Editorial Neutrality

By The Tower Staff

The Tower’s editorial has been at the forefront of speaking up for ordinary Cardinals as an independent voice in student journalism since its very beginning in the fall of 1922. Unlike traditional mainstream print news outlets, in which the collective opinions of editorial board members endorse an individual candidate running for office or in some jurisdictions a ballot initiative, student journalists like ourselves and all over the world must remain as objective as humanly possible. We should maintain neutrality regardless of who we are, what we personally believe in, where we have been, where we are now, where we come from, or where we are going next. With recent developments like Sinclair Broadcasting’s questionable tactics while claiming true, unbiased news to serve the political right, and MSNBC having more devoted primetime hours for subjective pundits to inform the political left, editorial objectivity and neutrality that has no partisan or ideological affiliation is necessary for a well-informed citizenry to make its own decisions on a variety of issues impacting today’s present and tomorrow’s future. We as a not for profit publication must inform and offer basic factual information for all students, faculty, and staff as well as those inside and outside our community. While we do voice our own collective subjective concerns about issues or events on campus, we chose this year not to officially endorse any candidate, student or non-student, during elections because we serve our own community, not the interests of a few groups or individuals seeking some sort of power on campus. Instead, as the reader will see on the Quill page, op-eds from each candidate involved in the upcoming election were taken as a way to hear each pitch in one place. They are slanted and opinionated, as op-eds are, yes, but the collection allows each student reader to go ahead and learn more about the candidates and their platforms.

In the age of bots, fake news, alternative facts, ideological bubbles, and hyper-partisan echo-chambers, the developed world is becoming more polarized than ever before in the current century. If a student newspaper nestled in a rising neighborhood in Washington, D.C. can be an example for truth, facts, and reality, maybe the rest of media worldwide can to do the same. Now that’s a little over the top. We’re just trying to be neutral and give the students the facts to think about. Famed 20th century British author George Orwell once said, “‘If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” Let’s keep the truth alive and well.