Editorial Policies
Mission Statement
“Give light and people will find their way.”
1. The Academy Times adopts the above statement (originally coined by Editor Carl C. Magee of the The New Mexico State Tribune and used by the Scripps–Howard News Service) as its motto. Therefore, in all tasks reporters will consider how their work might help better inform readers and serve the community.
2. The Academy Times intends to be a public forum for student expression and encourages all sides to voice their opinions.
3. Journalists will honor the Charles Wright community and the journalistic profession by placing truth, accuracy and objectivity first.
4. To best serve their readers, staff members will strive for work of the highest quality. They will explore new avenues of reporting and presentation, and will search for new approaches to articles. In seeking to do their best, journalists will not be afraid to take risks (consistent with our editorial policy and code of ethics) or to face controversy.
5. Freedom of the press is to be guarded as an inalienable right of people in a free society. It carries with it the freedom and the responsibility to discuss, question, and challenge actions and utterances of our government and our public and private institutions. Journalists uphold the right to express unpopular opinions or to agree with the majority.
6. The Academy Times is not subject to involuntary review prior to publication except by its own staff and adviser, and is therefore responsible for the publication’s contents.
Reporting Practices
1. Editorial and opinion articles will be clearly distinguished from news reports, which must be free from editorializing.
2. Reporters should check and substantiate facts—especially vital ones— with two independent sources.
3. Reporters will confirm all quotations with their sources during an interview. Vital or controversial quotations may again be rechecked later.
4. Reporters will not falsify information, invent quotes, quote out of context, or deceive people in their purpose as a reporter.
5. Poll takers will gather a scientifically fair, adequate, and accurate sampling and will print with their poll results how many persons were surveyed, the date of the survey, and any other appropriate information regarding the method of collecting poll data.
6. Reporters will strive to get all sides of an issue, no matter how difficult, even if the issue is controversial, even if they have to make extraordinary efforts to go off campus to fully cover a story.
7. Reporters will do whatever is necessary to get a story right, even if it means revising it multiple times, interviewing someone they don’t know, or making numerous phone calls and emails to get the facts.
Photos and Headlines
1. Headlines should be fully warranted by the contents of the articles they accompany. Photographs should give an accurate picture of an event and not highlight a minor incident out of context.
2. Candid, real-life, action photos are preferred over simulated or “set up” scenes. Setups may be used if there is a sound journalistic reason for them, but if they could be confused with a candid photograph, they must be clearly identified as simulations.
3. Photographs with news value will not be altered electronically or through traditional means so as to misrepresent the actual event, persons, or setting. Photographs that cannot be confused with real-life candid photos might be electronically altered for use as a photo illustration, but editors will under no circumstances mislead readers or infringe upon copyrighted material.
News Sources
1. Reporters will avoid quoting just their friends unless they are essential sources for a story.
2. Reporters will not quote newspaper or yearbook staff members unless they are essential sources for the story.
3. Reporters will strive to quote those who have never been quoted.
4. Quotations will be attributed to specific sources. Because the attribution of information with identifiable sources is vitally important to the reputation and credibility of the news magazine, information in the magazine should always have a named source, or the information shouldn’t be used. If a news source refuses to allow his/her name to be quoted, you should abide by that. But don’t give up on finding someone who will be quoted.
5. Exceptions to the above rule can only be made with the permission of both the editor in chief and the adviser, possibly in consultation with the staff. Also see #3 below.
6. Quotations deriving from anonymous surveys may be printed, without identification, at the discretion of the staff, but readers must be informed of the nature of the survey and the respondent.
7. Reporters will identify all sources used in their articles.
Editorials and Letters
1. Unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of at least two-thirds of the staff. Columns with bylines reflect the opinions of the writer.
2. The publication will attempt to publish all letters to the editor within the constraints of space limitations. The staff reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity, but without changing the letter’s original meaning and tone. A letter edited for more than AP style must be reviewed and approved by its author. Letters shall be printed without reply or rebuttal.
