Editor in Chief

Editor's Note: This is the first in an occasional series about different reporters at the Daily Collegian.

After four (or five or six) blissful years of college partying, learning, sleeping in and exploring majors, most of us are thrust into the early-morning business casual "real world."

So throughout their college years, students try to master desirable traits of a job applicant. Maybe for wannabe engineers, it's social skills and management technique; maybe for wannabe lawyers, it's reading comprehension and a memory like a google search engine.

Journalists -- in addition to writing, interviewing and editing skills -- need thick skin and a poker face. And while this is something all journalists need to deal with, our crime and courts reporters face this reality on a daily basis more than anyone else.

While our crime and courts reporters write some of the most exciting stories in the paper -- murder convictions, suspects arrested on rape charges and state police drug busts -- they also write some of the least exciting -- news briefs on public urination and the familiar security preview before each home football weekend.

They are some of our most tenacious, dedicated and talented reporters on staff. They are the reporters we call late at night when sirens screech through downtown streets. They have to interview the family when a student dies. They have to make endless calls to an attorney's office to get a single quote about an upcoming court proceeding. They have to recognize yet another police report of a magazine scam and think maybe this is a story. Everyday, they have to ask the tough questions.

In the news last week, trial coverage dominated the front page. LaVon Chisley, a 23-year-old former football player, was charged and convicted for the first- and third-degree murder of Penn State student Langston Carraway in June 2006. Former student and Bellefonte resident Anthony Torsell was also convicted for vehicular homicide in connection with the death of visitor Richard Smith and the critical injuries of student Aaron Stidd.

The Torsell trial, covered by crime and courts reporter Megan McKeever, lasted three days, and the Chisley trial, covered by reporter Andrew McGill, lasted five. The reporters missed a lot of classes to sit from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the courthouse, and then from 5 p.m. until almost midnight waiting until their stories were read and edited. But most of all, they had to watch and write about emotional, stressful events that altered people's lives.

I talked to Andrew yesterday about his experiences in court this week when he had to remain calm when everyone around him was struggling with overwhelming emotion.

Me: What was the mood like in the courtroom when the jury read the guilty verdict and the judge sentenced a 23-year-old man to life in prison?

McGill: As soon as we heard the jury had a verdict all of our adrenaline was pumping. Everyone was crowding into the courtroom. Five off-duty bailiffs were coming in to see what the verdict was, and LaVon comes in, sits down, and turns around and he said, "I love you" to his mom and turned back. And the jury filed in and everything started coming together ... And I could just see his mom sink down onto her daughter's shoulder and start crying ...

Me: Was it hard to appear calm and detached when it was like this emotional
explosion?

McGill: I really can't say it was an explosion; it was definitely emotional, it was a silent explosion, if you will. The defense attorney told the family to remain calm. She said any outburst you have, they will throw you out and it will hurt LaVon. But both families were emotional and the victim's girlfriend was sobbing. Even the judge choked up a little when he sentenced Chisley to life, and several of the jury choked up when they said they rendered a guilty verdict.

But the image that stuck for me was just LaVon's father, who LaVon had testified in court that he wasn't that close to, just breaking down and crying. The defense attorney hugged him and said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Me: But you don't really know the defendant or the victim? Why does a reporter get so involved?

McGill: Once you get in there and see the family and you see people on the stand, you get really absorbed into the story. In this kind of a case, a circumstantial case, so
much of the trial is based on emotion, so each side tries to sway the jury with some element of emotion.

Being next to the family and seeing their ups and downs, you definitely get involved. When LaVon got sentenced and convicted, I had thoughts about it I didn't think I would. It was hard to remain distant; you only hope it doesn't coming through in your writing.

Check back next week to read more stories behind the stories.

It's pretty widely accepted that the invention of the World Wide Web is on par with the printing press, the TV and the wheel. It definitely blows sliced bread out of the water.

So it should come as no surprise that online portals, like Yahoo! MSN and AOL, are overtaking broadcast television news in reaching more people each month, according to an Oct. 5 Forbes.com article. While the CBS Evening News can still boast more than 6 million nightly viewers, online aggregators are becoming this generation's "power hubs for news."

A quick look at my own news gathering habits confirms the article's report. I rarely tune into evening news broadcasts, though I occasionally watch the morning news or CNN's 24-hour news cycle. However, I am a compulsive online news reader. I get Google news alerts at least five times each day and if I don't check the Web sites of CNN, the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer on a frequent basis I worry there was some nuclear holocaust I missed.

