Some thoughts on our role as students

Today we posted Sports Editor Pat Ritter’s response to something that ran in his section this week, a column about Grinnell's football team. Some have expressed concerns about this post appearing above the updates about Paul, which is feedback I appreciate and want to address.

While thinking about how to address these concerns, I realized we've talked to you a lot as journalists but not very much as fellow students. As a student and a member of the Grinnell community, I understand the concerns about the blog format—it feels like everyday things like football aren’t quite as important when someone from our community is still missing. I know it seems insensitive to post other things "on top of" news about something so difficult for the community this newspaper serves. Posts appear in the order they are posted, with the most recent first. It is one of the limitations of a blog, and people much technologically smarter than I am are trying to change it.

That said, I do think it’s important to try to continue with our daily lives as much as possible. For the S&B that means covering other things that are happening and other things people are thinking. Some sense of normalcy is crucial during such a difficult time, and we’re still a newspaper that covers all sorts of news and opinions—debates about football included.

But that doesn't mean we've forgotten about Paul and moved on—we haven't, and we won't. For me, reporting about Paul’s disappearance is really tough because it’s something so emotional and close to home. I can’t just put on a reporter hat and shut out how scary and worrisome this is—it’s always scary and worrisome. And all I’ve thought about this week is that if I don’t know Paul and I’m this scared and worried, I can’t imagine how hard it must be for his family and friends.

David Montgomery, our News editor and Sarah Pierce, a staff writer, have done most of the reporting about Paul’s disappearance, but when they both had class on Wednesday, I went to one of the press conferences. It was unexpectedly jarring. Logically, I know that anyone’s disappearance is news, but sometimes logic is hard to hang onto. It was so bizarre to hear reporters talk about Paul and his disappearance like it was any other news story. The reporters weren’t heartless or mean—journalism is their job, and they were just doing their job to the best of their ability. But this isn’t their school or community and Paul isn’t their classmate or friend. I don’t know Paul, but I know people who do, and Paul is a part of this tiny, tight-knit community I call home nine months of the year. We’re missing “one of our own” and the uncertainty is really hard. Technically, I was at the press conference as part of the media, but I wasn’t, fundamentally—I’m a student, and I’m completely freaked out.

As journalists, we are charged with reporting the news. But as students, providing facts and updates is also our way of helping, our joining a search party. I think we try to put on reporter hats as much as possible so we can do that job as best we can. So if we on the S&B ever seem insensitive or dispassionate in covering this story, that's why.

We happen to be student journalists and Paul’s disappearance is news, but he is not news. Paul is a peer and friend and part of Grinnell, and that is always with us.