3. Letters to the editor and blog replies must be signed, and when published the writer’s name and identity will appear with the letter. An exception might be made and a name might be withheld from a letter to the editor if it can be established that in publishing the letter the interests of the students and of the truth will be served and that the letter will not libel anyone named or implied in the letter. It should also be considered whether the interests of the students and of the truth will be harmed if the letter is not published. And, finally, if some readers will be able to identify the writer of the letter from its content, it should be asked whether the paper ought to protect the writer from damaging his/her own reputation. In any case, the source of a letter to the editor must be known by at least two staff, such as the opinion editor and the editor in chief, and it must be confirmed by at least one of them.
In the Event of Errors
1. Writers must take responsibility for their actions and admit to errors if they occur in articles. They must strive to get the facts straight and correct all errors promptly.
2. It is the policy of the publication to correct false information in print as soon as possible. When necessary, the editor in chief will make public corrections or retractions.
3. Journalists should be accountable to the public for their reports and the public should be encouraged to voice its grievances against the publication. Feedback from our readers is encouraged.
Libel and Privacy
1. Libel is illegal and is not allowed. Every journalist should know the legal definition of libel and understand the four elements that establish it. They are publication, identification, injury, and fault. In order to better avoid libelous statements, journalists should understand the five basic defenses against a libel suit. They are truth, privilege, fair comment, consent, and right of reply. But even when journalists have not legally committed libel, care should be taken so that a story does not unintentionally damage someone’s reputation.
2. The law has determined that four kinds of invasion of privacy are illegal. Every journalist must know all four and must not practice them. They are wrongful intrusion, publishing private matters, placing a person in a false light, and appropriation.
3. However, beyond legal prohibitions, journalists should respect the individual rights of privacy of people involved in the news. There are inevitable conflicts between the right of privacy and the public good or the right to know about the conduct of persons in regard to public affairs. Each case should be judged in the light of newsworthiness, legitimate public interest, common sense, humanity, and the law.
The Reporting of Deaths in the School Community
1. The death of an individual profoundly touches the lives of others and deserves respectful reporting. The goal of these death policies is to provide consistent treatment in the reporting of any death in the community and to also allow for further news coverage when a death is newsworthy.
2. The publication will write an obituary to report the death of any member of the Charles Wright Academy community.
3. Obituaries will include the following information about the deceased person: name, age, grade, cause of death (if public); the date, time, and place of death; the date, time place of memorial services; the family survivors of the deceased person.
4. The obituary policy shall apply to: all current students (Beginning School through 12th grade), all current faculty (Beginning School through 12th grade), all present staff employees of CWA (any department), all present administrators, and all current board members. Because of practical limitations in gathering information and in the interests of consistency, the obituary policy does not apply to alumni or the parents or grandparents of current students.
5. In addition to a published obituary, the publication may choose to write news stories about the death and/or life of a deceased person if the editor determines that such a news story is particularly newsworthy. This person may or may not be included by the above obituary policy.
6. In the interests of consistency, the publication staff will not write opinion articles memorializing the death of a member of the community. It may, however, publish letters to the editor about deceased members of the community.
Reporting Other Changes in the Upper School Community
1. Other changes in status in the Upper School community will typically be reported in a news brief. Such changes in status may include persons who are: withdrawn, newly enrolled, retired, leaving, left, married, born to, moved, on sabbatical, on maternity leave, on medical leave, studying abroad, returning, returned.
2. Such changes will be reported for current students in grades 9-12, current faculty and coaches for grades 9-12, current administrators who affect grades 9-12, those staff employees who have regular contact with students in grades 9-12.
3. To ensure accurate and timely reporting of deaths and of changes of status in the school community, the editor will, if staffing allows, assign a reporter to cover “Transitions” as a regular beat. This beat reporter will seek information from the headmaster’s secretary, the three division heads, the admissions director, the athletic director, and the business manager.
