Paper dominates football brawl coverage

An early morning bar brawl involving Terrapin football players, a possible sexual assault and a bouncer with a broken nose is big news. That is why it dominated the front page of this newspaper and the talk throughout the community for most of last week.

The Diamondback's David Selig and Kevin Litten first reported Wednesday that Coach Ralph Friedgen was called to Cornerstone Grill and Loft ("Football players brawl in Cornerstone; Friedgen called to early morning scene," Nov. 2) early last Tuesday morning following a fight including football players that sent the bouncer, Mike McDonald, to the hospital and resulted in the punishment of three players said to be involved in the fight.

The Diamondback was first to the story and dominated the coverage throughout the week. Media outlets including The Washington Post and The (Baltimore) Sun relied on The Diamondback for information, including an exclusive interview with McDonald ("Bouncer tells his side of the story," Nov. 3). Our campus newspaper was the primary source of information on a local story that drew attention across the state, and that is an accomplishment.

However, a primary problem for The Diamondback was how to report and write balanced stories when the central party involved - the Athletics Department - wasn't saying much. Reporters gave the Athletics Department and Friedgen many opportunities to comment. When the paper ran the Q&A with McDonald on the front page, they preceded it with an editor's note promising to give the department an opportunity to respond. And a reporter attended Friedgen's weekly radio show last week in case the coach commented on the incident, which he did.

"We were very explicit to say that there was absolutely no indication of who was guilty or not guilty," Editor in Chief Megan Watzin said. She added that the paper printed a letter to the editor from Athletics Director Debbie Yow ("Notion that Athletics did not allow officials to speak with the media is incorrect," Nov. 3) and summarized the contents of an Athletics Department statement Wednesday.

But oftentimes, staying ahead of a story like this one involves difficult decisions on what information should be published.

One of the those decisions was to include the names of three football players who the paper confirmed were at the bar, but could not confirm whether they were involved in the fight. The paper reported juniors Drew Weatherly and Marcus Wimbush and senior Derrick Fenner were among the players at the bar. Though the paper was explicit in stating there was no proof they were involved in the fight, naming them could have implied that.

"We had several sources confirm that they were there," Watzin said. She said the paper did not try to contact those players for comment because the Athletics Department had said in a statement that no one in the department would comment further.

Watzin's decision to name the players was the right one. But the paper should have tried to reach them for comment, despite what the department said in its release.

Readers: Rosa Parks coverage insulting

Publishing Rosa Parks' obituary on an inside page of the newspaper ("Parks' legacy," Oct. 26) instead of the front page angered readers who argued it was racially insensitive. The fact that an obituary on the founder of Ratsie's restaurant, Jim Paradiso, was on the front page the same day ("Ratsie's founder dies at 46," Oct. 26) made it worse, some said.

The first mistake, Watzin admits, was writing an obituary. The more appropriate story for a campus paper would have focused on student reaction to the civil rights icon's death. That story would have belonged on the front page.

The newspaper only published one other story on Parks, a front-page feature about a university professor who met her in the 1950s ("Rosa's influence," Nov. 2). There were no stories from Washington as thousands paid their respects at the U.S. Capitol. Watzin said she requested a reporter follow students there, but that reporter was unable to find anyone.

Paradiso's obituary deserved prominent placement. Important community members usually deserve more attention than national figures in The Diamondback because it is a campus newspaper. But Parks, a civil rights icon, also deserved more coverage.

Michael Steele shafted?

The same day the Parks obituary was published, another story inside the paper detailed Lt. Gov. Michael Steele's declaration of his candidacy for U.S. Senate ("Steele announces Senate candidacy," ). Readers questioned the treatment of that story after articles on Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's and Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan's declarations that they are running for governor both ran on the front page earlier this semester.

Some readers said that implied the Republican Steele, the first African-American elected to statewide office in Maryland, is less important to Diamondback editors than the two prominent white Democrats. The story itself, which focused on two university students protesting outside the event, did not help.

Watzin said the decision had only to do with the fact that Steele's speech did not touch on higher education like O'Malley's and Duncan's did. A front-page story two days later ("Steele admired as leader of black community," Oct. 28) focused on what some African American leaders think are key to Steele's success. Watzin admits that was the angle to take from the beginning.

It's also true that the gubernatorial race has much clearer implications for the university than the Senate race because the governor has so much power over the university's budget. Still, that doesn't excuse the negative tone of the Steele story.

Senator-columnist revisited

Earlier this semester I wrote that editors allowed columnist Max Novakowski to publish opinion columns about campus politics with a false last name (Nova) and without revealing he was a member of the University Senate. Editors added a line at the end of his columns stating he is a member of the senate and said he would no longer write about the senate.

Recently, Novakowski penned another piece about a senate proposal ("The five-year plan," Oct. 24). A member of the university's most powerful policy-making body is paid by The Diamondback to publish his opinions on the senate.

"It's clear that it wasn't right to have him writing about that," Watzin said. "We just decided to really tighten the reins - Originally, it was don't write about anything you have influence over. Now it's just avoid all topics that could be hairy."

But Novakowski continues using a fake last name. No other writers use a fake last name, a practice that is ethically indefensible.

Most importantly, student leaders who also fall under the purview of the news section shouldn't be compensated by this newspaper, just like a U.S. congressman would never be compensated by The Washington Post.

Scott Goldstein is The Diamondback's ombudsman. His column runs alternate Tuesdays. He can be reached at sgoldsteindbk@gmail.com.