Separation of government and media: the ethical dilemma

The topic of ethics is something that comes into play in any career field – that’s why there are entire classes devoted to it. When politics are involved, it becomes a serious issue. Unmistakably, these are the people that make the decisions that affect our futures.

In the recent student elections, the ethics of the presidential candidate, Stephen Collier, came into question when he was accused of using unethical tactics in his campaigning.

The accusers stated that he started his campaign before the authorized date, posting flyers in unauthorized locations and blurring the line of ethics by standing on the line that they weren’t allowed to cross while campaigning. All of this was printed in the March 12 issue of The Scribe (uccsscribe.com).

Another question has since come to the attention of The Scribe – the inconsistencies in Collier’s campaign against fees. While his official campaign was against student fees in general, the question was raised as to why the flyers posted all over campus and the one-on-one conversations he was heard having with potential voters during his campaign addressed only the $7 media fee and not the $80 Rec Center fee.

Those inconsistencies caused some to question his motives.

Obviously, this is an issue that is near and dear to our hearts, and one that we feel is our obligation to address.

Now, here’s where our dilemma comes in. As a newspaper, whose role it is to be a “government watchdog,” it is our obligation to report on situations that could affect the futures of students.

And here’s where it gets tricky.

Without the media fee to fund us independently from the SGA, The Scribe, along with the radio station, is forced to seek funding from the student activities fee, which is allocated by the SGA. What that means is we need to go to the SGA and ask them for the money we need, and it’s up them to either approve or deny our funding.

That’s like The Gazette or the Independent having to go before City Council to ask for funding. What would their reporting on city officials be like if they had to do that?
And a student newspaper is no different. Over the years, Scribe editors have taken pause many times before running articles on SGA, knowing that those people had power over their money. We faced the same problem when deciding to run the article on ethical accusations on March 12. In the end, we decided the students’ interests were more important and that it was our obligation to run it.

But that’s exactly why the media fee is so important. A newspaper should never have to question printing a story that students deserve to know about for fear of being shut down.

And yes, without student funding, the likelihood of The Scribe surviving is very low.

But let’s be fair, Collier has not explicitly been pushing to have The Scribe de-funded. When officially campaigning for Collier, however, Senator of Business Dmitry Gonchorov told a Scribe editor that The Scribe should not receive any funding from SGA.

The reasoning for the push against a fee funding The Scribe, according to Collier’s oral campaigning, is that people don’t read it, and he thinks we need to be more self-sustaining.

He also thinks we need to move into an online-only format. Whether that was part of his campaign against the media fee or not, voters took that as a reason against the media fee.

First – those of you who are reading this right now – does that mean you’re not people?
We track our readership numbers every week, and we can tell you – people read it. Granted, we would like those numbers to be higher, too, but we’re working on that. Whether you read it or not, the paper provides enough members of the campus population with information each week to justify its continued presence.

Regardless, what we’re providing at The Scribe (and radio) is not just a product. What we provide is a resource for students. We create jobs, experience and portfolios for students interested in the fields of journalism, photography, advertising, business, graphic design and web design. We offer a platform for students to get their voices heard.

Second, an online-only format is something The Scribe has thought about, but we’ve decided it’s not best right now (and as per the referendum voted on in 2010, we will phase out the paper version by August 2015), and it is in no way a solution to the financial issue.

We need about $70,000 in funding just to function – and not a penny of that goes toward the cost of printing; we cover that with advertising sales (and yes, that does mean we are partially self-sustaining).

What that amount does cover is payroll for the approximately 30 people it takes to write, edit, photograph, layout and manage the content and operations each week, and various office expenses associated with running a business (our budget is public record, so if you want a more detailed breakdown, feel free to stop by The Scribe office, and we’ll gladly show it to you).

And those are the same costs that would be associated with an online-only format.

The bottom line is, taking away funding for the media is not in the best interest of anyone on campus – to include the administration (we can’t imagine they would be too keen on fielding the phone calls and dealing with the local, state and possibly national media attention if the student government were to successfully shut down the student newspaper).

So we’re forced to wonder – was any of this taken into consideration in the campaign against the media fee?
We at The Scribe, not unlike members of student government, are bound by an ethical code, which holds us responsible for serving the people. The management of The Scribe takes this seriously, and we would hope that future leaders of SGA will, as well.