Obscenity, Profanity, and ‘Bad Taste’
1. Obscene material is illegal and will be prohibited by The Academy Times. Something is obscene, as defined by the Supreme Court in Miller vs The State of California, 1973, when it satisfies all three of the following tests, set forth by the court. 1) Something a reasonable person, applying contemporary community standards, would find to appeal to prurient interest, when taken as a whole; 2) Work which depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and 3) Work, when taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
2. Profanity and bad taste are not illegal, yet it is unsound practice to engage in either. While preserving our right to publish information which is materially significant to a story, it is not the policy of the news magazine to pander to lewd interests in entertainment or to morbid curiosity in the details of vice or crime. There can be few hard-and-fast rules governing the use of stories and pictures that have the potential to be offensive to great numbers of readers. The legal standard, however, is not the only standard by which to measure a story or a picture. What is legal, is not necessarily what is ethical or what is in good taste. For example, it is legal in many states to identify rape victims, or to publish graphic pictures of victims of fatal accidents. But good taste and ethical considerations dictate against such practices and The Academy Times shall do neither.
Advertising and Copyright
1. The Federal Trade Commission has defined advertising as “any action, method, or device intended to draw attention of the public to merchandise, to services, to persons, and to organizations. Trading stamps, contests, freebies, premiums, and even product labels are included in this definition” (Pember 487). The source promoting an advertisement must be clearly identifiable; otherwise the advertising message risks being confused with editorial content.
2. The Academy Times does not publish advertising for tobacco, alcohol, or substances illegal to minors.
3. The Academy Times has the right to reject, edit, or cancel any advertisement at any time. If a business pays for advertising in advance of publication and the staff decides to cancel the advertising, money will be refunded for the remaining ads.
4. The Academy Times publishes paid political advertising for off-campus elections. For on-campus political advertisements it will make up to four column inches (maximum) available at no charge to candidates running for ASB (not class) offices, including President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, and SAC Head.
5. All letters, columns, stories, photos, and art become legal property of The Academy Times at the time they are submitted unless otherwise stipulated or negotiated by the author prior to submission. However, in most instances the publication will give authors permission to reprint their work elsewhere.
Conflicts of Interest
1. Journalists should accept nothing of value from news sources. Gifts, special treatment or privileges, or using the position at the publication for personal gain (outside of standard press pass privileges) compromises the integrity of the staff members and of the publication.
2. If a press pass does not admit a reviewer covering an assigned event, the publication’s budget will reimburse reviewers for the amount of their receipt or $9, whichever is smaller. Receipts must be submitted and the review must be publishable to qualify for reimbursement. Higher amounts may be possible through prearrangement with the editor and adviser.
3. Staff members have the right to conduct their private lives as they see fit. However, they should remember, that what they do in their personal lives may affect, or appear to affect, their journalistic work. The editor in chief has the right to protect the publication’s credibility by reassigning stories.
4. Business or advertising interests of the publication shall not be allowed to influence news content.
5. Journalists should not allow loyalties to school, friends, parents, or the community to conflict with reporting the facts honestly and fairly and in accordance with the publication’s editorial policies. However, if an outside activity, interest, or personal relationship could affect, or appear to affect, the handling of an assignment, the work may be reassigned.
6. Ideally, to avoid a conflict of interests, a reporter should not cover an event he or she is personally involved in, and the editor should whenever possible avoid assigning reporters to, in effect, “cover themselves.” Given the size of our school, however, keeping to this standard is almost impossible. Inevitably, a reporter will sometimes be assigned to cover an event, group, or activity in which the reporter has personal involvement. When this happens, reporters should be guided by policies # 3, 4, and 5 above.
7. The fact remains that not all ethical situations or conflicts of interest are clear cut. When conflicts, doubts, or concerns arise as to what is right, reporters should consciously think through the problem using the staff documents, “The Potter Box” and “Questions to Ask When the ‘Red Light’ Goes Off.” Individual reporters are encouraged to ask advice from other editors, the editor in chief, and the adviser when conflicts occur. In fact, such problems are often best resolved through the collective consideration of the staff. Any staff member or the adviser can instigate an Ethical Resolution Session.
