Editor in Chief

I've gotten a lot of e-mails recently about an article we published last week -- "Athletes pageant aids Thon" (Jan. 31).

Most of the readers agreed that it was nice to see coverage of Interfraternity Council/ Panhellenic Dance Marathon event grace the pages of the paper.

All of the readers agreed, however, that the article's last sentence, which stated that men's wrestler Mark McKnight, crowned Mr. Student Athlete, was facing charges stemming from a downtown fight that include simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment, was irrelevant and should not have been included.

In about 60 of the e-mails I've received, the six most common criticisms of the article's conclusion were that it was: irrelevant, off-topic, slanderous, sensationalist, and/or inconsiderate.

I've tried to answer every single one of the e-mails, but I would really like to explain our rationale for including that sentence in a more accessible forum.

I'll start with the easy ones first.

The information about McKnight's pending charges cannot be called "slanderous" (or more correctly, it cannot be called "libelous," because slander deals with speech and libel with print) because it is, in fact, true. There is probably a much larger and more complicated back story around the May 5 downtown altercation, but until his charges are dismissed or he reaches some agreement with the court, the charges still stand.

His Jan. 23 preliminary hearing to decide whether there was sufficient evidence to send the case to trial was rescheduled until Feb. 20. Like any criminal case we cover in our paper, we will follow it until its conclusion.

Many more of you complained that including such a paragraph was inconsiderate to McKnight and his family. Unfortunately, in the profession of printing information, not all of that information is going to make everyone happy. Contrary to popular opinion, no one at the Collegian gets particular pleasure out of including information that may portray an individual in a negative light. It actually makes my nights run longer and later as I answer assorted "hate mail." I'm not complaining; I like reader feedback -- of all types. Sometimes, late nights are just a part of the job.

Now to the most frequent reader objection: McKnight's charges had absolutely no relevance to the topic at hand.

As he was selected to represent the entire men's wrestling team, for what I'm sure were excellent reasons, we thought it was important to note that he was also facing assault charges.
Yes, the story was about the new pageant and funds raised for a worthwhile cause (and yes, I am aware the event benefited children with cancer, as many of you hastened to point out). But the story was also about the 29 students who participated, especially the students who were crowned.

Of course, relevance isn't a black-and-white concept.

But was it relevant for readers to know that in addition to being a stellar student-athlete who obviously cares for his community, the first-ever Mr. Student Athlete was facing criminal charges? I say yes.

Was it sensationalist? I certainly don't think so.

We put the 18-word sentence at the end of the article, not in the second paragraph where it states that McKnight was crowned. I thought it was abrupt, but preferred that to something incomplete. Furthermore, we know the difference between charges and convictions. Whatever the outcome, we'll follow the case.

We never try to present information selectively; we simply try to present all the information we have at the time.

Finally, this is an issue that we've battled with all semester. In the past six months, we have seen athletes charged with rape, aggravated assault, harassment, driving under the influence and underage drinking. It is a serious issue for a university that professes it selects its athletes first for character and then for athletic prowess, and changes have been made to how the university deals with athletes who violate the university code of conduct. For better or worse, student athletes are public figures at this university and their activities, both good and bad, are considered newsworthy.

I'm sure some people still disagree with my reasoning -- just know that we don't make decisions lightly and keep reading our paper. I'll keep answering the hate mail.

Each week when Tuesday night rolls around and I'm faced with writing this blog, I try to give you some indication of what Collegian editors and reporters are facing -- a literary snapshot of the atmosphere, if you will.

So what's on the Collegian's collective mind this week? The success of Spanier's Washington, D.C. lobbying trip? The results of the Potomac primary? Biodiesel tractors?

Sorry, the answer is: D: None of the Above.

We're crossing our fingers, wearing PJs inside-out, praying to whatever weather gods we can google that Wednesday will be a snow day (Seriously, Ullr, I'll be extra good).

Of course snow days means some of our hard work goes unappreciated. We'll be here all night, preparing Wednesday's paper -- whether you decide to leave your warm bed or not.

But I love sleeping in as much as you do (OK, probably more), so I'll propose a compromise:

If classes are canceled tomorrow, you can just read the paper online. Check out some of our awesome multimedia features, read some back issues and send a letter or two.

So please, OPP, take a night off and let me be a kid just one more time.

But classes aren't canceled yet, so back to business. Hopefully you've noticed the new, more reader-friendly layout of the opinions page. Besides our five weekly columnists, weekly quotables, local cartoon and your letters, we something new that we hope to update every Friday. It's called the guest column and we're encouraging people in the news to use that space to give their perspective about a news item that affects them and our readership directly. Past guest columnists have included: Penn State President Graham Spanier, University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) President Hillary Lewis, Thon Overall Dan Cocco and assorted student groups, like Project Smokeless and UPUA Legal Affairs.

If you're interested, send me an e-mail -- oh, and give Ullr a shoutout for me; some extra sleep never hurt anyone.

