Daily Lobo a learning tool for students to use

Editor,

I strongly urge ASUNM to continue to fund the New Mexico Daily Lobo.

The exceptionally poor quality of this nation’s journalism demands that student-run journalism publications exist as functional learning laboratories for all students, be it through contribution or critical readership. It is also vitally important that our university communities and their issues have published voices that do not depend on central administrative funding.

Many people complain of the Lobo’s poor quality. I understand their criticisms. My last letter to the editor was butchered more than edited, and in an interview last semester I was twice misquoted. The Lobo is, after all, a student publication — both contributors and readers should understand that and give some extra slack. This is but a first lesson in our laboratory — all newspapers, like all individuals, occasionally make mistakes.

Journalism in this country has become packaged more to sell than to inform. Our “journalism,” largely so in the broadcast media and occasionally so in print, is too often little more than sensationalism with a liberal dose of ill-informed propaganda. It sometimes appears that our local television news programs are doing their best to emulate the “Jerry Springer Show” — but, hey, it sells!

The “media” are often in such a mad rush to be first with a story that data goes unchecked and unverified. They so prefer emphasizing emotion — generally, the easily sold emotion of fear — over fact, and so insist on inflicting editorial bias that the media have become a contributor, at least as a catalyst, to the very news stories they so lament — and covet.

American education seems to be doing a poor job with teaching journalism. Reporters clearly fail to prepare themselves for a story and lack basic background knowledge. Most, for example, are unable to distinguish between significant data and statistical babbling.

The canons and ethics of journalism apparently are no longer taught, and the concept of checking and verifying information seems no longer to exist.

All the more reason for all students to fund an independent newspaper. All the more reason to inspire each other to value basic principles over making a buck. And all the more reason to ask for the courage and integrity to stand up for what’s right.

A truly independent and responsible press is essential to the survival of our democratic republic. The Lobo provides an opportunity for students to learn how to regain and maintain a truly independent and responsible press in this country. It is not a luxury we can afford to do without.

John Bauer

Staff member