This is an editorial I wrote last month, intending to publish it in The BV. I never submitted it because I didn’t want to cause trouble with the unnamed professor, my adviser. However, I still feel the same way, so I decided to publish this for a smaller audience — my blog readers.
Sure, at The Bona Venture, we make fun of other campus media.
We say that no one watches SBU-TV. We say The Intrepid is just a Tumblr account. We say that The Laurel editors are a bunch of hippies. We say that WSBU-FM The Buzz is an elitist group of music snobs. And The Bonadieu… do they still exist?
It’s all in good fun. The Laurel calls us grammar and spelling nerds. The Buzz says we suck at organized sports. The Intrepid says we can’t tweet.
We realize that each organization is different in what they do. Many of us are involved in several media, like Managing Editor Tyler Diedrich, who reports for SBU-TV, or opinion writers Deirdre Spilman and Sara Ward, who have a radio show together on WSBU.
Naturally, competition exists, but it’s nothing that should make us turn against each other.
I was hurt when I heard a journalism professor obtained and planned to spill the contents of an FCC letter regarding the recent $7,000 fine against WSBU before the station even knew of its existence.
I listened as the professor waltzed around Murphy 202, spreading the horrible news with glee. He was sitting on a story, and he said he wanted to break it before The BV.
He said he requested the FCC public documents last year in order to follow up on WSBU’s license-renewal story.
The professor proceeded to tell the Dean about the regulation-breaking WSBU was committing.
Never once did he suggest to her that the journalism school should help the station. He stated no concern for the students – some of which he advises.
It makes me angry to know that some of our own faculty wouldn’t support our campus media for the sake of breaking a story.
What saddened me even further: this professor commented on WSBU’s status on Facebook.
“We’re in the RC today selling our 2011 #1 in the nation T-shirts!” the status read.
“It might help pay the fine,” the professor wrote.
Although I’m a proponent of connecting with journalism professors on Facebook, I thought this was a little out of line. I sat in WSBU’s board room as the directors discussed the comment, stating that in was unprofessional. They were disappointed too.
Whether you’re an un-watched reporter, a blogger, a hippie or a grammar nerd, we’re all students. We’re all at St. Bonaventure to learn.
Emilee Lindner 