Recently, The News ran a series of articles regarding the Student Government Association and came to the conclusion in the staff editorial that it is simply out of touch with the students. While that may or may not be true, unfortunately I think this newspaper is guilty of those same accusations
Unfortunately, the general consensus among students like me has been that The News has lost accountability to the people when it moved its offices off-campus and became independent. This paper lacks the professionalism and accuracy that I had come to expect when it was an on-campus entity.
I have been contacted by the Huntington News for a quote, as have several students I know, and almost every time a reporter either did not state her name, or what organization she were from. A recent e-mail regarding Homecoming Court interviews from a reporter not only featured incorrect spelling and a lack of punctuation and capitalization, but did not mention she was a reporter for The News until having been first asked.
But what is to be expected from the staff when it consistently gets facts wrong as a newspaper? The News is published each week, the articles riddled with incorrect facts and misspellings which only act as a disservice to readers who want the truth on their campus. Just last week, The News referred in its pages to the ‘National Black Student Association.’ This is a careless error; I Googled ‘NBSA Northeastern’ and in 0.27 seconds found out the organization’s real name:’ the Northeastern Black Student Association.
The mistakes don’t end there ‘- and are much worse. In a recent article regarding Kappa Kappa Gamma joining the Panhellenic community, The News referred to Delta Gamma coming to campus in 2007 as the last sorority to join Northeastern’s community. Another simple Google search ‘- or meeting with the Fraternity and Sorority Life adviser ‘- will tell you that we have no Delta Gamma here on campus. Kappa Delta, however, colonized at Northeastern in 2008. If you want to find out more about the community, you could always contact Sarah Decker ‘- not Sarah Draper, as your article incorrectly informed students. For lack of space, I won’t even get into the multiple names that have been misspelled in your pages ‘- all without corrections issued.
Actions such as these leave myself and students like me outraged. We expect more from the newspaper. As a former intern and reporter at a daily newspaper with a circulation of 70,000 and former news editor of my high school newspaper, I expect more from the future reporters of newspapers across the country. I personally am worried because with journalism graduates of the class of 2009 among the most unemployed in the country, The News staff lacks a competitive advantage if they continue to allow shoddy reporting and interviewing. Worse yet, if they carry on these dangerous practices into the national media, they leave an uninformed public and much personal chagrin in your wake.
I am issuing a challenge to this paper, which I had for so long looked to for news about our campus and community. As you write scathing pieces about aspects of campus which you don’t feel serve Northeastern ‘- from the Student Government to so much more ‘- look within yourselves and your reporting ranks to increase your professionalism and accuracy. Better your organization so that readers no longer lovingly refer to your paper as a piece of fiction. After heralding this paper as a watchdog and voice of the student body, I’m simply afraid that it lacks a good watchdog and your messages don’t ring true.

‘- Theresa Langschultz is a senior political science and international affairs major.