The Prince’s Me-Too Tragejournalism
Feeling excluded from Monday's tragedy in Blacksburg, Ivy kids? Lost, adrift, don't know what to think, how to feel ... because this story doesn't somehow involve you? Well, you can breathe a big entitled sigh of relief, because the Daily Princetonian is here to tell you that Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui's sister has a connection to the school.
Well, sort of. The woman was a member of the class of '04. Somehow that makes for lead-story news at the Prince, which believes that readers need to know that "Cho wrote her senior thesis on 'ethnic enclave[s] and wage earning' among Korean immigrants in California." Tragically, the article notes, the killer's sister's former thesis advisor could not be reached for comment; what a blow to students searching for meaning. Reporter Michael Juel-Larsen did reach Cho herself on her cell phone (an earlier version of the story described her as "palpably upset"; that's some phone), but alas she declined comment. History shall never know what window her time on Prospect Street might have provided into a massacre.
Prince EIC Kavita Saini '08 emails: "The shooting at Virginia Tech was the worst in U.S. history and everyone's trying to understand as much about the gunman and his background as possible. The fact that his sister went to Princeton was one aspect of our coverage of the shooting, and considering the amount of national interest in his family, we felt that it was the role of the school's student newspaper to report what we knew about her."
Hmm ... quasi-reasonable. Maybe we're being too harsh. What's a lowly student paper to do, anyway? Send a team of reporters to Blacksburg, Va., to do real reporting?
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April 18th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
students don’t read college newspapers to hear about what’s going on in the world. other news outlets pretty much have that covered. students read their college newspapers to hear about what’s going on at their own colleges. so why slam the prince for fulfilling that role? if anything, the daily penn. should be criticized for unnecessarily contributing to the media circus down in Blacksburg that has to be getting on people’s nerves by now. what do the family and friends of the victims need more: another member of the media calling them up or knocking on their door, asking for comment, or privacy? sorry, but you guys got this one wrong. that is unless the daily penn.’s reporting is really extraordinary, but as it’s coming from “a lowly student paper”, i doubt it.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
They could have just guessed that she would be upset, what, with her brother having killed 32 people and himself. I understand that journalists have a responsibility to report the news, but there are things that just seem rude. I feel for all the people affected, including the psycho’s family. They were probably praying their kid was okay, just to find out he was responsible.
We should all agree not to discuss gun control for a week. The terrible arguments thus far by equally unintelligent people on both sides just reminds us all that nothing was accomplished the last time around.
April 18th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
As someone who grew up in NoVa and who actually knows students who currently go to Tech, I have to say the level of “OMG We’re all Hokies Now! This tragedy totally personally affects me!!!” is pissing me off nearly as much as the people from the middle of nowhere Wyoming (population: 2 people and a cow) who were *convinced* terrorists were going to target them right after 9/11.
I don’t live in Va anymore - I contacted my friends, made sure they were OK, but I’m not going to pretend that this affects my daily life any more than that. I’ll go read about the hundreds of Iraqis killed by suicide bombers today instead.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:35 am
Seems they’ve touched a nerve ptonguy? College papers aren’t just about college issues. The DP is the most widely read daily paper on campus at Penn and is recognised as one of the top college publications in the US. Every day it discusses national and international news issues, providing insight and comment from the point of view of Penn students.
The fact that the killer’s sister once went to Princeton is not news. Nor is her thesis.
April 19th, 2007 at 1:31 am
i agree with ptonguy. i’m sure the DP has very capable reporters, but i don’t see what i can read about the shooting in the DP that i can’t read in the new york times.
and the “we’re all hokies now” sentiment isn’t about trying to co-opt someone else’s tragedy. it’s about an expression of solidarity with fellow college students. but maybe that kind of sentiment is too sincere for ivygate’s snarky, sarcastic readership.
April 19th, 2007 at 1:40 am
Go Penn clearly doesn’t read the DP very often/closely.
April 19th, 2007 at 2:06 am
Penn ‘08 clearly has never read almost any other college paper before.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:08 am
As readers of IvyGate, we should all know the only reason anyone reads the school paper is for its unintentional humor. Keep reaching for the stars, college-newspaper-reporters everywhere, and keep failing miserably. I’d like to add a personal thanks to the YDN for brightening my own four hellish years of dining hall breakfast. Your convoluted sentences, shrill reactionary opinion pieces and creatively liberal use of the word ‘postmodern’ made waking up at 8 am feel like only 8:30
April 19th, 2007 at 8:29 am
I completely agree with VA Native. The amount of people whose facebook pictures now read “We’re all Hokies now” is ridiculous. No, you are not a Hokie. You are somebody trying to be part of the story. You’re not and, what’s more, you should be thankful for that. If you want to say a prayer for Virginia Tech, by all means. But don’t try to act like we’re all in this together, because we’re not and it’s insulting.
April 19th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Leave the poor people involved in this tragedy alone already, especially the perpetrator’s family. Offer the victims and their families and friends your support, your compassion and your sympathy but don’t try to cheapen their pain but trying to include yourself gratuitously in their grieve unless you are asked to contribute to the healing process.
April 19th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Seriously, the opening of this article is pretty callous and inconsiderate. There’s a time to be snarky and there a time to not.
