Comments about "Public Editor: Whitney Sado's Report"
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13 Comments on this article:
I'm surprised that this article, coming as it does from the Daily's appointed "Public Editor," should be so poorly written. Doesn't the Public Editor have an editor?
I actually thought it was one of the most well-written and well-reasoned accounts of the whole incident that one could hope for...
A pretty solid run through of the events of the last week.
The piece has a few problems ("to quibble with semantics"), but considering that it's likely no more than a first or second draft, I think it's good reporting and good writing.
if you're a student and you're criticizing the daily's writing and editing, you should go work for the daily and show them how it's done. otherwise, don't complain.
Geez, I never thought that I would type this, but I actually feel sort of sorry for Dave Herbert.
The Daily is run by a crew of students. These kids aren't working for their high school paper anymore, but they aren't professional journalists, either. When their words are released, they stay in print indefinitely for the whole world to read. I don't think that a lot of the writers realize this when their pieces go to print.
Because of the permanence of what goes to print, accurate reporting is crucial. However, the Daily is first and foremost a training ground for future journalists to hone their craft and learn their lessons before they are unleashed into the world of reporting.
Herbert messed up, clearly. But the poor guy has given his entire undergrad career to working on the Daily. What a pity that there isn't room to forgive and forget on this kind of thing. The Daily did the right thing by putting this punishment on Herbert--it's a lesson that he had to learn before he graduated and was unleashed out into the real world.
I hope that he remembers this whole situation for the rest of his career in journalism, and that he can learn from the fall-out in order to become the journalist that he is capable of being.
Learn, I agree that one of the Daily's most important functions is to help future journalists (promising future journalists!) hone their craft, and that this is a good life lesson for those involved, but it does seem a shame to me that Herbert's punishment is a one-week suspension. Especially since he has been involved in the Daily for a number of years, I believe a lapse of judgement of this magnitude deserves more than a purely symbolic slap on the wrist.
Yeah, I agree he should have gotten more punishment. This just shows how much prone to politics the Daily is.
I'm a little concerned for the quality of The Stanford Daily in general if its staff would allow an editor to do a read on a story of which they are the subject. Running stories on your editors in general should raise a red flag for the editors to take special care, because apparent conflicts of interest are inevitable. What kind of journalism training do these kids have?
It's pretty obvious it was wrong to publish the "hero" story. It's also pretty obvious that Whitney Sado doesn't know how to punctuate a sentence properly. The second line of her column is not a question, so why does it have a question mark? Uhhh... "It seems as though everyone has been asking me about the ramifications of the squash story, questioning the integrity and credibility of The Daily?"
Speaking of journalism, you need to stick in a "he said" before stating that he "had two drinks." Otherwise, you are endorsing it as fact, when all we know is what he claims.
I agree with Scott Dance - even on my high school newspaper, we never published anything about anyone on our staff unless the staff member was tertiary to the story (such as on a soccer team that won a game).
It is about personal accountability. Better Herbert learn this now if journalism is his chosen career path. I might also add that if he is in a journalism program he should know the importance of accuracy. Also, beyond the fabricatd hero story one has to question the morals of a young man who (drinks or no drinks) inflames a potentially dangerous situation with his big and foul mouth. Maybe the first lesson for "chickenbone" personally is:
STAY OFF THE SAUCE! Might save him a lot of grief in the future!

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