THE CAVALIER Daily found itself embroiled in a controversy last week, rather than covering one.
The controversy centered on the newspaper's lack of coverage of the racially motivated vandalism of fourth-year student Amey Adkins' car on Sept. 8. Many people, including me, criticized the newspaper for not publishing anything about this incident on the News page. Much of that criticism may have been warranted, but The Cavalier Daily did many things right under scrutiny last week.
The managing board wrote an editorial in Wednesday's paper addressing flaws in the University's response to the incident and discussed what the administration should do differently in the future. The last two paragraphs addressed the paper's own response. I outlined The Cavalier Daily's approach to the incident in my column last week. But the editors needed to directly explain to their readers why they took that approach, and they did that.
In Thursday's paper, associate editor Corinne Shamy wrote a news article about reaction to The Cavalier Daily's coverage. Reporters find themselves in a difficult position when asked to write about events involving their publications because they undoubtedly have their own opinions about what happened. Shamy successfully wrote something as close to objective as any reporter in that situation can get.
Shamy opened the article by giving the background of the incident and the subsequent response from The Cavalier Daily. For the rest of the article, she interviewed representatives of groups who had an interest in how the newspaper handled the story: student leaders, Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia Lampkin and Editor-in-Chief Chris Wilson. She interviewed an English professor with experience in journalism who could offer an expert opinion. Most importantly, Shamy talked to and quoted Adkins, the person who had the biggest stake in how her story was or was not covered. The editor's note at the end of the article also lent some independence to Shamy's work by pointing out that Wilson took no role in editing the story because he was quoted in it.
Associate editor Shannon Sturcken ended up in the same position as Shamy when she covered a town meeting Thursday night sponsored by the Black Student Alliance. The bulk of Sturcken's article in Friday's paper focused on student reaction to how the administration handled the incident. The Cavalier Daily, however, was a topic of discussion, and Wilson spoke at the meeting. Sturcken, like Shamy, fairly described what was said about her newspaper by those in attendance.
The editorial, the two articles and Wilson's appearance at the town meeting may not make up for any deficiencies in the way The Cavalier Daily handled news of the vandalism of Adkins' car. They are, however, honest attempts on the part of the staff to openly address readers' concerns.
If any good has come of what happened to Adkins, it's that students and administrators seem to be having an open, vital discussion about the state of race relations at the University. No one should have had to experience the kind of racial intolerance Adkins did for the U.Va. community to start talking seriously about race relations. The important thing now is that people continue talking on campus and in the pages of this newspaper to prevent incidents like the vandalism of Adkins' car from happening in the future.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not address my own role in last week's controversy. Good editorial writers present their arguments clearly, but some of what I wrote did not clearly reflect my views.
I referred to the act of vandalism itself as "a minor story." I wanted to illustrate that vandalism, ignoring the motivation, is not a major crime compared to rape, assault or murder. I never intended to downplay the significance of what happened to Amey Adkins, and I sincerely apologize to her if she was offended by that comment.
I argued that The Cavalier Daily's wait-and-see approach when it first heard about the incident was reasonable, but the waiting should have stopped when Lampkin's letter was published. I stand by that, but the other side of the argument -- that the vandalism of Adkins' car was racially motivated and should have been reported immediately -- is certainly valid.
This column, as I said the first week I wrote in this space, is my independent opinion of the job The Cavalier Daily is doing as a news publication. That opinion is based on my journalism experience, but it is by no means infallible. I welcome any comments anyone has about anything in my columns because the only way I can improve and do my job effectively is if I hear from you, the reader.
Jeremy Ashton can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
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