Online aggregators, like Yahoo! and Google News, and other newspaper Web sites make my obsessive-compulsive scanning possible. I don't have to wait until lunch or dinner to tune into Channel 6; I get my news on my time -- as frequently as I desire.

At the Collegian, we've tried to morph our fanatical need-to-know attitude into our fanatical need-to-share attitude. Starting last year, we made a newsroom-wide commitment to daytime and weekend Web updates. This year, we've taken it one step further into online extras and multimedia content for those of you who are dying to read, see and hear more.

And starting yesterday, we've transferred the popular Page 2 police briefs and logs into an interactive Google map, so now, not only can you read about where this weekend's vandalism and thefts took place, but you can also see the mapped locations of the incidents. Plus, the addition of each day's incidents will document a long-term perspective on crime in State College.

So nurture your own need-to-know compulsion and check out your neighborhood.

Maybe you saw this on campus yesterday. We certainly saw it at our offices.

Marked up copies of our newspaper were posted along Pollock Road, the back door of the Carnegie Building and on our front doors and the newsstands outside our office.

Their message reads: What about the victim? Tear this down, but do not ignore this issue. The article begins and ends with pleas of consent and includes no quote from her lawyer or any rape specialist. This is irresponsible. Please correct this time or next.

It is referring to our lead story yesterday about former Nittany Lion starting running back Austin Scott's felony charges of rape, sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault and misdemeanor charges of indecent assault and misdemeanor assault.

The blue-markered message took issue with the article's representation of the victim's voice. But the basis for article was the victim's account of the incident to police, found in the criminal complaint.

So when you read the woman told Scott she was not going to have sex with him and that Scott asked to "at least cop a feel," that was the victim's voice loud and clear.

Perhaps the message really questioned the article's beginning, which included a strong denial from Scott's attorney, Scott's belief that the sex was consensual and support from his teammate.

In our eyes, this was Scott's first chance to respond to accusations that he was involved in the Oct. 5 sexual assault. Although the charges were officially levied on Friday, he was actually charged in the eyes of the public weeks ago in the HUB, on Pollock Road and on blogs and football fan Web sites.

None of the coaches, athletic department officials, university spokespersons, police officers and lawyers would talk about Scott's unspecified team violation, but everyone else certainly was.

Also because the charges were officially brought on Friday, by Monday morning the story was not that Scott had been charged. We assume a lot of the student body will already know this through our Web update, an article in the Centre Daily Times or a news-savvy friend. So instead of beginning our article with the charges, we took a "second-day lede" and began with the police's initial approach to the investigation.

In addition, our marked up copy took issue that our article did not include "quotes from her lawyer." But the victim's lawyer in criminal prosecution is the commonwealth, specifically in this case the Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira, whose voice is heard in the article condemning Scott for his alleged actions.

The victim's name is not present in the story because it is the Collegian's policy not to name sexual assault victims. Sexual assault is an underreported crime and by publicly naming the victims, others could be deterred from reporting such an assault. Furthermore, there is still a public stigma society attaches to victims of sexual assault, who are often judged as much as their attacker. Finally, we believe the process abuses victims three times -- during the assault, throughout the interrogation and trial testimony and knowing friends and family are aware of the incident by its publication in the news media.

We take any articles involving criminal charges seriously, but especially those involving rape and sexual assault. The media has a duty to be responsible to its readers, to report each side of an issue and to present it as fairly as possible. There are no laws licensing the practitioners of journalism, only a code of ethics we adhere to. We understand the weighty privilege that comes with the public dialogue of our work.

But this isn't a one-way street, it's a public forum. So when someone takes issue with the facts or how we presented them, we have a system in place: Anyone can write a letter to the editor.

But we didn't get one letter about this article -- only an anonymous posting on our doors. So remember, these are your pages, too, and only so many people walked down Pollock Road yesterday. So speak up at collegianletters@psu.edu and reach an audience of 20,000.

Etiquette experts advise steering away from three hot-button issues to keep cocktail party small talk nice: sex, politics and religion. I'd like to propose a fourth: music.

Not much is closer to the heart than someone's favorite band or artist. We know those lyrics are for you and you alone. We know no one understands you better.

So when Rihanna fans came out in droves last week after our reviewer's comments that despite a flashy light show and skimpy warrior princess-esque ensemble, Rihanna somehow failed to pump up the audience, we weren't surprised. We were actually quite prepared.

"Rihanna put on a good show," one fan wrote in. "She likes to dance and have a good time but rock with her band at the same time, and that's what she did."

I heard another student ask whether our reviewer even attended the performance and if "for once" we could publish an unbiased article about a BJC performance.

