INSIDE
A letter to the SMU Task Force
PAGE 4
Preview of “21 and Over”
PAGE 5
SMU to play last game in Moody
PAGE 6
A look at 2013 Oscar fashion PAGE 2
WEDNESDAY
FEBRUARY 27, 2013
Wednesday High 61, Low 32 Thursday High 61, Low 30
VOLUME 98 ISSUE 63 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
representation
Senate’s Diversity Week initiatives face resistance Marissa Budzynski Contributing Writer mbudzynski@smu.edu
CHRISTOPHER SAUL/The Daily Campus
Matthew Winkler, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, signed copies of his book “The Bloomberg Way” at the O’Neil lecture Tuesday.
Bloomberg editor-in-chief talks technology in journalism kelsey charles Staff Writer kcharles@smu.edu On the topic of the business of journalism, Matthew Winkler is a man of many opinions and as co-founder and editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, he is an expertise in the subject. Winkler shared his thoughts on “Truth in the Age of Twitter” Tuesday night as a part of the William J. O’Neil lecture series on business journalism. “What drives our media is the obsession with data and being able to show, not tell,” Winkler said to a crowded room of around 70 SMU students and professors in Umphrey Lee. “The journalism has to be informed by the data—the most important part of this is the facts,” Winkler said. Social media and the idea of demonstrating information have
become more popular than ever in recent years, but to Winkler, this newfound “spontaneous expression” comes at a cost. “The value of journalism is diminished by technology that allows us to obtain information or misinformation by a keystroke,” Winkler said. Winkler cited incorrect Wikipedia profiles and misinformed tweets as examples of the negative affects of technology in journalism. “We are in the age where people can say whatever they want to and they do,” Winkler said. He further expanded on this idea by quoting Mark Twain: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes,” Winkler said. For Winkler, there are five “F’s” of journalism that he believes every journalist and media outlet should abide by: Be the first, final, fastest,
most factual and future word. “You want to be the first word and the fastest word, but you also want to be the final word,” Winkler said. “The more determined you are to be the first word, the more determined you will be to be the final or future word.” While breaking news is important, Winkler emphasized the idea of being correct. “Don’t be the first if you can’t be factual,” he said. “Without accurate information, decisions can’t be made. What good is a report if it isn’t true?” One of Winkler’s main points was the importance of corroborating reporting with data and facts. “If the facts are readily apparent, then you can trust the narrative that follows. You’re only as good as your data,” he pointed out, citing CNN and Fox News’ incorrect reports on the Obamacare
verdict last summer. “It’s so important to know the data, to follow the data. It’s not enough to be half informed,” Winkler said. “You do so at your peril.” Winkler further emphasized the importance of speed, accuracy, context and perspective in reporting. “[They] all have a place in 21st century journalism and are key in making a winning [media] model,” Winkler said. “You have to have something that will make people appreciate that this is news.” Winkler closed his lecture by reiterating the idea of delving beneath the surface of a report or claim and finding out what the evidence has to say. “Just because someone say it’s so, doesn’t mean it’s true,” Winkler said. “Good journalism is all about verifying and revealing what is and what isn’t.”
SMU Student Senate called into question the campus’ attitude towards diversity during their meeting Tuesday afternoon. Senator Kimberly Elmazi updated her fellow Senators on her efforts to publicize SMU’s Diversity Week. Elmazi said she had posted information about the event on several student organizations’ Facebook pages. A member of one unnamed Greek organization replied to the post on his or her chapter’s wall, asking, “is this an April Fool’s joke?” This comment offended Elmazi, who has been working to get the entire campus involved with Diversity Week. “Regardless of your affiliation, it is a positive thing that’s meant to build community,” Elmazi said.
continued with the launch of Student Senate’s 100 Letters campaign. This campaign seeks to gather 100 student-written letters of thanks and welcome for the Bush family, who will present at the library’s opening. An email with more information will be sent to students soon, but the deadline is already approaching. Letters need to be submitted before Spring Break so the selection committee can choose which ones will ultimately be presented to
“This is somewhere we can really change our university for the better.”
