Both sides of the war

Reporting on foreign wars is a subject few of us have experienced at the IDS. However, we have attempted to provide an accurate representation of the various experiences and reactions of IU students witnessing the ongoing conflict in Israel and Lebanon firsthand. \nLast week, our first story chronicled what students staying in Israel over the summer are going through, as Hezbollah-fired missiles threaten the northern third of the country. Today we ran a similar story, this time featuring three students held up in Lebanon as Israel continues to make bombing runs on nearby towns.\nWhile working on these articles, we acknowledged we were moving into a conflict that is as controversial as it is complex. In each story we cover at the Indiana Daily Student, we do our best to approach it with an open mind and imbue it with balanced viewpoints. Such outlook is never as important as when the story at hand is a subject so emotionally contested as the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.\nThe main difficulty we have faced was publishing frequency. Our goal was to publish the stories back-to-back; unfortunately, we weren't able to contact sources as quickly as we needed to, and the first Israel story existed for a week before its parallel Lebanon entry was finished. Ideally, we would have liked to run both articles side by side in the same issue. However, news does not always allow such optimal conditions, as finding IU students in Lebanon turned out to be a more difficult task than finding students who are in Israel over the summer. \nOne reader noticed the discrepancy and voiced his opinion in the Jordan River Forum. We hope today's front page story eases his concerns and the concerns of anyone questioning the balance of our localized coverage. \nCombined, we feel the two articles do an appropriate job of enabling local students -- who are fighting through devastating circumstances -- a voice, an outlet with which to express their deepest emotional struggle.\nBetween the students in each country, opinions and emotions varied widely. Through that, one consistent similarity shone through: Almost all agreed they felt the media was not giving the conflict the most accurate coverage possible. We hope -- even in the smallest way -- these articles will help to correct that, casting a little light on a very dark set of events.