“An [sic] letter from the Tavern League”

That was The Badger Herald’s headline for the Madison/Dane County Tavern League’s Oct. 29 letter to the editor. The letter from Tavern League President Barb Mercer contained 27 instances of “[sic],” which is normally inserted by newspaper editors to denote errors made by an outside contributor to the Opinion page.

The letter was undeniably rife with grammatical errors that would horrify anyone with a firm grasp of the English language, but why go so far to insult a contributor?

The Herald’s Opinion page does have precedent on its side. After The Badger Herald published a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb on his head in a 2006 editorial, the Opinion page was dominated by angry letters for days. Many of these letters were “[sic]-attacked,” to the outrage of many Herald readers.

However, precedent is a thin justification when you are wrong.

I spoke with UW journalism professor Katy Culver about the Opinion page’s use of [sic]. She said that, in general, publications use it to show readers that they have not inserted an error.

“In this case, it seems [to be] relaying their opinion of the Tavern League,” Ms. Culver said in a phone interview. “It seems to be a slam against the letter writer. I really question why they’re doing this.”

Indeed, the Herald Editorial staff should consider whose aims it is serving when they [sic]-attack letters meant to make an argument to the student body. It can be hard for an Op-Ed writer to remember, but the page does not exist solely for their ego. It exists to promote a vibrant debate, and it is hard to see how that goal is served when a letter is so comically ripped apart by the editors. A simple italicized note at the bottom of the letter explaining the errors would have sufficed.

“The sheer number of ([sic’s]) is relaying an opinion,” Ms. Culver said. “In my mind, if the Opinion staff wants to have a reaction to this letter, they should simply pen a reaction, rather than using [sic] to telegraph their response to it.”

An Anti-Shout-Out, an Apology

In a recent edition of the ever-popular “shout-outs” feature, the following was printed:

“ASO to the girl who not only passed out while we were fooling around, but then woke up and asked, ‘is it gonna hurt?’ then proceeded to pass out again. I’m still wondering, does that count as consent?”

Obviously, the shout-out should not have been printed, and Herald Editor in Chief Jason Smathers rightly apologized for the incident, noting that they are “rarely looked over by editorial.”

Let’s be clear — there is no institutional tradition at the Herald in which the highest-level editor available does not look at a page before it is sent to the printer. In fact, one would hope the editor in chief and managing editor take such great pride in their paper that they review even pages that don’t require their eyes. However, Mr. Smathers’ underlying point that the Editorial Department does not care much about shout-outs is correct.

Still, there was no reason to qualify his apology in any way. The second half of his letter was a bizarre missive about how certain critics of the Herald have wrongly attacked the paper’s motives. But his letter was an apology. This was about the failure of Mr. Smathers and the Herald staff to be responsible guardians of the paper’s quality, not about critics who will always impugn the paper’s motives. A true apology should be gracious and offer an explanation, not rationalizations.

Members of the Herald staff who opposed any sort of apology have a stance that is all parts stupid, cowardly and willfully ignorant of the social context in which the shout-out was published.

Yes, the Herald is a storied defender of free speech, but that is no excuse to be irresponsible for the sake of being irresponsible. Free speech is not some childlike claim of safety during a game of tag. The Medical Student Association was absolutely right in calling for heads to roll for that shout-out to be published on a campus where too many women have been victims of sexual assault and too many men treat it as a casual, laughable crime. They are an interest group that was aggressively seeking a retraction — their skill in this function or any bogus threats of legal action should not be groused at but acknowledged with a respectful nod.

That a woman was responsible for that shout-out appearing the paper makes no difference — in media, intent does not matter. All content contributors are morally bound to the consequences of their actions. It may not seem fair, but it is right because it is the only way to effectively police ourselves. It is sad and, quite frankly, distressing that Mr. Smathers’ admittedly measured apology was seen in some quarters as a step too far.

The Herald has made a national name for itself by refusing to apologize to the enemies of free thought. But the Medical Student Association is not an enemy — they are right.

Kudos

To irrepressible Photo Editor Jeff Schorfheide for his photo of the ASM freshman-elects. Nice sweaters.

Bassey Etim was the managing editor of The Badger Herald. He is currently a news assistant for The New York Times. Please send complaints and comments on Herald coverage to [email protected]. All complaints will be investigated by the public editor.