TKC BREAKING AND EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!! UMKC JOURNALISM DRAMA!!! COLLEGE DEMOCRATS CALL OUT U-NEWS FOR ANONNY COLUMNS ATTACKING ACTIVISTS!!!

There's a spirited and interesting political debate raging at The University of Missouri - Kansas City right now which goes far beyond mere election cycle politics.

To wit . . .

AT UMKC, COLLEGE DEMOCRAT KANGAROOS ARE CALLING OUT THE U-NEWS FOR ANONYMOUS COLUMNS TARGETING POLITICAL ACTIVISTS!!!

The argument against these personal attacks is scathing and calls into question the "journalistic integrity" of the U-News.

Earlier this year a U-NEWS editorial on the 18th And Vine Jazz District also created a stir and evoked a strong reaction from a politically connected reader. However, this latest confrontation seems to be focused on the professionalism of the U-News and student life at the commuter college.

So . . .

TAKE A LOOK AT THE SCATHING MEMO FROM UMKC COLLEGE DEMOCRATS AIMED AT OUTING ANONYMOUS COLUMNISTS AND ENDING PERSONAL ATTACKS USING THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER!!!

Check the text:




October 15th, 2012

Over the past year there have been a growing number of articles published from UMKC’s own University News (U-News) that have made personal attacks on our own students. While one of these attacks was on a named subject, who instead of being attacked for her role in policy decisions as a Student Curator was attacked for her character and other things not relating to how she carried out the duties of her job, two articles that followed were written from anonymous pen names as “first-person narratives” seething with degrading sarcasm and personal attacks that vaguely reference incidents that may or may not have occurred in real life. While we at the College Democrats find these attacks to probably point to a few local, particular students, what we find more disturbing than who the attacks are on is what these attacks represent.

Our students deserve to go to a university where they know they can be politically active, socially active and active in public policy without fear of having their opinions made to seem silly or worth less than those of others by the very organization on campus that is supposed to provide the backbone of our First Amendment rights. In the passive-aggressive, spineless way the University News is choosing to make attacks on students or types of students (political activists) through anonymous pen names, they are proving that they are no news organization. In fact, they are proving that they are the opposite: a farce designed only for personal revenge on people who have only tried help make our campus better. There is no integrity in writing a column in a “newspaper” without attributing to the author, especially when there is no threat of violence or physical retaliation hanging over the head of the author. The fact that these unnamed “journalists” are too afraid to say who they are when the only consequence is that they might be forced to answer for making unjournalistic, unprofessional attacks on members of the student body shows that they have no principle or search for journalistic truth, only a personal score to settle.

As political activists ourselves, it is disconcerting to see those around us anonymously called out because they are not socially “liked” by the authors of a local, university newspaper. Our campus expects, and deserves, better.
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The document is signed by the officers of the UMKC College Democrats.

Read the original memo HERE.

DEVELOPING . . .