I nominate Nick for some kind of award for being one of the more civil, articulate, and reasonable interlocutors we've had on the board for a long time.  He managed to display good grace even when I was a bit sharp in some of my postings.  Nick, we could use many more visitors like you!

The award mentioned above is something given once a week; I think there are two awards, actually: one for best nom de plume, and one for best post.

Nick wrote:

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 "Dis-Can, Please, enlighten the ignorant; what is "Sunday's nom d'Aplomb award?"

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Nick,

I'll do better than tell you. I will show you. Here is an example (May 1 version) of the nom d'Aplomb award that is given each Sunday by Miss Information, Invictus, and Malapropism. That committee reviews the names which the various posters have used during the week and makes the award.   Click here: Nom d'Aplomb Award, May 1, 2005

Hem's ghost in the machine wrote:

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George Jetson wrote: Nick Adams wrote: When did I mention SFT?  How did he enter into this debate?  I thought this was about the Printz and journalism? We can confine it to journalism if you like.  Your various posts under various literary noms-de-plume, on this thread and others, imply a regard for Shelby (or a contempt for his critics), but if the shoe doesn't fit, I apologize for assuming you wear it. Now, back to journalism: admittedly the Printz and most student newspapers are not, generally, full of top-flight journalism; nevertheless, the Printz deserves a lot of credit (especially last year's staff) for staying on top of the story and covering it clearly.  What is it about the Printz that you dislike that makes it any different from most other college papers?  And how do you explain all the awards the Printz has recently won if you think this particular college paper is so uniquely full of yellow journalism?  Apparently those who judge such things regard the Printz as above average. The awards I can't explain without assumption.  I can tell you that the writers of the Printz have a difficult time bringing themselves to cover "both sides of the story."  Many times they won't even try to get the facts right.  I mean, for persons who scream for the unadulterated truth, you would think someone would ask questions of their students.  I have personally called to ask what sources they consulted for stories because I know they failed to contact anyone that had the actual data.  A number of persons/departments (and no, not SFT or admin types) have been the victim of one-sided, sensationalized stories from the Printz staff in the previous year.

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While I frequently read this board and never comment on what is said here, this post has prompted me to do so.

As a former Staff Writer, Senior Staff Writer and Sports Editor of the Printz (and the owner of a freshly conferred B.A. in Journalism) I feel I need to defend the profs in the School of MCJ. First off, they have never taught us to engage in "Yellow Journalism." The first thing we are taught is to be fair and UNbiased. In our writing classes, we'd lose points on our writing assignments if the stories were biased and did not offer both sides of the story. Likewise, making up sources  and quotes, or stealing quotes from other published articles (it's called plagarism in case you needed an explanation of what that is) got you an automatic F.

Secondly, I don't know when you called to ask about sources used in a story, because it was not during this past semester. I was in the newsroom almost every afternoon during the week working on stories or class work. I do not recall anyone calling and asking about what sources were used in a story.

Usually, the sources of information used on stories pertaining to administration actions are members of the administration, including Lisa Slay Mader, Ken Malone, Joe Paul, Jay Grimes and Dr. Thames himself.

When I covered SACS, the information I used came from Joan Exline, the SACS website, Dr. Thames' comments from his December press conference, the NCAA website and a NCAA spokesperson and the director of NCAA compliance at USM ( to discuss how a universities accreditation affected its NCAA status). When I could not reach the person in charge of overseas studies and online classes at USM, I interviewed Dr. Weist, who has extensive knowledge of the assesment procees used for the Vietnam Studies program since he helped create it. If those are not the sources to rely on for the SACS probation, then I am sorry for completely screwing it up and not doing it to your satisfaction.

But I think you'll be surprised at some of the people who have complimented members of the Printz staff for the work they have done this year. They include Dr. Thames and Richard Giannini. During the final week of publication for the school year, Mr. G thanked me for the coverage I did of USM's athletic programs during the spring, saying I did a lot of good things for them. while that may make me sound bad at first glance, the comment came after a story I did on the athletic departments purchase of an airplane, a story that one person in the athletic department described as athletic department bashing. But the thing about that story is that I did my homework on what people thought about the purchase before I talked to Mr. G, so I knew what criticisms people might have and I gave him the opportunity to defend the purchase.

Being a good journalist means the reporter/writer looked beyond the surface to see what else was there. It's no different than writing a research paper to be honest, both require research, hard work, long hours and a lot of digging in order to be done correctly.

I may not have been the best journalist during my time at the Printz and I may have made some errors in my stories, but I tried as damn hard as possible to make sure I was accurate and balanced in my coverage of events at USM.

That's called fair and balanced journalism.

Curt,

I agree with everything you said about the ideals of journalism.  But, you have to take the blinders off.  Some of your counterparts obviously dont take the time you do. 

As far as you not remembering me . . . well, I called, trust me.  And the next week there was no apology, but a rebutal.  That didnt set well.   When you write an article that has VERY LITTLE truth in it, and no attempt to speak with those who actually know the TRUTH you should be willing to admit a mistake.

This characteristic is terribly lacking.

Nick wrote:

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Curt, I agree with everything you said about the ideals of journalism.  But, you have to take the blinders off.  Some of your counterparts obviously dont take the time you do.  As far as you not remembering me . . . well, I called, trust me.  And the next week there was no apology, but a rebutal.  That didnt set well.   When you write an article that has VERY LITTLE truth in it, and no attempt to speak with those who actually know the TRUTH you should be willing to admit a mistake. This characteristic is terribly lacking.

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What article was that, because I don't remember it.

I know the news editor got her information from the administration when she did a story, so if the information is false, it's not her fault. Lisa Mader was not the only source of information at
USM. Quite the contrary, you could find out many more details by talking directly to the people involved. The only time I recall someone questioning a source was in the fall when Larry Lee called in about the textbook theft story, but I don't recall there being a rebuttal.

Calling the Printz office, or any newspaper office for that matter, to complain about something you feel is incorrect is not the best way to go. There is a thing called "Letters to the Editor" for that sort of stuff. That's where you send an email to the printz where you complain about something, and provided you don't slander someone in the email, it gets printed in the paper. The members of the Students Against The Student Printz could spend their time more productively by doing this instead of ranting to each other on their little forum on thefacebook.com. This brings me to another point, if those students hate the Printz so much and feel like reading it is worse than a root canal, why do they keep reading it and pouring over its flaws and discussing them on that website?

What some of these students do not seem to realize is that the stuff you find in the opinion section are shockingly not news stories, but columns of opinion. Hence the word OPINION sprawled out across the top of the page.

Nick wrote:

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Curt, I agree with everything you said about the ideals of journalism.  But, you have to take the blinders off.  Some of your counterparts obviously dont take the time you do.  As far as you not remembering me . . . well, I called, trust me.  And the next week there was no apology, but a rebutal.  That didnt set well.   When you write an article that has VERY LITTLE truth in it, and no attempt to speak with those who actually know the TRUTH you should be willing to admit a mistake. This characteristic is terribly lacking.

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Nick,

If you believe this to be true this isn't it only fair to not stereotype all student journalists at the Printz.  I do believe some shoddy stories have made it into print, but some stories, like Curt's, obviously have merit.