Beneath The Daily Tar Heel title reads "Serving the students and the University Community since 1893." Yet, the way the DTH reported the death of UNC senior Daniel Walker made the paper seem distant from the students it supposedly serves.
Four articles were devoted to Walker, all of which focused on his drug-related death. Only 100 words out of all four articles reported on the kind of person he was and what he contributed to the University community.
I spoke with City Editor Kellie Dixon, and she insisted it was the paper's responsibility to warn other students about the dangers of drugs. I argue that perhaps if students saw how Walker was a real person -- a peer who went to class with them and worked on Franklin Street, who loved the outdoors and partied like any college student -- then students could identify with the story and stop and think about the chances they may be taking with their own lives.
If the DTH really serves its students, it could have reported on how the University never held a memorial for Walker on campus although many friends requested it. There were four memorials for New York but not one for UNC's own student. A lot of discussion about Walker's death took place on campus, but the DTH did not report its student's reactions. Everyone knows mainstream media makes painful situations worse for loved ones. The DTH, as Walker's school newspaper, could have stood out from other papers and reported the whole story. Instead, the DTH did what every other newspaper did: ignored Daniel Walker the person and painted him as the drug abuser he was not. I guess mimicking big-name newspapers and printing half true stories is how the DTH won the "Pulitzer of College Journalism." Congratulations.
Jesse Wharton
Junior
English and Women's Studies
