I receive feedback on our coverage every day. But this past week, a slew of emails, phone calls, comments and office visits centered around the same question: Why did The Hatchet publish the names of two 19-year-old females who were arrested for drug use in Munson Hall?
It is widespread and common journalistic practice to include the names of individuals who were arrested when reporting on crimes. Illicit drug use is a crime.
If you get arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department, it’s likely that we will get the public report – which includes your name – and write about it. And we always have.
If you ask us to remove content from our website – whether now, in a month or somewhere down the line when you realize an article about your arrest pops up in Google searches – we won’t. And we never have.
We will never remove published material from our archives. In the regrettable circumstance that we made a mistake, The Hatchet immediately posts a correction or clarification to right the record.
In our 109th year, we are as committed as ever to bringing the truth to our readers fairly, accurately and diligently. And that means chronicling the good and the bad.
Priya Anand, a senior majoring in journalism, is the Hatchet's editor in chief.
Public record = public record. Way to go, Hatchet.
This response is pathetic
That was hardly news. This response and the original are a disgrace to the image of GW and our community. As well as the attitude of our editor. She should resign
You are right. Publishing a news story damages the reputation of the university far more than the actual crimes that were committed. Brilliant.
How about innocent until PROVEN guilty? Publish their names when the judgment is finalized.
Pryia,
While I certainly appreciate your sense of righteous indignation at the affront to your journalistic integrity posed by your readership challenging your decision to publish the names of students arrested (i.e., the untried, innocent) for drug crimes, I think you ought to reconsider your position on the subject for the following reasons:
1. Your supposition that because it is common journalistic practice to identify those of majority arrested for the alleged commission of a drug crime does not, on its face, supply any evidence of support for the practice.
2. Drug crimes are unique and deserve special consideration because the incidents are often victimless, and because many (rightly) believe that alleged drug criminals ought to receive medical treatment and drug rehabilitation – not condemnation, public shaming, and criminal prosecution.
3. While the two 19-year-old subjects of your piece will likely either be found not guilty, or will receive the opportunity to have their drug arrests sealed, you have unilaterally elected to continue the public tar-and-feathering of these young people into perpetuity.
You have an opportunity to make another, different statement. A statement about protecting GW students from public shaming. About protecting young people from destroying their futures over a mistake that belongs in a treatment facility, and not in the GW Hatchet. And about protecting, ultimately, ourselves and our families.
I certainly hope you reconsider.
So in the 109 years the Hatchet has been around they’ve publicly embarrassed their own writers and editors too right? If those girls had been members of the hatchet team you still would’ve run that article? If it had been your name in that article, I doubt that article would have been written
@student – in 2007 the hatchet reported on its own staff member drawing swastika on her own door and get expelled and revealed her name – sarah marshak.
If I remember correctly, Ms. Marshak was expelled from GWU not so much for drawing the offensive symbol on her Mitchell Hall room’s door as she was for doing it repeatedly and THEN claiming she was the victim of a “hate crime.”
It was not until after the campus police installed a hidden monitoring camera which recorded her actions that it became clear her allegations were baseless.
While we might speculate on the psychological “reasons” for her conduct, the facts of the case are the facts of the case and were well-deserved of treatment in The Hatchet. You can Google “Sarah Marshak” today and read lots about the case.
Priya:
The Hatchet does the right thing when it accurately reports the names and circumstances of people (student, faculty and others) arrested by the MPD for crimes allegedly committed on/near the GW campus.
If nothing else, doing so may be a powerful deterrent to students who think engaging in criminal activity in their residence hall bears no long-term consequences to them.
And, it may encourage university administrators to be even more aggressive/diligent in their efforts to ensure a drug free residence hall environment for GWU students.
Keep up the good work….
+1
I think what matters most is this was not newsworthy. It would have been different if they were dealers. There is no reasonable argument that can be made for writting that story. I hate cocaine use, but that’s the truth.
If they were celebrities and The Hatchet was a tabloid, then the story would have made sense. The Hatchet shouldn’t be a gossip column or your own personal jihad against drug use. This hatchet job of an editorial shows Priya has learned nothing about the integrity of journalism from working at this newspaper for a few years.
Of course something is not newsworthy when it involves friends or people you know. It’s then newsworthy when it’s not someone you know because you want to be a Nosey Nellie.
Kudos to Priya for taking this clear position. It’s the right position. The Hatchet is a newspaper enterprise, not a cheerleader or a counseling center.
I have no idea who these girls are, and I don’t hang out with any girls that do cocaine. I am very much anti-drug. I’m just a reader of journalism that is pointing out what should be obvious. That drug use in a dorm room is not newsworthy. As you say, it’s about being a “nosey nellie,” which is reading gossip. Priya hasn’t taken any position; she just typed about the journalistic rules regarding printing names, and she disregarded people’s concern about why this is in the Hatchet in the first place. Your argument makes my point for me. This is gossip not news.
I applaud Priya and the Hatchet for their stance. The 1st Ammendment gives them the right and if you live in this country, you should honor that right. The statements about whether the story is newsworthy, gossip or a victimless crime is ridiculous. Drug use is a serious issue that can affect many people. Last time I checked, it is illegal and if it took place on campus, it should be reported and taken very seriously. Keep up the good work Priya.