Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 20. August 27 1979

Editorial — How the pro's do it

Editorial

How the pro's do it

There is a trick that most editors use when they are stuck for an editorial; they read the crummiest, most extreme rag they can lay their hands on and then rip into the ideas presented in it. In New Zealand it is unquestionably the weekly Truth that tits all the requirements.

In actual fact I have been reading Truth more frequently than normal good taste permits because of their series of articles, ostensibly from the pen of reporter Tony Dominik, discussing VUWSA and Salient. Our study of these "reports" showed a lamentable lack of understanding on the part of the author of exactly how VUWSA worked and a very low standard of journalistic "professionalism". Thinking that perhaps Mr Dominik was making these errors simply through a lack of knowledge Caroline Massof, Paul McHugh and I went to see him, in an attempt to correct the legions of errors that had appeared in his articles. The interview itself was surprising, but the sequal was truly Amazing.

In last week's edition of Truth, Tony Dominik reported on our meetling with him in an article headed up "We're not reds, say student executive." In the article, which was close to illiterate (but perhaps that's just a good, choppy journalistic style), Dominik manages to credit me with making two statements. One of them was made by Caroline, the other by Dominik himself!

The interview was interesting enough in its own right though. For a start Dominik seemed to be under the impression that Executive and SRC somehow determined the content of Salient, that the views expressed in Salient's articles were the official policy of the Students' Association. He didn't explain where he got this quaint notion from. He then moved on to discuss editorial policy, saying that Salient clearly has an editorial policy of following the "Maoist" line, whereas Truth has an editorial policy of red-bashing. Well at least he wasn't attempting to claim that Truth was objective in its reporting.

In one of his earlier articles for Truth. Dominik has referred to a letter from the Association's lawyers. As he appeared to have misunderstood it, we asked if he had actually seen a copy of the letter. Surprise, surprise, he hadn't, but that hadn't stopped him from raving on for a paragraph or so about it. We also asked him where he had got the idea that the Executive was riddled with communists from. Again he was unable to answer.

The most surprising thing about the interview was certainly the lack of understanding that dominik showed about how the Association was operated. While it is unreasonable to expect everybody to know fully the ins and outs of VUWSA, it seems not unreasonable to expect that a professional journalist, before publishing a story, would at least make a cursory check to ensure that he had the facts more or less correct. However Dominik failed to contact any official of the Association to check on any of the points raised in his articles. No wonder he had difficulty with his facts.

Salient has, in the course of the year, been accused of misrepresenting certain events and the views of certain people, and on some occasions these accusations have no doubt been justified, however we have also always provided those who feel themselves wronged with an opportunity to put the record straight, generally in an article. With the "free press" such as Truth, however, people get no such opportunity. Our attempts to correct Mr Dominik resulted in an article which misrepresented our views and twisted others with such lines as "red-ranting Victoria University student newspaper Salient doesn't push a communist line—at least not according to its editor, Peter Beach." Mr Dominik's conception of the "free press' seems to be a freedom to say whatever you like, and if you get it wrong you'll fight it in court. Indeed the only time that Dominik appeared at all concerned at our comments was when the possibility that some of his earlier comments were defamatory was raised.

It has been alleged that Salient does not fulfil its function as a student newspaper. I find it hard to accept that Truth fills any function at all, save of course as a voice for anybody who feels like a quick bout of red-bashing. It is surely an inspiration to the ameteur student press.

Peter Beach.