But there's a big difference between reviews and articles, and it revolves around a single concept: an opinion. If it wasn't there, I guarantee you'd miss it.

Who wants a straight news article about a concert? It could describe the atmosphere and performance and include the crowd reaction, but people who pay money to see a concert aren't exactly objective listeners -- they're fans. And I know I don't want to read 20 quotes about how Rihanna and Akon "totally rocked."

But here's the difference between a good opinion and a bad one: Good opinions are supported by facts and observations.

With only so many seats in the Bryce Jordan Center, we send our top arts reporters to watch the show. We instruct them to gauge crowd reaction, evaluate the energy of the performance and most of all, listen to the music.

We know reviewing a concert isn't an exact science replete with facts and algorithms. There's no strict formula or precise dimensions for a success, but there are certain standards.

We don't entrust this job to just anyone. We look for staff members who care a lot about music and know even more. So when they come back from the show, we know that their observations aren't stemming from some deep-seated jealousy of Rihanna's sexy abs or an unadulterated hatred for the hip-hop genre.

But our reviewers love a good argument even more than an out-of-print vinyl. So we'll keep talking sex, politics, religion and music as long as you keeping arguing back.

If you can't keep up with the music reporters, feel free to keep conversing about that local sports team.

When a reporter came running into the office on Friday bursting with the news that the Paternoville banner for the Thon auction had been defaced with red spray with the words, "border wars, Go Bucks, #1," we all stopped breathing for a second.

The seniors and juniors in the room looked at each other with the same thought: "People are going to be pissed."

See, I was a crime and courts reporter during the 2005 Ohio State victory and won't ever forget standing in Beaver Canyon amid the thousands of screaming fans, mounted state troopers and banging cookware.

We were prepped with stories of the March 24, 2001 riots when 4,000 people swarmed into Beaver Canyon after Penn State's loss to Temple in the NCAA Men's basketball tournament. Three people suffered face and head injuries, 20 people were arrested on various charges and traffic signs, light posts and windows were left broken in the streets.

So after the celebratory macing on the field two years ago, I thought State College was going to turn into the Rodney King riots circa 1992 Los Angeles -- bricks through store fronts, cars on fire, Ohio State fans levitated like the muggles during the Quidditch World Cup.

But those visions of murder and mayhem couldn't have been further from reality. In 2005, post-Ohio State Beaver Avenue was a celebration and in 2007, with the loss heavy on our minds, post-Ohio State was just a bit disorderly.

There were some fights, mostly involving the red-clad OSU supporters, some disorderly conducts and the usual inordinately high number of alcohol violations.

But for all the letters and angry phone calls we usually get about fan behavior from furious hordes of visitors and alumni, I'm actually surprised it was just disorderly.

Since I moved to Happy Valley in 2004, I've seen my share of disgusting fan behavior. I saw a student throw a chicken wing at a little girl dressed up as a Notre Dame cheerleader. I saw a group of boys dump a bucket of beer on the head of an unsuspecting octogenarian from Michigan. But both times, other Penn State fans helped the visitors and condemned those who share their alma mater.

So for all the bad press we get about being protective on our home turf -- and I know that's putting it mildly -- I was pretty proud of the behavior I saw this weekend.

Of course, I might have missed some Penn State atrocities, but at least we didn't deface a banner raising money for kids with cancer.

So when I wrote last night that I was "pretty proud" of the fan behavior I saw this weekend, I certainly hadn't seen this yet.

It's a video that features a group of Penn State supporters in white T-shirts yelling "F--- Ohio" while full cans of beer are thrown at two Ohio State fans. The Ohio supporters are chased from this backyard while others are heckling, "Get out of here. This is Penn State, b----" and it ends with an excited bystander yelling, "that was the sickest thing I have ever F----in seen."

Not only did someone videotape this monstrous behavior, but he or she posted online. The original clip was taken down, but nothing can ever really be deleted from the Internet. It's still available on Web sites like BigTenTailgate.com and EverydayShouldBeSaturday.com, under titles like, "Disgraceful fan behavior," "Insert Lame State Penn Joke Here," "Jerk Fans," and "You Are... Total Dicks."

Now, it has hit the Internet and Penn State administrators said they have been receiving angry letters. View the full story here.

No wonder. It's about 100 to 2, and not one person appears to be trying to stop this completely pointless act of violence. It's just 49 seconds of a few Penn State fans making the rest of us look like drunken idiots. For the record, I tailgated on Saturday and managed not to throw one full beer can -- it wasn't even that difficult.

Hopefully, more such incidents won't surface in the next few days making my university's reputation and previous blog post even more laughable than it seems now.