A sorry apology from The Daily
A student newspaper’s mandate is to be representative of its readership and to be inclusive to students of all backgrounds.
The McGill Daily hasn’t lived up to this directive.
The paper recently issued a letter of apology for its failure to respond to a tweet expressing an anti-Semitic sentiment made by an editor on their personal Twitter account.
The apology was prompted by a letter to the editor referring to the tweet. The letter also referred to the same editor’s recent feature, which compared the experience of Israeli Arabs to black South Africans under Apartheid.
As a student journalist, this editor can’t have been unaware of the politically-charged nature of their remarks on Twitter.
The division between work and home life doesn’t extend to Twitter or social media platforms. This is especially true for professionals who are a part of ostensibly-neutral media sources and involved in social dialogue.
Moreover, Twitter isn’t a special place where anti-Semitism, or any other prejudice is excusable.
While this editor has leave to express their own opinions publicly, they shouldn’t expect to be exempted from the repercussions of doing so.
Nor can the newspaper excuse itself from complicity as the editor is a member of their staff and therefore associated with their publication.
With new methods of technological communication and rampant social media, it’s not surprising that without proper guidance or clear boundaries this might happen.
The Daily is now in a tangle of their own making wherein they’ve ostracized a group they’re supposed to be representing and tarnished their ability to be considered unbiased in the future.
If they’ve gotten wrapped up in prejudicial identity politics then they need to work to correct this.
But inclusivity might take more than holding anti-oppression workshops.
It may actually require The McGill Daily editors offer more to its student readers in the future than an apology.
