Before I get into this issue, I wish for it to be noted that while I write for The Hatchet, as a columnist I have very little oversight from and interaction with the Editorial Board. I have my own opinions, and they are not influenced, censored or biased as a result of my affiliation with The Hatchet. I think that the April Fools’ issue pushed the limit of good taste and I often comment on the poor writing styles of some Hatchet journalists. I’m the first to criticize the Opinions section for the issues it doesn’t tackle and am the last to accept anything I read as being the whole truth. Much of this is due to my cynical attitude, yet despite my innate skepticism I can never complain about how Hatchet staffers try to give GW a professional paper that covers the news as best it can. It has really offended me that Hatchet photographers have recently seen so much hostility over doing their jobs and being on scene at some of the most depressing events that our campus has seen this year.
GW students have a tendency to be very inconsistent with their approval of anything and everything. Support for any program, event or group fluctuates as often as the price of tuition. GW students want the good without the bad, and it’s time that they realize that they can’t have their cake and eat it too. If students want a serious student newspaper that covers the news in a professional manner they can’t expect it to cover just the good stuff. A newspaper that only covers optimistic news is not doing its job and is showing readers a twisted and untrue version of the world.
The issue at hand is obviously the deaths of Philip Augustin and Hasan Hussain and the antagonism that has erupted toward Hatchet photographers who quickly arrived to both scenes to cover the stories. Both times, Hatchet photographers were condemned for doing their jobs and snapping away at everything that was going on in an attempt to ensure proper coverage of the tragic occurrences. Hall on Virginia Avenue residents this past weekend were very offended by Hatchet photographers arriving to the scene so quickly and “disrespecting” those who knew Hussain by taking pictures of his dead body.
To say that the photographers are disrespecting Hussain is to think them incapable of emotions. Do these critics truly believe these photographers take some form of perverse joy in taking pictures of a fellow student whose life ended? It seems rather insulting to presume people doing their jobs are gaining satisfaction from viewing a corpse. The only satisfaction they gain is from knowing they did their job despite the fact they probably didn’t even want to have to be there in the first place.
Many critics may not take into consideration how difficult it must be for some of these photographers to cover a suicide after losing one of their colleagues from The Hatchet earlier this year. People have forgotten that those same photographers who are being so “disrespectful” were in the same situation earlier this year. That they’re still out there after going through that kind of an ordeal speaks miles about the importance they place on doing their jobs correctly.
While most students here at GW don’t actually have a nine-to-five job, plenty have some type of work they do outside of the bounds of that which is expected of them as students. Some intern, some volunteer and some spend their time outside of J Street gathering petitions for some cause that no one really cares about. A lot of GW students partake in extracurricular activities in hopes of bettering the people around them. It’s disgusting that the photographers of The GW Hatchet, despite showing amazing amounts of dedication to their newspaper, and the University population that they are attempting to keep informed, are condemned by those who would be too quick to judge them.
-The writer, a freshman majoring in international affairs, is a Hatchet columnist.
