and filled Indiana Daily Student boxes around the Bloomington campus with a special edition outlining the situation.
"WE STUDENT JOURNALISTS MUST STAND TOGETHER," the front page headline reads, according to a story in the Herald-Times.
Student journalists suspect they were angry that the newspaper wasn't chirping loudly enough about Homecoming weekend, and if they had to spike the 158-year old newspaper to amp up school spirit, so be it. It's only the students. It's not like something important. Like donors.
So what happens? The issue, that would have burned for a few hours on campus in Bloomington, is fanned into a national wildfire that goes on, day after day, in stories such as this one in the Washington Post.
And in one of those moments of selflessness that seal a story forever in the public mind, the Exponent, the paper at rival Purdue, two hours north and living in a different century, apparently, printed a special edition outlining the Indiana dust-up, then "crossed enemy lines" from West Lafayette and filled Indiana Daily Student boxes around the Bloomington campus with a special edition outlining the situation.
"WE STUDENT JOURNALISTS MUST STAND TOGETHER," the front page headline reads, according to a story in the Herald-Times.
You have to love that, right? Another ham-handed college administration ballyhooing their own inadequacy. Yes, it's all taking place in Indiana, the Mississippi of the Midwest, and so can be lumped together as matters beneath notice. But with truth under attack on a daily basis across our country, even a victory in a minor skirmish in an overlooked place is worthy of notice.
That's a good one: Ind. the MS of the Midwest and so true. Iowa and Wisc. may not be far behind.
ReplyDeleteBeen calling deep-red Ohio "North Missitucky" for quite a while now.
DeleteAnd Indiana, natch, is West Missitucky. It's a lot worse than Ohio.