a

 

 

 

The Other Press

Registration issue January 1983

  
  

Page 3

ther School of Journalism

“Fun

   

through

expression”

CHE WOODSTEHIN Dean of Journalism é

Our Great Leader Speaks

““Sure we’re radical,’’ says Che Woodstein
taking a long draw on a narrow cigarette smelling
somewhat like burnt rope, ‘‘What do you
expect...the system sucks, and the only way we
can change it is to say it sucks.’’

‘What about objectivity?’ | ask naivly.

‘The myth of objectivity is one of the major
things wrong with society,’’ Woodstein says
passing the strange smoking tobacco to me. Not
wanting to be impolite, | take a puff and cough.
‘It is impossible to be objective. Anyone who says
they are are lying, whether they know it or not.
Look, when you write a story you take a number of
quotes from a variety of sources. In any story
where there is conflict happening, say in a strike
situation where you have union on one side and
managment on the other, you will size up the
situation and write the story to reflect the truth as
you see it. Needless to say the union’s truth is not
the managment’s truth so, unless you strive to
match every union quote with a managment quote
of the same magnitude, you will be accused of
being biased, which of course, you are.’’

‘‘But won’t you alienate some of your readers
taking that approach?’’ | ask.

“‘Yeah, maybe, but you will be educating them
as well. If you are a good journalist as well as a

-good writer, what bias you take really won’t

matter...the facts will remain the same but the
interpetation of those facts are basically up to
you.’’ Che respond

 

 

 

‘“But are you not doing a disservice, both to the
people you are writing about and to your readers,
by taking an obvious~ bias?”’ | ask accusingly.

“Your not listening tome: Look, in a story, you
must be accurate, get all the important facts, and
you must also be fair to whom your writing about.
You would not come out saying that’the owners of

‘the owners of
Red Hot vidio outlets are a bunch of assholes’.
You would (assuming that the truth is they are all
assholes) prove your assertion with quotes and
facts. If you can’t do that, you are either a bad
journalist or they are not assholes.’’

‘When | heard you lecture before at the
Columbia School of Journalism you kept refering
to journalists as ‘agents of social change’, does
that mean that newspapers are going to take over
the world or something?”’ | say starting to loose
my balance on my chair as | am talking.

““No,’’ says Woodstein, ‘’Though that wouldn’t
be a bad idea. The journalist as agent of social

change is more of an awareness of responsibility

to society than a mandate to change things for the
sake of change. Lets put it this way, when Joe
Average goes to:vote he will choose who he will be
voting for on the basis of what he has read and
what he has heard. If Ernie Evil, the crooked
politician has enough money to buy an election by
mounting an expensive ad campain, he will win
and his plans of putting an MX missile system

in Joe Averages back yard will go through, unless

    

    
   

 

the public knows enough not to believe the high
priced bullshit that Ernie feeds them. That’s
where we come in, informing the public of what

-Ernie Evil.really_is behind his-airbrushed smile.

“In a broader perspective newspapers are a
reflection of society. As journalists we choose
what parts of society we consider news worthy so
we reflect this and thus perpetuate it. If we reflect
a violent world then we will get a violent society.
If we show, as news, people who are trying to
change and improve our society, then we will
encourage social change for the benifit of society,
thus we become agents for social change.’’

“Uh, uh, the room...is turning around,”’ | say,
falling off my chair.

‘“You noticed to too eh? Well, | can tell your
going to be a good journalist,’” Woodstein says,
walking out on the ceiling of the room muttering,
“Yep, your quite perceptive, gonna go tar, gonna
go far.”’

  
   
  
 
   

An excited Che Woodstein
after a production night of
growing and understanding.