—Student Concerns Committee Chair Christos Patelis
Senator Ramon Trespalacios responded to the incident. “If we take this opportunity to change negative opinions to positive ones, that’s even more meaningful,” Trespalacios said. Student Senate will be hosting their first Lawn Talk on March 27 on Dallas Hall Lawn. The Lawn Talk is meant to serve as a proactive forum for discussion about campus issues, such as discrimination and sexual assault. Student Concerns Committee Chair Christos Patelis has already reached out to leaders of many student organizations so they can help develop framing questions for the event. “This is somewhere we can really change our university for the better,” Patelis said. Preparations for the opening of the George W. Bush library
the Bushes. For now, students can submit their letters to 100letters@smu.edu. Finally, Senator Emily McIntosh introduced a new piece of legislation, which seeks to help students who frequently fall prey to campus parking rules. Currently, Park N’ Pony will place boots on cars that have received more than six parking tickets during the year, without any prior warning. McIntosh hopes to change this rule by having Park N’ Pony give a warning to students who are close to receiving the boot or basing the boot system off a student’s number of outstanding tickets. Student Senate will continue discussion of this bill and come to a resolution during next week’s meeting at 3:30 p.m. in the HughesTrigg Forum.
lecture
M.K. Asante tells Tate audience ‘It’s in our hands’ Katelyn gough News Editor kgough@smu.edu M.K. Asante Jr. spoke Tuesday night as part of the Tate Lecture series on his journey discovering how art is able “to take you from where you were to a place you had not considered.” “To want more, to need more, to do better,” Asante said. “If I make an observation, I have an obligation.” He discussed the notion he lives by first stating that, as writers, “we observe a lot.” Once something is identified as missing, Asante asserted that the remedy for the hollow piece must be created. He gave an example in the story of he and fellow artists being inspired to make a documentary. “There was a void of something we wanted to see that didn’t exist— so we created it,” Asante said. Quoting Maya Angelou as one of his mentors, he said one
of the best pieces of advice she gave him was that there must be a consistent flow of both give and take. “When you get, give. When you learn, teach,” Asante said, in the words of Angelou. He spoke on his memoir, “Buck,” written in first-person, present-tense so that the reader can “experience those [epiphanies]” as Asante did during his teenage years. Asante cited Paul Robeson’s work as a source of inspiration and direction. “He had his art as a vehicle for showing a better world,” Asante said. According to Asante, his coming-of-age occurred at the start of the memoir, during the police raid on his family’s home in Philadelphia during his brother’s arrest. The subsequent turmoil that followed him for many years following. “[The police] assaulted my
innocence,” Asante said. “[Then,] I saw my neighborhood around me crumble.” Abandoned for a period of time by his father and watching his mother be institutionalized for depression and suicide attempts, Asante said it mirrored the significant “desolation happening in the city.” He continued to outline his journey, as told in his memoir, but gave special attribution to his uncle’s notion that there are “two wolves in everyone.” One is of anger, rage and hatred, and another of love, hope and creativity, according to Asante. “They’re fighting inside of you. Which one wins? The one you feed,” Asante said, sharing the words of his uncle. He also noted one of his most epiphytic self-discoveries at the start of his passion for writing was the fact that “we think in words.” “If you limit someone’s words,
you limit their thoughts,” Asante said. “I started to read a book a day and it started to ignite all these lights in my brain.” As a writer, Asante wove his story of growth and coming of age through both his history and the history of African-Americans. He stated one of his biggest influences to his art came from America’s history of slavery. “I get great, great inspiration from the quilt makers during slave days,” Asante said. He explained that the quilts embodied the same essential traits to finding success in one’s own being: resourcefulness, beauty, practicality and liberation. As the quilt makers collected fabric pieces to “combine them all to create one,” they would “embed symbols into quilts” that held “extremely potent messages of liberation.” “Freedom can’t be an elective,” Asante said. “The voice is there— sometimes, you have to chisel
CHRISTOPHER SAUL/The Daily Campus
Author, filmmaker and professor M.K. Asante Jr. spoke Tuesday night.
away at it.” At the close, a law student in the audience asked Asante, “What statement would you like to make in your quilt?”
Asante took his time before leaving his audience with his own mantra: “Eliminate distractions, create energy, fear nothing, attack everything.”