Note from the Editor in Chief: In a continued effort to give The Badger Herald a heightened level of transparency and promote a general dialogue about the practice of student journalism on campus, it is my pleasure to introduce Paul Temple as this newspaper's second ombudsman. Mr. Temple's credentials — further extrapolated upon in his inaugural column — are indeed tremendous, and his integrity is beyond reproach. It was my sincere pleasure to work under him as both a writer and associate editor during his initial tenure at the Herald, and it is my equally great pleasure to now introduce him as ombudsman for the spring semester.
In the interest of improving the Badger Herald as a source of quality journalism, the position of ombudsman was established last semester to act as a kind of public editor — an editor whose role is both critic of the publication and advocate for the reader.
It is a position which is, for the Herald, in its infancy — and it is therefore somewhat misunderstood by readers. First and foremost, the ombudsman is an entirely independent editor. My columns, as well as those written by Cristina Daglas last semester, were not edited for content by any editor at the Herald, including the Editor in Chief, Mac VerStandig. I am free to dissect and critique the journalistic practices of all editors, including Mr. VerStandig, at will.
Second, my role as the ombudsman this semester is to act as an advocate for the reader. Do you think a column was racist? Did the news staff miss out on a big story? Are editors walking into gray territory on the disclosure of a source? It will be my job to listen to readers when they voice concerns about the newspaper and its practices — and use this column as a platform to influence Herald editors and writers accordingly. I can be contacted at [email protected] or at 257-4712 ext. 168.
Most importantly, the role of ombudsman is to publicly assess the quality, integrity and performance of Herald editors and writers. Over the course of this semester, I may well criticize an editor or writer for something even if a reader has not. This is, for me, of the utmost importance — not only because the Badger Herald has a strong history as an independent college newspaper, but also because of the integral role journalism plays in our society as a means of holding our leaders to account. If journalism holds leaders accountable, it's the role of the ombudsman to hold the journalists accountable.
It is my privilege to follow in the footsteps of Cristina Daglas, who wrote an excellent weekly column as the ombudsman last semester. But where her experience stemmed from her time as the editor in chief of the Herald and as an employee of other city newspapers, my own is a bit more diverse.
I previously wrote as an opinion columnist for the Herald in the spring of 2003, after which I spent a year as the editorial page editor. Following the completion of my studies in May, 2004, I traveled to London, where I conducted press relations for a junior minister in the British House of Commons. I have since run field operations on a presidential campaign and created fundraising and communications strategies for a local non-profit. Today I am an editor for a communications firm specializing in website production and management for affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. Whereas Cristina's view was from the inside of the newsroom, mine surely is not. But this is not necessarily a disadvantage. I would like to think that I have seen how journalism and press relations function outside the confines of the college newspaper.
It is in this respect that the first criticism I wish to level against the Herald is one of function. In recent months and years, American journalism has taken a number of blows. Prominent newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York Times have come under the microscope for failing to disclose sources, holding back stories, or plagiarism. The Herald itself has had to deal with similar problems.
And the creation of the ombudsman position is one step in the direction of solving such possible difficulties by bringing transparency to the process. But surely another would be the creation of a comprehensive editorial policy addressing them. Currently, the Badger Herald does not have a clear set of guidelines governing the gray issues of journalistic integrity, source disclosure and story selection. These rules are that much more important in an environment where news writers are often inexperienced, where many opinion columnists are unfamiliar with the ethics rules their journalism major colleagues learn in the classroom, and where the college newspaper is both a newspaper and a form of on-the-job training.
To his credit, Mr. Verstandig has gone to great lengths to clarify the plagiarism policy for editors and writers. But this is not enough. If the Herald wishes to avoid sticky questions in the future — or at least have a guideline for attempting to solve them — it would do well to develop and openly publish a comprehensive editorial guide for writers and editors.
Paul Temple ([email protected]) is the former editorial page editor of the Badger Herald. He is a 2004 graduate of the UW and currently lives in Madison.
