John Kass writes for the Chicago Tribune about the recent episode of Northwestern University student journalists apologizing for doing their jobs.
What happened to the editors of The Daily Northwestern is that they are students, they are young. And they have not yet grown the hard bark that, now more than ever, is necessary to do the job of a journalist.
They’re young people raised in the cancel culture dominated by the left, a culture that is all about feelings and shame, and the student editors did what their culture demanded.
What’s been missing from some of the more simplistic criticism is an examination of the cancel culture that groomed the students so that they’d censor themselves and capitulate on demand.
Most of you know the rough facts of it. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a supporter of President Donald Trump, visited NU for a talk with college Republicans.
The left, which is legion within university faculties and student bodies, hates Trump. Predictably, student protesters shrieked and tried to disrupt Session’s speech. He said they were being stupid.
The Daily Northwestern reporters and photographers did their job. They properly covered the news, took photographs of protesters, contacted others who were there by going through the student directory. They did what journalists do. They properly covered a story without fear or favor.
But then the fear set in. Their peers complained that student reporters found them by going through the student directory, which is very much a college phone book. They didn’t like being photographed.
And the student editors didn’t have the spine to stand up to them. What was unthinkable only a few years ago is now fact: The editors apologized for doing their jobs.
