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I really bugged people yesterday when I said I didn't care that much about the dean of Medill possibly making up anonymous sources for a letter in an alumni newsletter, and the conversation that followed has been interesting and persuasive. The story so far:
Medill dean John Lavine wrote a letter in the school's spring alumni magazine hyping the school's advertising classes. That letter included an anonymous quote from a student praising the class, saying "I came to Medill because I want to inform people and make things better. Journalism is the best way for me to do that, but I sure felt good about this class. It is one of the best I've taken.'' But a columnist for Northwestern's student newspaper contacted all 29 people who took that course--and they all say that's not their quote.
But last week, Lavine told the Tribune that the quotes in his columns "came from real people," though he couldn't recall whether they came from e-mail or conversations.He defended his use of anonymous quotes by drawing a distinction between a news story and a letter to alumni in a magazine.
"Context is all-important. I wasn't doing a news story," Lavine said.
Not everyone sees it that way, though, including faculty members: 16 of them signed a letter saying the matter has "become a crisis for the school." The letter says, "The principles of truthfulness and transparency in reporting are at the core of Medill's professional and academic mission." The letter doesn't call for Lavine to resign, but it does say that they "deserve a more complete accounting than the dean has thus provided."
Let the outrage continue...[S-T, Trib, more S-T, faculty statement via Daily Northwestern.]
Fisk Hall photo via Northwestern
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medillhos.
How does one prove that an anonymous source is made up?
I don't think this is a HUGE story, just another nail in the journalism industry's coffin.
The internet is revolutionizing journalism and J-schools and media outlets aren't keeping up as fast as innovation is moving. They can't keep making fudge-ups like these if they hope to stay relevant.
Tower 18, you can't really. But the fact that it's anonymous in the first place is a red flag. I've always been taught to avoid anonymous sources unless there is a good reason (safety, etc), and to give the reason if it is needed. Like in the Daily Northwestern piece, one faculty member was quoted anonymously because s/he feared retribution. And it was stated as such. But if students were praising something, there should be no reason to keep it anonymous. Unless, you know, it was fake.
On a related note:
Anyone watching this season of the Wire? Am I the only one who wants to see Templeton get his?
One student "proved" it was anonymous by inquiring as to which class he was referring to, then asking all 29 students if they had said any of those things. Evidently all of the students responded negatively and hence the it was said to be made up.
I also think they prefer the term medilldos.
We are disappointed that you neglected (abandoned?) to use Gothamist LLC House Style (that is, the formal 'we') in this post in favor of the first person singular pronoun, something we have up to this point hardly ever seen from any contributor, much less the current Editor in Chief.
i only know Templeton as the smarmy rat in charlottes web.
this proves it's not a very good school anyway...........
What's the NU paper doing? Those kids will never fit in the newsroom if they keep doing fact checking.
It's no different than those crappy commercials that come on every day about how you can get a career as a chef if you go to this school or those dopes that you know didn't actually go to ITT, say that they used to deliver pizza but now thanks to ITT there heads of some technology company.