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Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 26. October 2 1978

Salient on "Impartiality"

Salient on "Impartiality"

In issue eight Scotney ran a kind of stock-taking editorial in which he outlined the editorial policy:

"Another criticism, again not from a very large group... was the lack of impartiality in the Editorials, with special reference to the Spanish number. We are glad to state that in the instance complained of, the charge is true.

"The question needs [unclear: clarification]. Impariality as I see it, and as others see it, may be very different things. Impartiality seems to be the 'summum bonum' of journalism, just as academic isolation from the struggles of the world was the hallmark of the good student. Both these points of view are the offspring of the idea of 'learning for the sake of learning'.

"How futile they are in the world today! Of what use is learning unless it be to make the world a better place for those that come after us? The word impartiality is similarly suspect.

"The idea lingers that it is the function of the true editor to produce for discussion, a painless substitute for the real issues of the day, colourless, odourless, guaranteed not to irritate the tenderest skin.

"The answer to that is unequivocal. You will find no such thing in these column... Salient is not, and does not wish to be, an impartial journal, or in othr other words, a political Micawber hoping that better times will somehow turn up."

This theme reoccured in editorials right through to 1950, and picked up again in the mid 1960s. It has remained so this year. The criticisms, sporadic in the main but becoming very heated whenever someone felt him/herself personally maligned, have not varied much. Nor has the answer. In 1939 the editor invited his chief critic to take over for two issues, and the latter learnt all about the reasons for Salient's provocative function the hard way.