Letter to the Editor: Daily editors sensationalized sex toy story

Impact - Outrage does not determine the impact of a story. Impact means being able to reach audiences and elicit some sort of response. Just because the original article does not quote students who were "outraged" by the incident does not mean this had no impact. The fact that this was covered by national media outlets and why so many people are commenting on this issue shows that this article elicited a response.

Conflict - Again, "outrage" does not define conflict. Conflict means having two different sides to the story. Sure, there are students who don't think it's a big deal and Bailey should be able to do what he wants, but clearly, the other side is parents and alumni who didn't think this was appropriate to occur in a University classroom. Furthermore, the fact that Bailey said so himself that he hesitated as to whether he should allow the live sex show to happen presents this isn't a straightforward issue.

Proximity - You contradict yourself here. Proximity alone does not determine the newsworthiness of a story; rather, it helps to publish a story that has a local angle. This clearly affects students as it involved some of their peers, and it occurred on our campus.

Prominence - Prominence does not mean having subjects in your story who are well-known. It means having something in your story that people can relate to. Human Sex is probably the most popular class at Northwestern. Almost 600 students take it every winter quarter, so clearly this is something that's prominent on NU's campus.

Novelty - Again, I don't understand why you're only using certain definitions of newsworthiness. It's new, where else have you seen a live sex show featuring a fucksaw? The Daily decided to report on it because while Bailey has featured these after class demonstrations before, none of them have involved a woman being penetrated with a sex toy as unusual as a fucksaw. It isn't sensationalism; the reporter simply reported the facts in the story and exaggerated nothing.

Timeliness - What news outlet hasn't reported on something that occurred after the fact? A majority of news recaps what happened and seeks to inform people of what they don't know. This happened last week, stop acting as though it happened a year ago and The Daily just decided to pull this out of nowhere.

Next time, learn the actual definition of newsworthiness. Get over yourself.

The Daily may not have found students who were "angry" about the issue, but clearly, this is something that strikes a nerve with the rest of the community. Yeah, The Daily serves students, but it also seeks to inform the Evanston community, Northwestern alumni and Northwestern parents about what's going on in this school. It happened, and fine, no one in the class was particularly outraged by what happened, and it was optional.. whatever. The fact is, these people were paid by the University, and it happened at a classroom inside this school.

And you can't assume that because no one quoted in the article expressed anger at what happened that some people wouldn't. Clearly, the response indicates otherwise. It was not sensationalized. The reporter who wrote this story presented the facts as it happened, and I did not see a single sentence of opinion in that article. He reported on a story and it was received in a manner by the people who read it. Local and national media found the story interesting enough to report on.

Get over yourself.

Impact - considering that the Daily could not manage to get a single quote expressing outrage, I'd say it's wasn't very impactful on the students who witnessed the event.

Conflict - aside from the conflict manufactured by the Daily, there was none. Again, no angry students!

Proximity - yeah it was on campus. But I also ate lunch on campus one day, does that count as newsworthy?

Prominence - an optional event hosted by a professor that has been routinely covered over his 21 years at NU. He brought in basically unknown exhibitionists. Whoopie.

Novelty - I'll give you that one, Daily. But why the need to sensationalize something that itself is novel by framing it as controversial? At best this should be a snippet or a thumb in the Forum section.

Timeliness - Don't get me started. This is the worst crime of all. Report on something totally after the fact? Shameful.

So props to Nicole for pointing out the sensationalism here. This is not the first time (crying foul over vandalism, "investigating" Deru etc.). Let's hope Katherine Driessen can pull a Warren G. Harding and establish some return to normalcy at the best media outlet on campus.

Let's just hope these "moral" donors don't hear about the gender studies department. Might create a whole quarter of controversy.

"Do I have any regrets? It is mostly too early to say. I certainly have no regrets concerning Northwestern students, who have demonstrated that they are open-minded grown ups rather than fragile children. I have not enjoyed the press, because I have assumed that reporters will sensationalize what happened and will not provide my side. (A welcome exception to this, mostly, was the Daily Northwestern article.)"

There you have it, from the horse's mouth: Bailey thinks the Daily has, for the most part, not sensationalized this story.