I just wanted to update everyone on a few things that happened today. For those of us that wrote articles for this week's paper it is very essential. This is an exchange of e-mails between me (Wes), Kari, and Justin Kloczko (the recorder's opinion editor).
After sending in our articles with a request that they not be edited for content, this was sent back to us:
Dear Mork and Mindy,
Why the defensive e-mails? You seem to think I am gonna make you guys look yellow on purpose. Just to let you know, you send me your articles for a reason. We're "editors," and we look out for you. Everyone gets the same opportunities here.
Have a good day - Justin
Apparently he blames this response on drinking and assuming that we thought they were going to manipulate our words.
After reviewing Kari's article on the Jena 6 and Racism they sent this back to her (following is her initial response):
I discussed your article with Mark, and he wanted to let you know that your article is good, but try and keep it on topic with Jena 6. The comic stuff is old news and he thinks we need to move on. We have 13 articles submitted this week, so we are pressed for space. Try and trim the last part out and retain your main points about the Jena 6 and just give it to me by tonight. - Justin
Kari Sledzik
Yeah, I'm looking into that at the moment. I'll let you know what I come up with.
Kari Sledzik
(860) 944 9598
Check out the hottest 2008 models today at Yahoo! Autos.
Below is the content that they wish to be edited out:
These events in Jena magnify racial inequities rampant in our society. Rather than mocking such inequities with facetious publications and tasteless humor, we ought to be condemning it. The Recorder has not shown itself to be wholly sensitive to these issues, but CCSU and society at large demand a change. In the same way some inhabitants of Jena saw the hanging of the nooses to be a harmless prank, some members of the CCSU community saw the recent Polydongs comic as nothing of consequence. What these people fail to realize is that these "harmless" actions deeply offend the parties at expense and indicate that our society has made little progress against discrimination. We must be mindful that our actions have the potential to demoralize sectors of society. Otherwise unrelated incidents at CCSU and in Jena, thousands of miles apart, speak volumes about our society as a whole. Should we continue to ignore the underlying messages of our actions, we will never overcome the injustice explicitly displayed in Louisiana.
This is strange to me as my article also had several points where i stepped off my general topic of the Mattel recalls to talk about the state of our global economy, something that is not the topic, but related. This clearly shows the political basis for this censorship from Mr. Rowan who would like for this issue to disappear so he can continue his future career in the media world (he currently interns for the Hartford Advocate - a clearchannel publication). The full text can be located below as a separate topic.
This will not go on while people remain silent. We will be filing a formal media board complaint in regards to this attempt at censorship for thier own political gain. Anyone who feels similarly about this is welcome to file thier own as well.
1 comment:
I just posted this comment at the Take Back Recorder Blog, but I wanted to make sure Kari, especially, was able to read it. I hope it can offer an explanation from someone who isn't directly under fire.
I wanted to let Kari know that I received her Jena 6 article to copy edit and I thought it was a great piece. The information was correct and justified, as was the connection to the comic strip; I can understand why you added it in there. I edited the article and sent it straight to Mark. We questioned whether or not we should print the article 1. because, for once, we were tight on space, and 2. because while we enjoyed the article and felt it had merit, we have been receiving more opinion articles than most other sections and we can't allow it to become an opinion-based publication. While we reconsidered the article due to these reasons, we had no conscious political agenda in requesting that it be tweaked; then again, if someone wrote an article condemning something you did and tarnishing your name weeks after the event happened, just when you're finally starting to forgive yourself and seek the forgiveness of others, would you be cautious to allow it to print, or would you hope that everyone could forgive - not forget - and move on? Dr. Martin has told us that newspapers are supposed to be focused on news, and we know we have a hard time getting staff writers to write news for us. Everyone wants to voice their opinion, and I believe they should be able to. Unfortunately, though, it is a newspaper - the Jena 6 article would have been a great news or opinion article, and choosing not to discuss the comic further would not have taken away from that. We understand your discontent with what was published, and I think we are learning our lesson. I hope that we can continue to work together to make the newspaper a better educated and more interesting piece to read. I also hope that Kari, Wes, and everyone else who has recently contributed continues to do so because I think their writing is very well done. Please accept this comment as a reasonable and sincere explanation and not an attack. (No one even knows I'm commenting on this, and I might get in trouble for it later.) I hope we can all work together to make more people happy, for the benefit of those writers who take pride in what they write but get looked over because of a few bad decisions along the way.
Post a Comment