Perhaps you've noticed our new Interfraternity Council/ Panhellenic Dance Marathon logo accompanying our Thon coverage this week.

It proudly boasts: "46-hour marathon, 46-hour coverage."

And seriously, we mean all 46 hours.

Like the hundreds of students, dancers, moralers, committee members, university staff and community members who have been preparing all week to participate in the nationally renowned 46-hour fundraiser, we've been preparing, too.

Not in exactly the same way, of course. Our caffeine intake is higher and unhealthier than ever. We're not getting the recommended eight to 10 hours of peaceful repose. And "visit the gym" is still sitting on that to-do list I made in January.

Instead, the campus news editors and the campus news reporters, especially those on the greek beat, have been preparing coverage leading up to the weekend-long event, talking to eager participants and planners, and making long, complicated spreadsheets.

Spreadsheets, you ask? Well, organizing an all-hours rotation of reporters, photographers and editors stationed at the Bryce Jordan Center and in our offices writing, editing and designing for our online coverage and our Monday section, is no small task. We need to make sure we're there to cover not only every big, Thontastic event, but the smaller, potentially overlooked moments that define an event so closely linked to our university.

Much like Thon itself, a lot of very different Collegian staffs will come together for the final production this weekend. The metro news staff is keeping its ear to the police scanner; the critics of the arts staff are bringing their notebooks and their critiques to the BJC stage to review the entertainment; and the page designers and graphic artists will be creating a seven-page section for Monday that, hopefully, will contain all the Thon memories that defined 2008.

Just like last year, we will be blogging and posting photos day and night so you don't have to miss a minute. Plus, this year, we're throwing audio and video coverage into the mix. Now, you can hear and see the stories -- not just in our words, but in your own -- even at 3 a.m. in your PJs.

And when the Thon overalls stand on the stage on Sunday afternoon and proudly hold up the amount of money that took a year and tireless dedication to raise, we'll be cheering right along with you. And then, we'll be settling in for a long night recording all the memories that made this Thon special, so after you get some sleep, you'll have something to remember it by.

Walking into The Daily Collegian offices during normal business hours, you're greeted by 4-foot wall that separates the large room into two distinct areas.

This separating partition is not only physical barrier, but a psychological one as well.

It divides the two halves that are crucial to our daily operations: the news division and the business division.

The duties of the news division are straightforward -- we are responsible for the news content in the daily paper, which includes the articles, columns, editorials, letters, photographs, graphics and layout of the paper.

The duties of the business division are different, but also clear-cut. The staff members sell and design the advertisements and classifieds, keep track of our organization's accounting records, run promotions for the paper and handle customer service relations.

And though members of both divisions consider this office a second home, we rarely interact.

It's a strange, symbiotic relationship. Without the work of the business division, we couldn't produce a newspaper. Without the work of the news division, you'd have to little browse each morning.

You'd think this reality would bind us together as comrades in arms, fighting problems facing the news industry as a whole, like a declining youth readership and creating a presence on the Web.

But the wall was built for vital reasons.

As much as reporters and editors don't like to admit it, the news industry is a business. We need money to function; we have a budget and an overhead; and newsprint doesn't exactly grow on trees.

That led some trailblazers in the seventeenth century to come up with the plan to sell advertisements to generate revenue, so reporters and editors could do their thing.

It's basically the same model that exists today. Collegian account executives sell advertising space to local businesses so our organization can afford to print news content and distribute the paper.

And though both divisions work for a common goal, we remain divided by this wall, for good reason. The barrier exists so our news content, which we struggle to ensure is unbiased and impartial as possible, isn't affected by the businesses and individuals that purchase advertising space.

In other words, even if Joe Smith's Pizzeria buys an ad in the paper, it has no effect on how we write about the restaurant in our news stories. Even if they pay us a zillion dollars each year to advertise their world-famous slices, if our culinary reporter thinks their pizza tastes like cardboard and cheese, she writes it.

How would you trust us otherwise?

The wall lets us perform the two functions we need to stay afloat -- we don't go broke and we retain the credibility that we work so hard for.

Usually, the differences between the divisions are clear and when they aren't, it's not usually serious. If I get an e-mail about our advertising rates, I just forward it over to the Collegian business manager Carolyn Yanoff.

Of course, more serious situations can arise. Say Joe Smith is unhappy we wrote that his slices were reminiscent of shoe box. He calls Carolyn and says she better fix it quickly or else he is not giving us anymore of his hard-earned dough. Carolyn tells him that she has no control over what the news division prints and directs him to contact me. Conversely, the same principle applies if we publish a controversial advertisement. If someone contacts me saying he is offended by the ad, I direct him to Carolyn. I don't decide which ads are appropriate.

And though the wall can make it easier for us to accomplish our individual goals, it's not always marital bliss. Sometimes we disagree; sometimes our experiences make it difficult for us relate to each other; and sometimes our missions conflict.

But looking over the 4-foot barrier, I see a lot of students who work hard without getting to see their byline printed each day, so you can read and trust the news.

It's a strange, symbiotic relationship, but it works.