46 CommentsTo the members of the Columbia community,
We owe you an apology.
This Saturday we received a tip regarding a “strategy document” that had been circulated to leaders of many Columbia student organizations. It was our understanding that the names included in the document were on the public record. Students who spoke at the Town Hall were instructed to speak their names and affiliations on the recorded microphone; the transcript of this recording will be released by Columbia shortly. However, it was brought to our attention by multiple student activists that there were individuals named in the document who did not speak on the public record at the Town Hall.
Due to a miscommunication, the post went up before we were able to confirm that all of the individuals listed in the document had their names on the public record. When we became aware that several students in the document had not spoken at the Town Hall, we immediately redacted all of the names of student activists in the post in the interest of protecting their safety and privacy.
Bwog exists, first and foremost, to serve the students on this campus and to provide a forum for safe, open discussion. In this instance, we have failed to live up to those responsibilities.
When Bwog was founded in 2006, it was primarily a source for stories that warranted immediate attention, such as free food alerts and breaking news. As our readership grew, we evolved into a preeminent independent source of student news and information. After the events of this weekend, we are reevaluating our responsibilities to the Columbia community and we would like all of you, our readers, to be involved in that process.
We would like to actively change what information is posted on Bwog, the factors that inform such decisions, and how we present that information to you. We will be meeting personally with many of the student activists who were most affected by this weekend’s events in order to get their input. In addition, we invite any student who wishes to contribute to the redefining of Bwog to send an email at editor@bwog.com, or to attend our open forum next Sunday, October 26th, from 8-9pm in the Lerner SGO.
We deeply regret the events of the past few days, but embrace the opportunity to look critically at ourselves and reaffirm our commitment to our readers. We look forward to beginning what we feel is a necessary process in ensuring that Bwog has a role in the Columbia community.
Respectfully,
Julia Goodman, Editor-in-Chief
Claire Friedman, Managing Editor
Maud Rozee, Internal Editor
Jake Hershman, Publisher
Loading …
46 Comments
@Anonymous “We deeply regret the events of the past few days, but embrace the opportunity to look critically at ourselves and reaffirm our commitment to our readers…”
Forget the past few days. How about all the times Jake Hershman and Co. has circulated tips through the AEPi ListServ and forwarded those emails to members of the greater Columbia community?
Countless people have been mocked and ridiculed without any confirmation of factuality.
@Reminder Meeting’s tonight. In case you want to swing by and provide feedback.
@smelly cumforter You do realize that the Cuban Missile Crisis would have led to the complete destruction of Cuba if the missiles had actually been fired…
But please, enjoy your small-minded analysis of a bidirectional conflict.
@Alum This type of bullshit is precisely the reason why I wrote two articles for your publication before jumping ship. You’re not journalists; you’re wannabe Gawker writers with overinflated egoes, and if you DID care about this community, you would’ve mulled it over before, you know, publishing this without any substantiation.
Note to all staff: after you graduate and before you take internships at Buzzfeed, do some digging into journalistic ethics.
To all the commenters defending Bwog’s actions as a due course of action against “leftists” on campus – the implication that certain student groups are entitled to anything less than 100% fair coverage is not only logically flawed, but devoid of empathy for the human beings who, despite having different views than you, still deserve protection from baseless tripe like Bwog’s
@Azaminto You can’t be “a preeminent independent source of student news and information.” Preeminent means surpassing all others. What you mean to say is that you are “the preeminent.”
I don’t know what’s worse, Bwog’s “journalism” or their writing…
@Read me If these student leaders broke the rules, then it was blogs responsibility to use their names. I hate the fact that bwog apologized. These “student activists” broke the rules. Bwog was right into releasing their names. It’s journalism. Just because something isn’t public record doesn’t mean you can’t use it. Jared odessky violated policy, he’s a senator, it should be made known. Jared if you’re reading this, resign right now, it’s the right thing to do.
@Anonymous yes. it should be ironic that the activists are using more oppressive strategies of press and image control than the administration
@Sammy Clemens Yes; as Mark Twain once said, “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
@Anonymous Bwog is a joke and always will be. I hope none of the affiliated people hope to ever work in journalism or if they do I hope they don’t mention this awful website anywhere on their job applications. It’s existence embarrasses me as a CU student.
@a guy its*
@Anonamoose Doubling down on “redact”, I see, Bwog? I will again remind you that it’s common practice to *clearly mark* your omissions rather than (still) passing an edited document as the original.
@Dead Horse Bwog sucks!
I like the pain ;)
@Anonymous Most blogs that post things about Columbia are all fakes and untruths. This is nothing new. That Emma story got out of han.
@anon fuck you bwog i hate you
@The Dark Hand Spec SUCKS!!!
@I hate to say it but in this case Spec coverage of this was much, much better
@Alum I actually like it when Bwog smacks down the activists. But then again, I hate hippies.
@Anonymous I don’t have time to crash your Honeycomb Hideout for a meeting, so I’ll just post my main points and requests here for comment.
-Could please you try not to be Gawker? We have a Gawker.
-If you’re trying to do a substantive story, do a substantive story. If you have quotes, verify them. If you have tips, do the legwork of checking them out. It might mean that you’re a little slower getting the word out, but you won’t have the daisy chain of apologies and resignations we’ve had lately, either.
