Students Criticize Spec Accuracy

Student group leaders criticized Spectator staff members for misquotes, inaccessibility, and its dearth of multicultural coverage at last night's Spectator Town Hall meeting. The meeting took place in Earl Hall Auditorium and was moderated by associate dean of the Columbia School of Journalism Arlene Morgan.

The meeting was the first of what Spectator leaders say will be a series of initiatives intended to foster dialogue between the Spectator and the University community. From these events, the Spectator hopes to improve its coverage and learn how to better serve the paper's readers as a source of information and an accurate reflection of student life. The event, which was free and open to the entire campus, attracted about 50 people, of whom around half were Spectator staff members.

The majority of the dialogue concerned Spectator's commitment to accuracy and running corrections. "There was a terrible story that the Spectator did on ... the ISO [International Socialist Organization], and after a while they finally issued a correction a few weeks ago, which I did appreciate," David Judd, CC '08 and president of the ISO, said. "It took a little bit over a year."

Spectator editors said they were surprised about the dissatisfaction expressed regarding accuracy. "I was struck people feel so strongly about being misquoted," said Jimmy Vielkind, CC '07 and former Spectator city news editor, after the event.

In response to complaints expressed about lack of corrections, Joshua Hirschland, CC '08 and campus news editor, said after the event, "Whenever we agree there is a correction to be made, we are not only willing but eager to correct ourselves."

Keondra Prier, BC '08, said that she was misrepresented in a story about the Proxy Magazine, a publication she started that relates to the African Diaspora. "The amount of misquoting and misinformation about my magazine that occurred in that article... it was ridiculous and almost offensive," she said.

Helam Gebremariam, CC '07 and a facilitator for Respecting Ourselves and Others Through Education, commonly known as ROOTEd, stressed the importance of a reporter's influence and responsibility. "The way Spec can improve is by improving its credibility," she said in an interview after the meeting. "Once I trust Spectator will not take my words and distort them, then I will have the confidence in the Spectator."

Participants criticized the cultural paradigm of the Spectator. "This town hall is, in some way, indicative of the problem of Spec. People of color... there aren't that many here," said Alexander Jung, CC '07 and Spectator columnist. "The right way of going about it [improving diversity] is taking a more critical look about how this cultural shift needs to happen on the Spectator."

A point of praise for the Spectator was its coverage of the administration. "Staff writers do a very good job at covering things that the administration does, especially when it's misbehaving," said Six Silberman, SEAS '07 and Spectator columnist.

Students expressed that they were grateful to have this forum to voice their opinions about the paper. "It was really impressive that the town hall has really occurred," Gebremariam said.

Steve Moncada, CC '07 and former Spectator editor-in-chief, said that he and his colleagues had been discussing the initiative to get feedback from the beginning of his tenure. "It's good that the staff was able to hear criticisms in the same room, to see the people who are really getting upset," Moncada said after the event.

The Spectator managing board will convene for debriefing sessions to distill notes from the town hall and devise concrete solutions. "We have heard these criticisms in the past, but until now, we have not responded forcefully enough to this criticism," John Davisson, CC '08 and Spectator editor-in-chief, said after the event. "There needs to be some soul-searching before we proceed."

The editor-in-chief, managing editor, and news editors recused themselves from editing this article because they helped to plan and run the event.