Opinion

Journalism battles a closed mind

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Journalists face all kinds of challenges, and occasionally threats. A student journalist, young and especially new to the work, might be subject to more insecurities than a more experienced writer. But student journalists are still professionals.

Recently, an early-morning intruder tried to break my door and attack me. He was huge and threatened me with violence, in the same way I’d been threatened by telephone over the last few months.

In the newsroom, I can hold my own. But suddenly, I was forced to hope, at that early hour, for someone to help me.

I sat there as a prisoner in my small, efficiency apartment and shook as a man continued to try to break down my door and then later screamed outside my window. I was forced to listen to death threats on my answering machine.

That day, I went into hiding. I stayed here and there, in hotels and with friends. Most people did not know where I was. My family and coworkers wondered what had happened to me. My professors wondered why I was absent from class. When my sister finally found me, she said she would have to see me to believe I was alive at all.

In an abstract sense, I was not.

For that last terrible week, I wanted to quit my whole form of life all together. I wanted to forget about my friends, my job, my classes and the people I loved. I wanted to completely erase my life and start anew. I wanted to move far away from anyone who wanted to hurt me and completely change who I was.

I wanted to destroy the person that this man had so much wanted to destroy.

Working as a student journalist is not easy. Long, late hours, trying to set up appointments on the phone, staring at computer screens for hours, constantly meeting new people, and trying to keep up with current events takes a considerable investment of your personal time. When you figure in classes, the workload can become overwhelming.

I was thinking about these demands, and the fact that I was now being threatened, while I sat with a friend the other night. I explained to her that it would probably be better if I never wrote again. I explained that I should just lay low and shut up. I explained that the risks outweighed the effort I was putting into my job. I explained that maybe I wasn’t in the right profession.

She laughed and said, “If your writing causes that much passion in people, you must be in the right profession.” I realized she was right.

I don’t call myself a good writer, but I try to be a fair one. I try to present both sides of an issue. I try to just write about what happened at the events I cover. I have no agenda, nor do I wish to make enemies. I am politically neutral and try to hear both sides of an issue. I believe my colleagues and any good journalist is the same.

I take criticism from all sides of both college and city government. I enjoy this. I enjoy the feedback from both sides because then I know that I’m doing my job and reporting facts that don’t lean in the favor of any faction. I enjoy anyone’s criticism, and I welcome commentary.

However, when criticism rises to the level of a door being kicked in, and physical violence threatened, and scary, late-night messages, it crosses a line. The man who did this to me crossed this line.

But a journalist cannot be scared. A journalist cannot be “shut up,” as the man threatened. A professional journalist is happy to hear a rational point of view rather than a profanity-laced spew from a violent attacker; so I refuse to throw away everything I’ve worked so hard for because of a campus issue that one or more people happen to feel passionately about. I will refuse to bow down because violent intimidators are in the wrong. I’m trying to encourage access to information, while my assailant wants to promote silence.

I do, however, appreciate the compliment. I thank this mysterious stranger for showing me what my writing can mean to people. I thank him for showing me that with all the efforts we make at The Badger Herald: we are making a difference. I’m back to work and out of hiding, and you’ll be remembered fondly.

Micah S. Berken is a junior at the University of Wisconsin. He is the campus editor at The Badger Herald and can be reached at mberken@badgerherald.com. He will continue to write for the Herald news section.