-Embrace student activism a bit more than you try to shoot it down. The tendency to do otherwise, and in a half-assed work-lite way, has bit Bwog in the ass twice just in the semester I’ve been paying attention to you. It’s not doing anyone any favors.
-The cutesy nickname thing, in general, is forced. And that “PrezBo” thing you keep pushing just comes off like you feel, maybe from watching old movies about college, that you should be all edgy and rebellious and shit towards authority figures, but can’t be bothered to come up with a substantial reason why. Hence, “PrezBo is the Nipple King” and that sort of deal.
-Please don’t ask us what you should be, again. Decide. Then, be so good at what you do that we have to appreciate it, or at least respect as something we’re not into but is good at what it does. As it is, it’s like you’re trying on shoes eight sizes too big, then asking us to come tell you why you’re clomping around and tripping a lot.
@For someone who thinks Bwog shouldn’t ask you what it should be, you sure have a lot of opinions on what Bwog should be
@Reading Is Magic “Don’t do these things, and don’t put yourself in a position to have to ask me, again” isn’t the same as “never ask me”.
@lol k
@Anonymous Bwog, I respected the fact that you published the Gdoc when Spec didn’t because the involved council members asked them not to. The reporting outside of that wasn’t great, probably because different people attended the event from those who wrote the post, but at least the document got out there.
You gave in to demands from students who face no realistic threat of reprisal or danger, and whose LEADERS got a statement from SAC that essentially congratulated them on doing such a great job as proto-community organizers.
This is pathetic, and no real journalistic outlet would be so loose with their convictions. You can’t please everyone all the time, Bwog. Don’t just make decisions of this magnitude due to fear of lawsuits, pleasing your alums, or trying to maintain popularity.
@Anonymous this
@Anonymous It is ridiculous to expect people to believe that the same people can do things differently. You are still not apologizing for putting the effort of students as well as their ability to even be in this school at risk, you are still not apologizing for submitting an article based on an anonymous tip with something so serious before making sure.
Bwog likes to believe that it can do “journalism” as if you have an endless source of news and you can fuck some of your sources over and that would still be fine. You aren’t NYT or Al-Jazeera, if you fuck your students over, you are upsetting both your only audience and your only source of news. You forget that the source of all of your juiciest most commented and most viewed articles is student activists and the different campaigns they are leading, these are the very same people you hurt the most by publishing that article.
Some people in Bwog have shown clear anti student-activist sentiment earlier this semester, as long as those people are still running Bwog, this will happen again and again. Maybe consider starting there with this so called “change”.
@Anonymous Bwog needs to go on hiatus.
@Yes! Fucking this. Return in a month, betteryet come back strong next semester and people will have missed you. Get out of town for a bit, Bwog.
BWOG HIATUS
@This is how you apologize? “As our readership grew, we evolved into a preeminent independent source of student news and information.”
@Ummmm So basically you were so eager to get the jump on a juicy story you couldn’t even check which names were on the public record? And where’s the apology for running a smear campaign against JO and SS, printing an unsubstantiated and ANONYMOUS tip that put them at risk of SUSPENSION, without even asking them if it was true or not?
And then once the comments called you out, you didn’t even have the balls to print a retraction and just quietly edited the article like 6 times before eventually admitting that “there is no clear evidence” that they wrote the doc.
Jesus this is some irresponsible “journalism”.
@honestly not sure can someone explain to me why they were at risk of suspension?
@Anonymous Also why it matters whether their names were a matter of public record? Other than the argument that it might put students in danger, shouldn’t journalism have an element of (responsible) investigation?
@G. my understanding is they could have been suspended or gone through some sort of disciplinary process if they had been thought to have violated USenate confidentiality rules.
@huh? if they violated Senate confidentiality rules, shouldn’t they be subject to discipline? or is that only if they violate it for something you don’t agree with?
@omg this is so lame way to give in
@Anonymous also what exactly are you apologizing for?
and to whom? the columbia communities, or student leaders that bullied you?
@Anonymous BWOG DOES IT AGAIN
@Anonymous I don’t see any problem. How can you be a “student activist” and want to hide your identity? Who cares who was on the document.
@For Example Students associated with queer and trans groups that may not be out to their families?
Not everyone on the doc spoke/publicly identified themselves and there’s legit reasons to want to protect your privacy.
@So when is the apology for Bwog’s poor journalism in assuming the full legitimacy of a random “tip” and jumping to a number of false conclusions, failing to fully investigate the story and recognize the collaborative nature of the document sent in by the tipster, and knowingly creating the opportunity fuck over the lives of two of the best student activists at Columbia coming out?
“Bwog exists, first and foremost, to serve the students on this campus and to provide a forum for safe, open discussion.”
My ass.
@Dicktator Bwog should simply be shut down and its staff subject to the Dean’s Discipline.
@KFS Bwog board should all resign… this is an outrage worse then the cuban missile crisis, I literally can’t even right now…
@anon Yup, definitely worse than THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
@resident cuban I don’t know, I think KFS has a point, I’m more outraged by a campus newspaper making a mistake than the thought of my entire family/culture not existing
@Anonymous I can’t tell if this is a joke or not… but you do know that the Cuban Missile Crisis was that missiles were going to go from Cuba to the US right?
@yeah youre right no threat of US invasion of Cuba at all during this period
@Sad Alum yo..
@pears am i the only one who really could care less about any of this town hall bs?