Major controversy and hard knocks journalism lessons from Indiana University
What a mess we have going on at Indiana University involving the student newspaper, the Indiana Student Daily.
It’s a mess created by the leadership at Indiana University, and it’s drawing the attention and ire of those who have been a part of that proud and respected journalism program.
In case you’ve missed it, Jim Rodenbush, the director of student media and an adviser to the Indiana Daily Student, was fired this week. This decision came after disagreements between the paper and the university’s leadership about what information gets published in the special print editions of the newspaper. The university insisted that no news content would be in the print edition. Instead, breaking news would be on the IDS’s website.
The editors of the paper and Rodenbush, as you would expect, pushed back on the idea of being told what could or could not be published in the print product. The school says Rodenbush was fired for a lack of leadership, but Rodenbush told the IndyStar on Wednesday, “I was terminated because I was unwilling to censor student media. 100%. I have no reason to believe otherwise.”
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