4-1-09: Whose opinion is it anyway?

With my first post back from spring break, I want to clear up one of the most common misunderstandings about what people read in The DePauw: the differences among opinion columns, editorials and letters to the editor. Each designation represents the thoughts of different people and is handled in a different way by the newspaper.
The meat of every opinion section is the columns. The DePauw's opinion editor recruits a group of columnists to write for the paper on a rotation. We don't ask people to write based on their views on any subject; columnists are generally the first people to volunteer to write.
No one on The DePauw's staff ever tells a columnist what views to express, and we don't often give them topics to write on. Columnists generally just submit their columns and go on their merry way. That's why it worries me when I hear people say, "The DePauw said x" or y or z when they're really referring to what an individual columnist said.
Editorials - labeled on the first page of the opinion section - do represent the views of certain members of The DePauw's staff. The editor in chief, managing editors, copy editors and any former editors in chief still on staff comprise the editorial board, which authors the editorials.
In the three semesters I've been a member of ed board, consensus has been the key to writing editorials. Ed board could just figure out what the majority of members think on an issue and say that the other members "did not participate in this editorial because they disagree," but instead we try to figure out what opinions we can express about an issue that we all agree on.
The nature of The DePauw's staff presents challenges to writing editorials in which every member of ed board can participate. It's common journalistic practice that if a reporter covers a story, that reporter should not then publish his or her opinions about the subject. At many professional newspapers, editors and editorial writers don't cover any news, so they maintain a firm separation between opinion and the facts of a news story.
At The DePauw, each semester brings new positions for students, and ed board members are frequently the most experienced staffers. We're necessarily called upon to write news sometimes. If the ed board then wants to write about an issue that a member covered as a reporter, that member simply leaves the room when the board hammers out its stance. This set-up makes the line between news and opinion murkier than at some newspapers with the luxury of larger staffs, but I believe it maintains objectivity in our reporting and the integrity of the ed board.
An important point about editorials is that they still don't represent the entire staff of the newspaper. In any given semester, the paper's staff is around 25, so the vast majority of staffers never express their opinions in the paper at all.
Lastly, letters to the editor in The DePauw represent the unsolicited opinions of people who simply feel moved to publish their views on a specific topic. We generally publish any letter by a member of the DePauw community, as long as its author is willing to have his or her name published and the letter doesn't contain unproven allegations about a subject. Most people who consistently write for the newspaper learn from experience what sort of things are legal and ethical to say in print - and what things aren't. It's understandable that most members of the public don't know much about libel law - why would they? - but this reality means sometimes the paper can't run a specific letter, or that the opinion editor or editor in chief asks a letter writer to revise his or her letter. No letter is ever turned away because someone at the paper disagrees with the author's opinions; it is done to ensure that the paper is protecting itself from possible lawsuits or libel charges.
The rule that a letter must be accompanied by the author's name exists for transparency. Readers of The DePauw deserve to know who is expressing the opinions published in the paper, and printing authors' names helps ensure responsibility by letter writers. It's human nature that we tend to be more irresponsible in what we say if we think the opinions won't be traced to us. I want The DePauw to be open to anyone at the University who has an opinion - but with that openness comes a responsibility to make sure one's opinion rests on facts.
There you have it: columns, editorials, letters. I think the chance to know what other people at DePauw think about important topics is one of the main reasons people pick up the paper. I hope this little glimpse behind the scenes of The DePauw clears up who is represented by each statement of opinion and how those opinions come to be in the paper.