Many staffers at The Daily Tar Heel would agree. As indicated in this space last spring, readers regularly assessed the contents of the DTH, from its editorial page opinions and cartoons to its news and sports reporting. This semester, an Aug. 28 editorial that mistakenly described a proposed LGBTQ resource center as student- and not University-run has rightly been the subject of several letters in the days since. The Editorial Board's correction appeared Aug. 29.
Less important to some, but still noted, the Aug. 30 editorial regarding the planned Rosemary Street mixed-use project erroneously characterized the forthcoming residential units as rental apartments, not condominiums that will be offered for sale. Six units will be reserved for lower-income renters, but the Orange Community Housing Corporation that will oversee the leasing process will likely look more favorably on local teachers and police officers than unshaven students.
In addition to these errors, questions surrounding the paper's overall content are on some readers' minds. One student wrote last May asking why "the DTH has continually failed to cover important issues that are significant to a wide range of populations on this campus." The reader alleged that DTH editors have remarked that campus events might not get covered because "they are always in the newsroom and don't know what's going on. My suggestion to this year's staff," the student continued, "would be to get out of the office and find out what people on this campus are truly interested in."
Although this reader offered no examples of extraneous articles or suggestions for future coverage, University Editor Daniel Thigpen agrees that editors might be spending too much time with their computers. "And the higher you are in the newsroom," he added, "the harder it is to get out." Thigpen says the first four weeks of classes exacerbate the problem. New staffers have not started, leaving returning editors with few writers and resources to cover the opening of a new school year.
Thigpen noted that this personnel shortage prevented a University Desk reporter from attending the August kickoff meeting of Sangam, the South Asian awareness organization, to seek future story ideas. He said editors need to encourage new writers to develop stories and be more receptive to those suggestions instead of relying on a traditional top-down approach. "U-Desk needs to give writers incentives to get out," said Thigpen.
City Editor Jon Dougherty agreed that editors need to encourage writers "to think creatively so every desk doesn't just have two or three brains looking for stories but 25 of them." Given the area's growing population, Dougherty said, "We cannot be everywhere at once; we cannot see everything that happens."
Joining other organizations or advocacy groups could put editors in closer touch with certain campus issues, says Lizzie Breyer, 2001-02 University desk editor (and current projects editor) but also creates conflicts of interest. That quandary is largely moot, Breyer notes, because the time commitment required of DTH editors precludes other significant extracurriculars.
Potential stories for Thursday's paper will be reviewed at a daily 3:30 p.m. meeting; the preliminary look at Friday's paper will take place at a nightly gathering that begins later than midnight. The editors will spend much of the intervening hours in the newsroom working on Thursday's issue.
Assistant University Editor John Frank said that when this month's hiring is complete, however, "There are 200-some staff members spread out all over campus. They are the eyes and ears for us."
