The Friday Interview: Mark Laichena interviews the sole editor-in-chief candidate for the DTH, Andy Thomason

Mark Laichena: There’s a shirt that says “college is just an excuse to work for The Daily Tar Heel.” Does that apply to you?

Andy Thomason: Honestly, I always hated that slogan, because you read it, and you’re just like, “these kids are crazy, they’re just working long hours for a college newspaper” — but for me, you have to look behind it. It’s not just that you’re getting the story.

That’s what people don’t understand. You’re really doing a lot of learning, instead of just breaking stories and writing stuff that will get reactions.

ML: And when they don’t understand …

AT: I’ve had several instances when sources get beyond upset with the work we do. I ask why they’re upset, and in a lot of cases they say you didn’t misquote me, I just got the feeling you guys were out to get me. And I say, we’re a training newspaper, the reporters are not as polished they might be.

ML: OK, the DTH is a training paper. What does that excuse?

AT: It excuses a polite request from us that says we’re asking you to be a little more active in explaining things to our reporters.

But I think that’s about as far as it goes. It does not excuse fact errors, and it does not excuse misrepresentation, at all.

ML: The DTH has won a lot of Pacemakers (awarded to the top college paper in the nation), but none in the past few years. Why’s that?

AT: My perspective is that we’re not on the cutting edge anymore. But we excel in ways which aren’t recognized by these awards. For instance, I think our writing quality — how concise we are, how to-the-point and straight news we are — is above and beyond anyone else I’ve read, and I believe that our training quality is above and beyond as well.

I think the most admirable thing is that we welcome anyone and everyone to come onboard. You have people like Michigan State’s newspaper, they hire 10 to 20 reporters every year, we hire 200 — so the level of training we provide is also not recognized by the Pacemaker.

ML: Do you feel local competition?

AT: As University editor, I do feel the pressure of competition from reesenews sometimes — we do get rivaled on certain campus things, and basketball especially. I don’t see us on this big perch where we’re looking down; they’re very much the ones who are pushing us to do a lot better.

And it sucks sometimes getting beaten by the (Raleigh) News & Observer on campus stuff — for instance, the professor in Argentina — but there’s nothing we could do. He called them and not us, and there’s no way you can contact him when he’s in prison!

ML: During the Honor Court coverage last year, Chancellor Thorp called up Sarah Frier (former editor-in-chief) and asked her to call back reporters who were outside SASB. Should the DTH be deferential to UNC’s administration?

AT: I cannot tell you how that pissed me off — it pissed us off so much that me and Ryan (Barber, former University Editor) went down to the Honor Court meeting. Having the chancellor ask you not to report the news? It was a public meeting, it was a public building, and we had the right to be there. And we’re the only ones who are going to be there, you know, that’s our job. We wouldn’t have been doing our duty if we hadn’t done that.

ML: How do you respond to challenges that the DTH doesn’t cover all communities on this campus equally?

AT: I’ve heard a lot of criticism from some people at BSM that’s like, look at your own staff. It’s tough to fix that, and one of the steps I want to take is just to get out there, and show we’re a little more open than people give us credit for. You know, the DTH at one point had a diversity editor, but I think it needs to be something the editor-in-chief gets behind.

ML: Newspapers are dying across the nation. Why should students join the DTH?

AT: I think that writing and reporting will never go out of style, and that’s something we do a great job at. And we’re changing, we’re going online. I’m really going to encourage people who are just coming into UNC to give it a try, because the DTH does have a good reputation as a news source — being a part of that while you’re here is just part of a good college education.

Mark Laichena is a columnist for The Daily Tar Heel.