"City Watch" from May 5, original version
My editors butchered my City Watch column in this Thursday's Daily Northwestern to rid it of sarcasm, or anything else that might prickle the humorless twats of the world. So just for the sake of it, I've restored the first section—the way GOD (and I) INTENDED!
The 'Yellow' Daily
Last Thursday on this page, Evanston resident Charles Boos wrote that The Daily has "a long tradition of yellow journalistic attempts to make our town appear much scarier than it is."
Boos, Communication '62, correctly pointed out that an April 25 story erroneously referred to accused murderer and Medicare scammer Ronald Mikos as an Evanston resident. It was our lead story that day.
Similarly, a year ago a flawed Daily story about a shooting in Rogers Park led to elaborate Daily-bashing on an online Evanston message board.
"It would appear that they also want to convince their readers that it is very dangerous to step off the campus into Evanston," Boos wrote on the message board, run by Ald. Ann Rainey (8th), who recently complained on the board that talking to Daily reporters will "come back to haunt you."
Evanston is not a scary place. If anything, The Daily's City Desk encourages its reporters to explore the city and show readers more than crime and poverty.
"I think you have a problem with people in Evanston in general, except for the ones that are not exactly like your parents," Boos told me of NU students.
I think students have this problem long before they read our paper.
NU students tend to arrive here with a vague fear of the city beyond campus and downtown -- referring to the remainder of the city, which most of them have never seen, with stock words such as "ghetto" or "sketchy." During New Student Week, NU staffers and students tell the new kids, usually without knowledge or qualification, that campus is buffered by "bad neighborhoods."
Boos clarified that he doesn't think our reporters make a "deliberate attempt" to make Evanston look bad. He knows editors have good reason to push crimes onto the front page. We don't do this all the time; often a murder seems to rescue us from an otherwise slow news day, so we emphasize it. We make most of our bad decisions without even thinking of them as decisions. We drift into them out of necessity or habit.
I'll admit this doesn't help students to adjust. As Boos says: "A lot of students are being exposed to a more diverse, a more complicated (city) than they lived in wherever they came from. So it's troubling when the few things that happen in Evanston become major indications of danger."
But more often we write about crime for laughs—just read any day's "Blotter." People masturbate on the sidewalks. People are arrested and released, then get arrested again later the same day when the cops notice they've stolen back confiscated items. People find original and hilarious ways to harass and batter each other.
Are we sadistic bottom-feeders? Hell yes. As journalists, we sometimes need solid, real-life black comedy to keep our spirits up. But are we reckless "yellow journalists?" No.
The 'Yellow' Daily
Last Thursday on this page, Evanston resident Charles Boos wrote that The Daily has "a long tradition of yellow journalistic attempts to make our town appear much scarier than it is."
Boos, Communication '62, correctly pointed out that an April 25 story erroneously referred to accused murderer and Medicare scammer Ronald Mikos as an Evanston resident. It was our lead story that day.
Similarly, a year ago a flawed Daily story about a shooting in Rogers Park led to elaborate Daily-bashing on an online Evanston message board.
"It would appear that they also want to convince their readers that it is very dangerous to step off the campus into Evanston," Boos wrote on the message board, run by Ald. Ann Rainey (8th), who recently complained on the board that talking to Daily reporters will "come back to haunt you."
Evanston is not a scary place. If anything, The Daily's City Desk encourages its reporters to explore the city and show readers more than crime and poverty.
"I think you have a problem with people in Evanston in general, except for the ones that are not exactly like your parents," Boos told me of NU students.
I think students have this problem long before they read our paper.
NU students tend to arrive here with a vague fear of the city beyond campus and downtown -- referring to the remainder of the city, which most of them have never seen, with stock words such as "ghetto" or "sketchy." During New Student Week, NU staffers and students tell the new kids, usually without knowledge or qualification, that campus is buffered by "bad neighborhoods."
Boos clarified that he doesn't think our reporters make a "deliberate attempt" to make Evanston look bad. He knows editors have good reason to push crimes onto the front page. We don't do this all the time; often a murder seems to rescue us from an otherwise slow news day, so we emphasize it. We make most of our bad decisions without even thinking of them as decisions. We drift into them out of necessity or habit.
I'll admit this doesn't help students to adjust. As Boos says: "A lot of students are being exposed to a more diverse, a more complicated (city) than they lived in wherever they came from. So it's troubling when the few things that happen in Evanston become major indications of danger."
But more often we write about crime for laughs—just read any day's "Blotter." People masturbate on the sidewalks. People are arrested and released, then get arrested again later the same day when the cops notice they've stolen back confiscated items. People find original and hilarious ways to harass and batter each other.
Are we sadistic bottom-feeders? Hell yes. As journalists, we sometimes need solid, real-life black comedy to keep our spirits up. But are we reckless "yellow journalists?" No.
posted by Scott at 1:20 PM
1 Comments:
Scott, is it any wonder that they would cut out:
"People find original and hilarious ways to harass and batter each other.
Are we sadistic bottom-feeders? Hell yes. As journalists, we sometimes need solid, real-life black comedy to keep our spirits up."
I don't feel like that represents the entirety of the city desk, let alone the entire Daily staff. I don't find crimes delightful. Masturbation is humorous, I will admit.
But I do agree that we publish a full spectrum of Evanston's happenings.
For example, the day my panhandler story went in, we put two positive articles about Evanston on the front page- one about the city's increase in lighting and the other showing a lack of racial profiling by police. We didn't place the issue of poverty at the front of the paper, a contradiction to Boos' statement.
Overall, I liked your article and hope it changes how Evanstonians view The Daily's intentions.
Maybe then I won't have to deal with patronizing city employees or have to call 5 or 6 times to get a source to talk to me...
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