Praise Amid the Haze
With its pivotal, news-breaking coverage of the Northwestern football hazing scandal, The Daily Northwestern serves notice of journalism's crucial, vibrant role in society.
In the summer of 1989, when I was sports editor of The Daily Northwestern, the biggest story was the death of a football player, a rising sophomore who drowned in Lake Michigan.
This summer, the biggest story on campus is debatably the most significant across all of collegiate athletics: the Northwestern University football program’s hazing scandal.
Some have argued that the revelations should trigger the demise of the entire football program. That scenario is exceedingly unlikely. However, this month’s developments have already:
Led to the firing of coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Played a role in prompting the university to oust the baseball coach for bullying behavior.
Sparked lawsuits by alumni athletes, a number that will continue to climb.
Ushered in the latest round of reflection and re-examination of sports’ role in higher education, and
Highlighted journalism’s crucial role as a watchdog institution.
Without that last item, it’s quite possible none of those other occurrences play out. The turning point was the story that The Daily Northwestern broke three weeks ago. This student-run publication, composed of those in their teens and early 20s, put highly detailed and disgusting meat on the bare bones of a Friday afternoon “news dump.”
At that time, when the university issued a news release on the conclusion of a monthslong hazing investigation, its response included a two-week (pronounced “too weak”) suspension of Fitzgerald.
Since then, The Daily has continued to stay on top of what’s unfolded and unraveled. This past Monday, it was the first media outlet to publish an in-depth interview with NU President Michael Schill.1
Within hours of The Daily’s July 8th story, other media outlets have pursued the story with vigor. Much more is still to come. The lid is off what’s been concealed from public view.
And does anyone genuinely think that Northwestern is an exception when it comes to hazing? With student journalists soon returning to campuses all around the country for the next academic year, a #metoo reckoning may well descend on numerous programs, particularly football.
Already, the news coming out of Evanston is all so disturbing and disappointing.
As a freshman, my work-study job was in the Sports Information department, so I was part of the football team’s public relations apparatus. My sophomore year, I covered the team, traveling the Big Ten circuit to report on games. The disappointing season (two wins, eight losses, one tie) ended on such a positive note that editors splashed it on the front page of the entire edition.
So, I am confessing my multi-layered biases here: I a Northwestern alum, a Wildcat football fan, a graduate of its journalism program one, and one of my most formative experiences was being a reporter, columnist and editor at The Daily Northwestern.
This saga, then, has been bittersweet.
My hope is that one good to flow from this hazing scandal is that it reminds people that, despite the naysayers and the “enemy of the people” blather out there, journalism isn’t dead. Not by a long shot.
To serve as a watchdog, to hold powerful people and organizations accountable for their actions (or inaction), to expose the truth—these are all roles that journalism plays in a healthy cultural landscape.
From Tom Jones of the Poynter Institute, a non-profit journalism school and research organization a few days after the initial piece in The Daily Northwestern: “Some of the best reporting anywhere over the weekend was published by a college newspaper.”
Founded in 1881, The Daily Northwestern has frequently won the Pacemaker, the top award for college newspapers. But, like any other media outlet, it has made its share of missteps, too.
For example, four years ago the newspaper came under fire for its coverage of a campus visit by former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Some students who protested Sessions’ visit objected to their photographs being taken, and their names used, as part of The Daily’s coverage.
Amid intense criticism, editors removed some of those controversial materials, then apologized. Here’s the part of their apology that most concerned me:
“While our goal is to document history and spread information, nothing is more important than ensuring that our fellow students feel safe — and in situations like this, that they are benefitting from our coverage rather than being actively harmed by it. We failed to do that last week, and we could not be more sorry.”
I won’t go down this rabbit hole beyond pushing back strongly that it’s not a media outlet’s concern that people “feel safe.” Others are in charge of that.
What do you suppose happened next?
Yep: that apology and the newspaper’s overall back-pedaling came under fire. Some older journalists, particularly my fellow alumni of The Daily, chided our younger cohorts for buckling under pressure.
At that time, I refrained from diving into the discourse for several days. Then, I was inspired by a statement from Charles Whitaker, Dean of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, where most of The Daily staffers are enrolled.
