Ethos: Minnesota Nice and Minnesota Ice
by The Editors on February 16, 2006 in Culture
Dear Minnesota,
Winter break was an adventure. I spent January in the country of Nong, on a journalism internship for the Nong News - the country’s first independent newspaper. My job was to teach the staff investigative journalism. Every day, I gave six-hour lectures on Power Point. They were truly lucky to have me on board.
Two weeks in, the editor told me about an investigative piece about the conditions at Nong’s federal prison, commonly referred to as “Nongotraz.” To show his staff good investigative reporting, he wanted me to pose as a prisoner and spend my last two weeks of the internship at Nongotraz, documenting the conditions. I decided to do it.
Nogotraz was awful. Each day, after thirteen hours of manual labor, I took meticulous notes of the squalor: rats everywhere, chunky paste served for dinner, and no bathing facilities to speak of. Looking back on it, I can’t believe I survived.
But after the editor negotiated my release, he cut the story for “political reasons.” I couldn’t believe it. I know that the Nong News is a fledgling newspaper and can’t afford too much trouble, but good journalism is about telling the truth. Should I demand that he run the story, or stay silent?
Sincerely,
Matt L.
Dear Matt,
Fledgling or not, it is the responsibility of newspapers to report the truth. But in this case, is it your responsibility - as a foreigner - to insure that they do? Yes. You were hired explicitly to teach the Nong about investigative journalism. Letting this slide is not only a betrayal of the Nong News reporters (not to mention those poor, unfortunate souls at Nongotraz), but it is also a shirking of your duty. You should confront your editor, or bring the story to the newspaper of a neighboring country.
Good luck,
Minnesota Nice
Dear Minnesota,
My name is Charles Nong, and I am the editor of the Nong News. Last month, we brought an intern over from the Kennedy School to help our staff learn about investigative journalism. We were hoping to learn a lot from this Harvard-educated man, but he just spewed senseless blather for six full hours every day, putting most of our reporters to sleep. I wanted to tell him to just shut up, but didn’t want to offend a man with such connections.
I had to get creative. I secured the use of an old, run-down barn on the property of friend who lives in the countryside. With some black paint, I wrote “Nongotraz” on the side of the barn, and then I hired six actors to play “prisoners” and “guards” at Nongotraz. The trick worked - the intern was surprisingly eager to write an investigative piece about “Nongotraz,” and he was out of our hair for the last two weeks of his internship.
Was my behavior wrong?
Yours,
Charles Nong
Dear Charles,
I am so sick of these Harvard brats thinking that they know it all. You did well to let him see what hardship is like. Someday, he’ll thank you for it. It’s only too bad you didn’t think of this idea earlier.
Yours,
Minnesota Ice
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