What exactly is going on with respect to the whole Joe Bernard DUI situation? If you believe the athletic department here at Fairfield, not much of anything at all. But believing what the athletic administration here has to say has become an increasingly difficult task over the course of this year.
The term “glasnost” was a policy spearheaded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 in the Soviet Union to signify more openness and freedom of the press in public matters. Opposed by old guard Communists, the policy was vital in the progression of Russian politics away from the stifling lifestyle under which millions of people lived at the time.
It’s a shame that the administration of the athletic department here at Fairfield is about as forthcoming as Joseph Stalin’s repressive regime.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as big a fan of Fairfield athletics as anyone, I just think that in a free society the highest administrative powers at an institution of “higher” learning should have even the most rudimentary understanding of the role of newspapers and the media in a public culture.
What has led me to say things like this?
Earlier in the year, a senior member of the athletic administration chided a Mirror staff member incredulously for printing stories that did not portray Fairfield athletics in a positive light.
Sources have told the Mirror that athletic staff have in several cases discouraged student-athletes from talking to The Mirror on a number of occasions throughout this year.
I am all for the athletic department here wanting to solve problems internally to the extent that they can, but in some cases it is just impossible to erect a wall of absolute silence as far as some cases are concerned.
Too bad the athletic department has not realized this fact yet.
The fact is, in a society where an actual public discourse on public issues takes place, it is not only the right but also the responsibility of a newspaper to fully investigate the facts of any story and report them in a fair and balanced manner.
Despite all the administrative hand-wringing over various articles that have appeared in the pages of this section over the course of this academic year, not once has anyone pointed out a case in which a significant factual error occured in any story.
Such large scale and massive ignorance on an issue as important as this one is both baffling and telling. The fact of the matter seems to be that the administration just does not respect students.
An examination of further facts would in my mind bear this assumption out.
Take, for instance, the radio coverage of Fairfield basketball on WVOF, the supposedly student radio station here.
Instead of sticking with tradition and having the games called by students here, the powers that be decided instead to have the games broadcast by professional ringers, nullifying a significant opportunity for students to hone their skills in a hands-on manner and also damaging any chance for a hardcore following to develop among students for Stags basketball, in my opinion.
Now, I love Fairfield as much as the next guy, and I love it when our student-athletes represent the school so well on the field. The problem is it is all too often that the administration on a regular basis embarrasses themselves and the very ideals it claims this institution instills.
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