If an industry cannot detect chinks in its armor, its days may be numbered.
So if a newspaper apologizes for covering the news, we wonder how long readers will take that newspaper seriously.
Last month, we told of a college newspaper doing it right. The Harvard Crimson reported on a rally by a pro-immigration group and the group’s demand that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency be abolished. The paper then reached out to ICE for a comment on the rally.
Harvard students were furious the Crimson, in an attempt at fairness and balance, asked ICE officials their opinion. But that’s what newspapers do.
Earlier this month, The Daily Northwestern of Northwestern University sent its writers to report on a speech by former Trump administration Attorney General Jeff Sessions and on the students who were protesting the event sponsored by College Republicans. Days later, it apologized for covering the protest, saying students found some of the photos published “retraumatizing and invasive” and that contacting other students was “an invasion of privacy.”