When sensational stories hit the news cycle, a general wave of rather lewd excitement hits a newsroom. Much of what an ordinary citizen deems sad or unfortunate is viewed as an excellent opportunity for strong reporting. Often it turns into a race for the online scoop or the extra angle, but plain and simple, it's news and a nice break from the ordinary. Call it crude, but this is no lie.
To make the situation just a tad worse, reporters are largely desensitized to scandals, car crashes and crime. It comes with the territory and it distorts what editors and reporters believe is and is not acceptable to print.
The University of Wisconsin is feeding the press animals right now with top of the line filet mignon. We've got several scandals on our hands but one, in particular, has been blown completely out of proportion on the pages of The Badger Herald. At this point, we should all be aware of the story of Lewis Keith Cohen — the UW professor whose trip to Subway went bad when the 14-year-old he intended to meet was actually an undercover police officer.
Well, shucks. That didn't work out as planned, now did it?
He served his 30-day jail sentence and is in the process of being fired from UW. His career in education is effectively over.
Now let me first be clear, I'm in no way promoting or accepting the enticement of children, I'm just asking that we all put this in perspective for the moment. Cohen has graced the same pages as UW professor Roberto Coronado who is serving eight years in prison for child molestation, and yet we've read all about Cohen's domestic troubles.
The problem is evidently that reporters haven't been able to dig up enough dirt on Mr. Coronado to warrant a tabloid-style report.
In the past week, we've read in The Badger Herald of Cohen's messy divorce proceedings, his problems with his son and his repeated violations of a restraining order in the late 90s. And I'm not referring to paraphrasing but rather direct quotes pulled from a letter written from Cohen's son to a judge in 1999 as well as an affidavit from 1998.
Now I ask this: what does a letter written in 1999 have to do with this man's grave mistake at a sandwich shop? Again, not saying his actions are OK. He also should have kept his pornographic photos to himself, but that's another story. I just have to ask again what bringing his son into the picture adds to the story?
In addition, why must we know that Cohen allegedly continued to enter his wife's home during divorce proceedings? What does this add to the story for it surely is not an indication of future offenses to come?
What happened to objectivity? The Badger Herald is rubbing salt in this man's wounds.
And the kicker is truly the quote from the random UW student who had Cohen as a professor two years ago. This student was clearly not the most eloquent of speakers and should have realized that calling his old professor "creepy" to a news reporter was not the brightest of ideas. But what is worse is that the quote made the paper.
Of course it's tempting to include the student perspective but perhaps reporters should have dug up a student who had something more relevant to say about Cohen's teaching abilities.
We all know of another past scandal that is about to re-enter the news cycle in the near future. Yes, Paul Barrows is resurfacing in news stories as I write this. And I must request that all reporters and editors crafting these stories in the coming days and weeks remember journalism's golden rule of objectivity. Also, let's only include what's relevant this time around.
As always I commend the strong reporting efforts put in to attaining the documents concerning Cohen but just remember: not everything you stumble upon or dig up is news.
Cristina Daglas, former editor in chief of The Badger Herald, is now the paper's ombudsman. Readers are encouraged to e-mail thoughts, criticisms and observations of the paper to [email protected] or call her at (608) 257-4712 ext. 168. Her column will appear every Thursday on this page.
