Making the tough call isn't easy

Posted on Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Written by Amit Shilton

The first time I met Dominic Kahn was three years ago.

I was the newly minted sports editor at the Eyeopener and as part of the initiation that comes with the position, I was trying out for Kahn’s Ryerson rowing team.

On the water with Kahn and his crew, I saw a coach who was driven to win but was also extremely popular with his team. It was really hard not to fall in love with Dom and his coaching philosophy. Over the next few years I became better friends with Dom. I even wrote a story two years ago praising his vision as the one sports and rec needs to adopt to turn their department around.

When we were approached by an angry rower this week, we had to do an ethical gut check when dealing with the issue. As an editor with a personal relationship with Dom, it made the story that much tougher to bring together. Maintaining impartiality is not always easy.

It’s a part of this job not a lot of people think about, but comes into play on a weekly basis, whether it’s trying to cover a Pitman student being harassed or the issue of sex workers near campus.

Our masthead meets many times over the course of the week to discuss the coverage and impartiality of a story. Our ethical practises are printed out in our constitution and it’s part of the mandate of the Eyeopener to teach the practice of ethical journalism to any student who volunteers with us.

We take this seriously, but sometimes we fuck up. We also have processes for our readers to call us on that and for us to correct it. Let us know how we did.