Expose:

The Spartan Daily: A Followup, with Closure

September 8, 2009 by Kyle Brady
Tags: Biased Reporting, Failed Journalism, SJSU, Spartan Daily
As required by the FTC, a Full Disclosure is available - this piece adheres to the Code of Ethics

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follow the update thread for the latest chapter in the saga

This morning I had a meeting with the Dean of Students for the College of Applied Sciences and Arts at SJSU (Dr. Charles Bullock), regarding the recent “Spartan Daily Debacle” where the School Director of Journalism and Mass Communications (Dr. William Briggs) and a Faculty Advisor for the school paper (Mack Lundstrom).

I feel as if the meeting was an overall success, and the issue can now be considered closed - the general outline and outcome from this morning is as follows.

Meeting’s Intent

I originally contacted the Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Veril Phillips, requesting a meeting with either him or the school’s President, Dr. Whitmore.  I received a response a few days later indicating that an investigation was ongoing as to who could best suit my needs, and the following day a scheduling request was made via email for a meeting between myself and the other members that were present this morning.

My intent was twofold: to make the Administration aware, at the highest levels, of the situation, as well as register my concerns – which, while stated elsewhere, were essentially:

1. the handling of the situation by the Spartan Daily, and its ethical implications


2. the resultant public image I may have as a “troublemaker”


3. the unnecessary and unprofessional response I received from Hank Drew, the paper’s Editor

In addition to registering my concerns and creating awareness, I wanted an official apology from Hank Drew for his explosive reaction to my criticisms.

Discussion Topics

We covered my intent and concerns, followed by comments from Dr. Bullock, Dr. Briggs, and Professor Lundstrom.  Over the course of the discussion, Professor Lundstrom admitted to the mishandling, on multiple counts, of the issue, although it was purportedly unintentional – the photo miscaptioning (and mislabeling as a “photo” instead of a “photo illustration”), shortened article, and the editing of my Editorial Letter were all mangled in one form or another, and could have been handled more appropriately.  On this, we agreed.

Both Professor Lundstrom and Dr. Briggs stressed that this was not an issue of the Administration leaning on the paper, but just an unfortunate series of events that led to the now-obvious conclusion.  The paper is apparently somewhere in-between an outside publication and an in-house one, and strives for journalistic integrity and independence while having a faculty advising staff that doesn’t interfere or set mandates and receives funding from the university.  I assumed as much, but it's nice to have this made clear.

Dr. Briggs commented that he partially sees this as my non-appreciation of the story as a “source unhappy with the final article”, but as Professor Lundstrom agreed with my concerns and this is not my first appearance in the public eye by another’s hand, this isn’t the case.

We discussed how the “Beeson Debacle” is still ongoing, as I’m readying an offensive to his actions this semester, and that the paper would potentially be very interested in a future story after the forthcoming battle is resolved, or at least has a temporary endpoint.

Finally, Dr. Bullock agreed that my concerns were sizeable and legitimate, and that the whole string of events was unfortunate – the President, Vice President, and Provost of SJSU were apparently highly interested in the outcome of this meeting as well.

Outcomes

The outcomes of this meeting were pretty clear, despite no comment on an apology from Hank Drew:

1. The Spartan Daily did not intend to slant the story, and they are apologetic for the mistakes made throughout the process.


2. My Editorial Letter will be published in full, unedited, on the Daily’s website – including the links and contact information that they originally, conveniently omitted.


3. My efforts to call out the paper on potentially shady actions, as well as speak out in my public defense, were expressly appreciated by Professor Lundstrom, further commenting that I might have a journalistic future should I desire it.


4. The Daily is interested in hearing further on the progress of my attempts at a defense of student’s rights.


5. The University’s President, Vice President, Provost, and other appropriate individuals within the Administration will be made aware of these events and the actions, as well as missteps, that took place by parties involved.

I appreciate the time that the three of them took to meet with me and address my concerns, and I consider the situation largely closed, pending further mishandling of similar Administration-related issues by the Spartan Daily.

Hank Drew:  a written apology would go far in rectifying your unprofessional and unnecessarily vicious reaction via email to criticisms of the paper, where you hold the position of Editor, that have since been verified as valid and legitimate.

Emails

To:  Dr. Phillips

From:  Me

Date:  8/28/2009

Hi Dr. Phillips,

I'd like to make an appointment to talk with either you or Dr. Whitmore, regarding the slander and vilification I received over the last week at the hands of the Spartan Daily, across many publications.

If you'd like some background on what I'm talking about, please read my detailed description of the original issue (from Monday 8/25/2009) and the follow-up disaster that occurred on Thursday (8/27/2009).

Thanks, I look forward to hearing from you.

Expose pieces are irregular posts attempting to hold people and organizations accountable for their actions.
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