Teaching possible reporters to be journalists instead

The children who run the student newspaper at Northwestern recently disgraced themselves by issuing a groveling apology for . . . covering the news, in this case protests against a campus visit by Jeff Sessions. And that was their offense: taking photos, conducting interviews — you know, journalism. Students who were photographed or contacted for interviews complained that they were “traumatized” by this.

“We contributed to the harm students experienced,” the Northwestern editors wrote, “and we wanted to apologize for and address the mistakes that we made.” The main mistake they’ve made is mistaking themselves for journalistsreporters*. These kids are an embarrassment, but the problem did not start with them.
But they've damned sure learned the proper groveling when the make the mistake of actually doing the job.


*There, fixed it for them.