By Erin Furman
If you have not already picked up a copy of InformNation’s premiere issue, don’t worry. You are not missing much.
Several weeks ago, the Student Government Association approved the creation of a liberal newsletter on campus, InformNation.
Founded on the idea that having only one on-campus news source is not beneficial to students, its Editor-in-Chief told a Chronicle reporter back in September that its message was going to be of change, specifically “overall change in lifestyle for the betterment of our futures and the world we live in.” After reading its first issue, however, students can discover for themselves that the publication is lacking- in more ways than one.
Mid-way through the Editor’s Note is InformNation’s mission statement: “We present the hard news for the liberal thinker.” But with an article that claims Hofstra is a university of “smart, lazy kids who do the minimum to pass,” and another that stresses the pointlessness of voting, InformNation does a disservice to the school it attempts to represent.
The religious beliefs of Gov. Sarah Palin do not constitute hard news. Neither do the over-idealistic views of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-or the fact that humans may or may not have contributed to global warming.
Furthermore, hard news needs to be timely. Running a story on rising gas prices is not only outdated but also false. It fails to mention that the costs of oil have decreased drastically in the past month, so much so that The Washington Post published an article on Monday that predicted the cost of oil to drop as low as $50 a barrel by the end of this year.
It is a journalist’s job to write facts, not opinions. Hard news stories are, by nature, supposed to be unbiased. But a newsletter that asks its writers to include their opinion in their articles is also asking their journalists to break the ethical codes meant to ensure credibility in their field. Articles that put forth an opinion (such as this one) need to be labeled as such.
The second half of InformNation’s mission statement should also be called into question. The newsletter’s liberal intent seems to have been ignored by several of its writers. Most liberal thinkers look favorably on equal rights for everyone, not just American citizens. They generally support the legalization of immigrants, including providing a path to citizenship for undocumented persons already living in the country. Yet “A Different Look into Illegal Immigration,” one of the few articles labeled as an opinion piece, asserts, “When I see illegal immigrants demonstrating for their residency, I look the other way. Their comments fall on deaf ears and their pamphlets fall to the ground.”
That does not sound very liberal to me. Rather, it sounds as if the writer is an angry Republican shaking his fist at the people whose only hope is to be granted their share of the American dream.
As of right now, InformNation has a choice. It can continue to publish outdated stories with unsupported opinions, or it can change for the better. With a precious 10 pages worth of content, it cannot afford to continue printing inconsistent, biased articles that directly contradict the mission statement it seeks to fulfill.
Calling the University the “back-up school of a generation” at a time when the entire nation’s eye was fixed upon it was a slap in the face to the thousands of students who spent countless hours working to get here.
Be better than that, InformNation. Drop the condescending, insular attitude and strive to be the publication your mission statement alludes to.
Erin Furman is a junior print journalism student writing on behalf of The Chronicle. You may e-mail her at [email protected].