Pulitzer Prize-winning author speaks at IMU

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning syndicated-columnist Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune addressed more than 200 campus community members Monday evening at the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union in a lecture entitled "Media Ethics is not an Oxymoron." \nPage was invited to speak in the role of a Howard Lecturer by the Scripps Howard Foundation and the School of Journalism as the finale of the Roy W. Howard National Reporting Competition day of celebrations.\nBefore rehearsing the list of Page's major accomplishments and awards, School of Journalism Dean Trevor Brown introduced Page by framing the issue of ethical journalism as an urgent topic of discussion.\n"We could not function as a democracy without journalism. Ethics is an issue on the minds of journalists," Brown said. "We face increasing tolerance for ethical softness." \nThroughout the lecture, Page seemed to focus his message towards current trends dominating modern media, such as the influence of the Internet on independent fact verification and the political polarization of certain media outlets like talk radio and cable television. His talk concentrated on the practical circumstances involved in honest subjective interpretation rather than a journalist's quest for unobtainable objective reality. \n"There is no such thing as journalist ethics. Ethics are ethics. We call it different things in our profession -- plagiarism and fiction," he said. "In the real world, it's called lying and stealing. If you make up stuff and present it to the public as fact, that's lying. Journalists should always adhere to the highest ideal of storytelling."\nPage referred to recent national journalism scandals as evidence of professional journalist reform. He called Jayson Blair's New York Times scandal a mad rampage and called on all journalists to be more pure than Caesar's wife.\n"Bad apples do make more news than good apples, so to speak. You must separate opinion from fact," he said. "You can tell in a journalist \nreport if he or she is biased if you perceive a bias. The journalist must appear fair. Objectivity is a marketing term from the turn-of-the-century."\nFormer Indiana Daily Student staffer and sophomore Sean Abbott said he thought Page's lecture was a great use of time since there were a lot of things he could have been doing on a Monday night.\n"After a year and a half at the J-school, I expect journalists to be thorough in their reporting. They must turn over every rock to figure out the fullest possible amount of information to share," Abbott said. "I would consider myself a conservative thinker, so one of the biggest ideas I'm taking from (Page's) talk is the amount of grey area in journalist ethics. I have always thought in terms of right and wrong, hero versus evil-doer. I guess I never applied grey areas to journalism before."\nPage concluded his lecture with a lengthy audience question and answer session. After a third of the attendees filed out, he addressed his love for newspapers and his purpose for remaining in journalism for more than twenty years.\n"There will always be a newspaper as long as there is paper. The only people keeping paper alive are people from my generation. We are married to it," he said. "I have accomplished what I wanted to do: be an eyewitness to history, see the world and do something to make a positive change."\n-- Contact staff writer David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.