Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1999)
H he CI ac I< amas P rìnt _______ 3 What are Print's priorities? Wednesday, January 27, 1999 Not an excuse Print staff: Suppose you have to have to be [sic] a real-world journalist. You are required to be professional, and reoccur ring [sic] spelling and grammar L etter to t L ie Ed ¡ tor TARA JENKINS Student ... - -r- < .....t/.-,!.:.. a [sic] errors are unacceptable. This is why college papers ex ist as an educational tool. How ever, when the student body rec ognizes thatYhe Print is obvi ously lacking, the advisor her self jumps to the defense of the paper’s mediocrity. The articles make ridiculous claims, such as “The name of the Dye Learning Center is misleading,” implying that people “dye” things there. This so-called educational ex perience is doing everything but “preparing students for life” which is what the Print staff ap parently thinks the cafeteria’s waffles achieve. In my experi ences alone, there has not been one accurate speech team ar ticle, and just yesterday in class, Dr. Epstein made comments to your editor-in-chief about the Print’s latest inaccuracies. The Print lacks something that we communication majors deem very valuable called ethos. Ethos is credibility, something well-respected pa pers have. When the Print becomes known for its care lessness, including the frequent mis spelling of days of the week (see your copy editor’s picture z* * .1 caption in the last is sue), respect is lost. It is unfair to compare the Print and its unfulfilled jour nalistic standards to that of stu dents’ papers. The content of the Print is designed to be read 1500 copies at a time, and the readers are not unreasonable to expect the “basics”. M.E.S., a CCC employee who would like to stay reasonably anonymous said, “Confidence without competence is a false coinage, the minter of which is a de ceiver as unsound as that he purports to be true.” It’s time that the Print takes responsibil ity for its level of reporting and stop trying to shift the blame. Regardless, we’re still read ing it. Isn’t journalism a standard to strive toward and not an excuse to hide behind? Jeremy and Toni, Thank you for the labyrinth article. I enjoyed working with you both. I was pleased with the photo. Jeremy, I especially appreciated your statement about the candle passing and what it represents. Good work, Jane Rickenbaugh Goins *° collose? Want help with Your Tuition? work part-time with us & we'll pay! GYROS GYROS helps pay tuition for part-time employees. APPLY TODAY at area shopping centers: Clackamas Town Center Washington Square Lloyd Center Jantzen Beach Center Vancouver Mall (Bring this ad with your application - get a FREE 16 oz soft drink) ÛYRO5 GYROS After reading through this week’s issue of The Print and realizing that the staff welcomed both comments and constructive criticism, I felt prompted to write this. You had a story about two holocaust survivors coming to Clackamas in February to tell their stories. In fact you said these two women etter to t h e "... are two of the last few remaining survivors from the Holocaust avail able to tell their MELISSA STIVERS stories.” I feel that Student this was one of the most important stories in this week’s issue, yet it was buried on the last page, after a 3-page layout of print propaganda. My question is, if the print is really a vehicle for Clackamas students and staff to find out about im L EdiTOR I portant events, or just information, why wasn’t this ar ticle in a place where more people would be likely to see it? This article stressed the fact that for a lot of people this might be their last opportunity to find out about the atrocities of World War II first hand. One thing I know many instructors here at Clackamas stress is, “if we do not know the past we are doomed to repeat it.” With the same kind of atrocities occurring right now in Kosovo and other parts of the world, shouldn’t the students and staff here be aware of the horrors of ethnic cleans ing? I would hope in the future that the Print is more aware of their responsibility to their read ers and chose to put more pertinent articles before your own propaganda. If the Print is trying to achieve a way for students and staff to become more knowledgeable, I recommend you closely examine your priorities. f Response to 'Excuse* ------- ------------------------------------- JOHN THORBURN Sports Editor From student to student, Ms. Jenkins, I find it very difficult to re spect someone whose letter ques tioning my credibility contains er rors in its first two sentences. From editor to reader, I find many of your comments well-spoken and sadly, well-justified. Clackamas de mands excellence. This year, more than any other, The Print has had inaccuracies and “typos.” The in accuracies are something that any young writer encounters, and rightly so, the writer should be called on their mistakes. Point taken, every reader has a right to voice his or her own opinion. The Clackamas Print staff views the letters sent in by our readers as part of our educational experience. We, as a group, value our readers’ input Ryan Frank, editor-in-chief of the University of Oregon Daily Emer ald put it best, “Any newspaper worth its weight in newsprint strives to be a reflection of its community. Newspapers are, or at least should be, sympathetic to complaints and suggestions from community mem bers regarding the issues covered and the way they are covered. By ignoring those letters, phone calls and e-mails, newspapers are ignor- ing their most important critic: the readers. Without a newspaper’s community, which is made up of newspaper readers, there would be no newspaper.” With that said, I’d like to clear up some issues with The Print that you discussed in your letter. You said, “The articles make ri diculous claims, such as ‘The name of the Dye Learning Center is mis leading,’ implying that people ‘dye’ things there.” The piece written by Leah Chapin in The Print’s October 7 edition, was published as an opin ion, much like your letter and my response. It was simply one student’s reflection on the college campus. Surely, we are all entitled to that. With that in mind, does that degrade The Print’s name? Also, I question why you re marked that “This so-called educa tional experience is doing every thing but ‘preparing students for life.’” Who are you to make this judgment? The Print is not an edu cational tool for you nor any other student that is not involved in the journalism program. Finally, you mention that journal ism should be something to strive toward. I agree. The standards of journalism are set higher than that of a student’s book review or short story. The staff has openly acknowl edged its errors. It feels both the need and the pressure to publish a better newspaper. But if you say it “is unfair to compare The Print and its unfulfilled journalistic stan dards to that of students’ papers,” doesn’t that imply that a students’ paper for class should be no more than mediocre? Doesn’t that mean you’re hiding behind that same door of journalism, only on the other side? As a student and editor, I demand excellence from The Clackamas Print just like you. Your point is well-taken on that issue, and I ap preciate your input. As far as credibility goes, the whole campus has now seen our work and yours. The Print welcomes SIGNED letters to the editor from STUDENTS AND STAFF. Please submit letters of 300 words dr less to the Print's office in Barlow Hall, by mail, or by Email at: cccprint@dackamas.cc.or.us. Letters are due by noon the Friday prior to publication. WE CAN NOT PRINT UNSIGNED LETTERS OR LETTERS SIGNED UNDER AN ASSUMED NAME.
