Respect. Please!

I never thought the day would arrive when I would feel a genuine wave of contempt for the student organisation which I personally led for six years, brief though it may be. For the second time now in the two years since I left the organisation, I have met reporters or photographers from that organisation walking around grinning as they look for information about the most shocking, saddening and gruesome sort of incident.

You call yourself a reporter? If you fail to understand the gravity of the situation, you have already failed in your reporting. Indeed, objectivity is key, but perspective is equally important. Not only do you often demonstrate zero objectivity in your work, you demonstrate zero perspective on the field. You were given information to improve the accuracy of what you wrote regarding what happened last year. You could have put up the information and made your article more accurate, but you didn’t. Why? To keep the article sensational? Worse of all, because you were lazy? This year, you want to put a photo of THAT on your front page? Seriously? Which respectable newspaper have you ever seen show pictures of something like that? Tell me!?

Personally if I was still leading this organisation, these people would get a good tongue-lashing from me. It would be unfortunate that kicking them from the organisation is out of the question thanks to your lack of manpower.

Real reporters can be quite an ass when looking for information. It’s true. However they need to sell newspapers or lose their jobs. You have no competitors. You have no revenue target to meet. You don’t sell your paper, and you’re not earning a living. What’s your excuse?

There’s a new bunch of you this year. The article’s not out yet. Learn a lesson would ya? Get your facts right this time. All of it.

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