I was especially moved by this excerpt:
“…give the young people a break. I know you feel that you were made of sterner stuff and would have the fortitude and courage of your conviction to fend off the campus critics. But you are not living with them through this firestorm, facing the brutal onslaught of venom and hostility that has been directed their way on weaponized social media. Don’t make judgments about them or their mettle until you’ve walked in their shoes. What they need at this moment is our support and the encouragement to stay the course.”
My wife and I have been longtime donors to The Daily, but the fallout from the Sessions coverage prompted us to increase that support. We made our latest contribution a few weeks ago, in the aftermath of its hazing coverage.2
We don’t agree with every editorial decision the paper makes, but our donations are not contingent on that. We give because we value the vital role that journalism plays in society, and these young women and men represent an emerging generation of journalistic leaders as our democracy is at a critical crossroads.
Today, let me close with the words3 that concluded my November 2019 blog post regarding the Sessions saga.
Being a good journalist is a courageous, vulnerable, noble, messy pursuit.
Perfection is impossible, and excellence is not only elusive, but in the eye of the beholder.
Good, old-fashioned reporting on difficult subjects has always been met with fierce resistance and come under assault.
When compared with my primary time as a journalist (1984-2006), what is so dramatically different now: the weaponizing of social media. As Dean Whitaker so aptly describes it in his statement—the “brutal onslaught of venom and hostility.”
At times, journalists are the targets of that vitriol. More than ever, it is essential to develop thick skin and recognize that taking heat comes with the territory. In fact, and in my experience, it is often an indication that we are on the right track.
Through this entire period, I have been underwhelmed by Schill. Even less impressed with the athletic director, Derrick Gragg. The university’s appalling handling of this situation is perhaps a topic for another day.
Have you ever contributed to a journalism organization? I encourage you to consider it. Here’s where you can support The Daily Northwestern.
I have tightened the verbiage from my blog post. I whipped up a big Adverb & Adjective Salad that day.
Well I discovered - and confirmed by NU alumni associations - that having done four years of post graduate medical training at NU makes me an NU alumni as well. So here is my two cents:
1. The Daily Northwestern was wrong then - and now - in their jello like apology over the Sessions issue. Sorry, being young and under fire is NO excuse. A lot of folks their age have literally been under fire. Others their age have literally participated in life and death events ... in hospitals ... and in other training in health care. That's how you harden steel and that's is often how you harden young people who seek challenging professions. You can't be a wimp in journalism, or medicine, or law enforcement or EMT. So I don't buy that BS about putting yourself in their shoes. Many of us at thier age have had to confront difficult and trying situations. A lesson from former President Truman: "if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen." No excuses, Matt.
2. The Daily Northwestern has done a great job on exposing the underbelly in NU athletics ... what apparently was hidden from the student body and public in general. Of course the more plausible possibility no one in the upper echelons at NU wanted to know about these inconvenient events. I also wonder if any of this would have arisen if the NU football team was winning games rather than losing at an alarming clip over the past few years. However, I would caution you and all others involved in the present feeding frenzy that what we have here are accusations; nothing more. Although Coach Fitz being an employee of a private institution may not legally be subject to "due process" and "presumed innocence", in my view "due process" and "presumed innocence" are or should be cultural touchstones of our country regardless of whether the employee is under contract in a private or public institution. I would suggest you recall the Duke feeding frenzy of some years ago. How'd that work out?
3. If all the accusations prove true, I think NU should seriously inquire if joining the Ivy League is possible. If not, then they should follow in the footsteps of the UofC. It really is time to truly become a first rate academic university - which means saying goodby to D1 - and stop pretending otherwise.
I’m a fellow Northwestern alum who is very disappointed in Coach Fitzgerald, his assistants and the players themselves. And I think president Michael Schill acted properly in dismissing the head coach (though I think the assistants should have been terminated as well, because they also had to know about the hazing all along).
But what I don’t understand is why there hasn’t been a similar current investigation of any other college football program. It seems clear to me that if NU, a small private school that emphasizes academics, has had football hazing, then many other schools — especially the “football factories” — have had this as well for a long time. In fact, it’s apparent to me that this is an outgrowth of the “fraternity hazing“ we’ve seen over the years.
This is not to excuse NU, but rather to point out that this has no doubt been going on on many other campuses and that we’re not alone!
And yet I haven’t seen anything re other schools being investigated by their presidents, school newspapers or local/national newspapers, magazines or TV. Those investigations should start immediately!
Mike Allen
mallensandiego@aol.com