April 19th, 2007 at 11:56 am
I must say, IvyGate, that you have really blown it. You really have out-snarked yourself. Why not note that half the Ivy dailies had no coverage of anything related to Virginia Tech in their Wednesday papers. Not even tackling the issue of campus reaction seems like a failure more worthy of a blog post than the Prince’s well intentioned effort. Maybe the story in Wednesday’s Prince wasn’t perfect, but it’s the best coverage of issues related to the shootings that any Ivy paper has done. (Don’t worry, I read them all, so this isn’t hyperbole. It was nice of the DP to send kids down there, but their reporting didn’t turn up anything extraordinary and, in fact, seemed overzealous)
April 19th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I cannot believe they contacted his sister on her cell. That is horrifying.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Do you really think all those students saying they’re Hokies are all so vain as to just want to be a part of the story? Have the ivy’s really become so cynical and removed from the rest of the population that we can’t be compassionate? This could have happened at any of our schools, are we really that different from VTech? I may not be a VA native but I do know people there and know they are extremely grateful for our support. If this tragedy were to happen at Cornell I can only hope that the rest of the nation would stand behind us; although after seeing some of our reactions I would not be surprised if they did not. God bless the victims and their families.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
There is a difference between giving support and sympathy and trying to make a tragedy all about you. If this happened at Cornell, I would certainly be upset and try to give support, but I wouldn’t want to hear about how the shooter’s second cousin wrote his thesis on pingpong at George Mason.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Then maybe I misunderstood the argument , I thought it was aimed at the many people displaying the “Today, we are all Hokies” If its about media coverage then I completely agree. I’ve been throughly disappointed by both the school’s coverage as well as that of the national media. Its turned into a ratings frenzy that’s just ended up glorifying the killer.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
The Daily Penn doesn’t want to just be a college supplement to the NYT. A lot of students JUST read the DP.
To send two reporters down there to get a first hand account should be commended. Penn students want to know more about the people involved in this tragedy, from the account of other students if need be. The last thing they want is “How this tragic event affected this one Penn student.” To be fair the the Princetonian, though, I’d definitely report that relation as news, but not as a top front page article, and certainly by going into what thesis this girl wrote.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
The DP is a propaganda rag for Penn’s football team. When football season’s over, they don’t know what to do with themselves, and come up with ideas like journalism road trips.
April 19th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
“The DP is a propaganda rag for Penn’s football team.”
Wow. I almost feel sorry for them. It can’t be easy to write propaganda for Penn’s football team.
April 19th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
As compared to Columbia’s?
April 19th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
It’s sad to see how many people are dealing problems with violence.
Some religions encourage people to take revenge on others; some regimes use violence to control their people. While some media teach kids how to be violent; some adults show to kids how to solve problems with violence without noticing what influence they might give.
It happens not only between people and people, but also between nations. As one of the leading country in the world, the U.S. government should not show their leadership in a violent way. Bush’s “War on Terror” is one of the great examples.
It is clear that the military solution is continuing to worsen the situation in Iraq, so now is time to reinforce a humanitarian aid to bring peace to the world.
Instead spending $522 billion on U.S. military budget and wasting our precious lives by sending more troops, we can use the money to save so many lives by providing food, water access and sanitation. According to The Borgen Project, it only costs $19 billion to eliminate global hunger.
I hope our next political leader will make a commitment to the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals to stop the global poverty and make the world a better place.
April 19th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Do you feel smart and sophisticated for bringing world affairs and statistics into this? For one f*cking day can the world lay off the politics and Bush bashing and just come together and mourn? Bush may have politicized 9/11 but now you’re just as bad doing it with VTech. Maybe if we all stopped being so partisan the world would be a better place.
To he who gives us strength,
We pray right now for the families and friends affected in this horrendous massacre. Please give them strength and comfort. Give them the reassurance that you will never leave them. Stay with them and help them to be strong. Bring a sense of unity to the community and help us all to realize how valuable our lives are. AMEN.
April 19th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Penn ‘05: “The DP is a propaganda rag for Penn’s football team.”
I see that you graduated in 2005. Well then, maybe the fact that you regard it as “propaganda rag” may have something to do with the fact that the football team LOST THREE GAMES IN YOUR FOUR YEARS. What the hell were you expecting? There was nothing bad to say! Since you’ve left, the coverage has been much more even between positive and negative coverage. Maybe that’s because the team has been pretty much mediocre since then. The pattern that I’ve generally noticed is that the coverage is much more positive when the team wins, and more negative when they lose. I know it’s a difficult concept, but you have a Penn degree. You can figure it out!
Besides, if anything, the DP is far more obsessed these days with basketball than football.
April 20th, 2007 at 9:01 am
VA Native: I know you’re exaggerating with the second cousin bit, but do you recognize that this is Cho’s sister we’re talking about? Likely the only person on this planet who actually knew him? If talking to her ain’t news, I don’t know what is.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:59 am
*talking* to her might be news- her senior thesis not-so-much.
April 21st, 2007 at 1:25 am
also, vain as we are, we can’t help thinking what would happen if cho had followed his sister — as many siblings do — to princeton. yea, so we made it about us. other people would as well.
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Saw this story while catching up on IvyGate—when the Daily Prince printed that issue, I promise, practically every conversation that I had around campus that day was horrified at them. The Prince has always suffered from a pathological need to give every news story around the world a Princeton angle, which is normally just annoying—in this case, it was awful.
Four featured articles that day, including the one about his sister having gone here, which eventually devolved into a fun chat about journalism with a reporter who was camped outside the family home. Within the next two days, they had published a report about Cho’s conversation with a religious group leader on campus.
The whole thing was disgusting. I hadn’t noticed that they removed the phrase “palpably upset” from their online article, but that only buys them so much/little credit.