Even before the April 21 edition of The Volante hit the racks last week, commenters were on our website responding to:
— a protest a Students Against the State member made at the veterans club memorial,
— a column published from a Secular Students Alliance member writing about the same ideas the SATS member expressed in the protest,
— a letter to the editor submitted by the SATS advisor defending the value of having the club in the campus “marketplace of ideas,”
— a centerpiece story on the veterans memorial.
The reactions from campus to these pieces have made it to the Department of Defense’s website and were central at the Cross Media Council First Amendment Forum Monday.
But also in the backlash from both SATS and the veterans club dispute, a question arose about Volante bias because we had opinion pieces from two SATS members and a congruent side to the protest from an opinion columnist with no SATS association. That was simply a matter of coincidental timing. If we’d had them, we easily could have included pro-veterans pieces.
But the accusation also was made that we violated our code of ethics. We did. And as a result, we’re going to review that code and how we apply it, as well as how we convey it to our staff members.
The Volante follows the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, but also follows a Volante code, which was adopted Feb. 13, 2009, and posted on our website. The code reads, “Staff members, excluding opinion columnists, cannot publicly endorse or promote SGA or political campaigns. This includes … joining Facebook groups …”
While there was no violation in the April 21 edition, the controversy that surrounded that opinion page brought our practice of joining Facebook groups to light from a previous edition. April 14, a reporter who was also a member of the SATS Facebook group wrote a story about the club. While he is not actually a member of the club and has never attended a meeting except in his capacity as a reporter, he had joined their Facebook group.
As technology changes, The Volante will look at how it needs to modify its code of ethics to uphold the standards set by the SPJ. Facebook groups have become news sources for us to pick up story ideas and make contacts with members for stories. They don’t always signify group affiliation, but they do associate the reporter with that group. We are looking at how we can revise our code to reflect this.
In the meantime, however, we are thankful that we cover a student body that holds us accountable. We adopted a code, we are held to it.
Reach Editor-in-Chief Josie Kerk at Josie.Kerk@usd.edu.
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