The Flyer News Agenda (But You Didn’t Hear it from Us)
Staff Ed
Every Friday, the FN staff meets in the bowels of St. Joes along with whomever else on campus wants to participate. We discuss and seek out issues and ideas we think will leave our audience informed, understanding or challenged. We do a lot of asking. We ask about sports players, the issues popping up on Facebook and The New York Times and Reddit, the beagle named Bagel porch-hopping across the student neighborhood. On Sept. 18, alum, sports journalist and special guest Steve Bulpett, on his 31st year covering the Celtics for the Boston Herald, did the asking.
He asked us about our agenda, then told us his agenda, while we avoided actually admitting to any agenda (news outlets aren’t supposed to have agendas). But he explained, “You do have an agenda: The students who read you.” Ultimately, FN is here to serve your pursuit of knowledge.
When he asked us what we need to improve upon, we realized we do have that agenda. We need more direct ties to connect the world at large to the UD bubble. When the world shares the same stories in different words again and again, we need more original reporting in the bubble. We need to “walk out [of the UD bubble] and occasionally poke it,” as Bulpett advised.
He also advised pointing the finger critically, not just for controversy. Whether a story is in the Opinions section or News, it must be grounded in solid reporting, on questioning “truths.”
That is our agenda, our mission: Every time we meet or sit down to create the paper, we aim to have a tacit question or challenge concluding every article that’s in your hands. We want to know what you know, and what you want to know. You may hate it. You may love it. But we recommend heeding Bulpett’s golden piece of advice: “If you’re gonna b—h about something, hit the target cleanly, or if you miss, the target will come back and eat you.”
If you want to submit an op-ed or write a column for Flyer News, email FlyerNewsEditor@gmail.com or Opinions Editor Steven Goodman at goodmans1@udayton.edu.