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If only all it took were gemstones, denim, glitter glue and a lockable journal… I’d seriously only have to buy the glue.

I’m finishing up my applications for summer internships and jobs (all related to journalism), and I feel like it’s starting to take up all of my waking/dreaming hours. (I have dreams in which I’m miserably bombing a phone interview on a regular basis. It’s quasi-disturbing.) Maybe it will all be in vain, anyways, and I’ll just spend all my days babysitting and vanishing into the black hole that is my hometown of Harvard, Massachusetts. Either way, it’s amazing how much time and energy is expected on our behalf in order to obtain these coveted–and unpaid–internship positions.

I think it’s great that Praxis exists, because it makes this whole unpaid internship process a little less classist. But on the whole, I’d say the whole thing’s kind of abysmally presumptive of the fact that journalists, and ambitious college students in general, can come up with huge sums of money to throw at our internship experiences.

Really, if most high-profile journalism internships take place in major metropolitan areas, especially congregating around DC and NYC, cities notorious for their jacked up prices, how are they supposed to be able to accept applicants on an equal basis, regardless of class? Between the costs of traveling to in-person interviews and the actual burden of living far from home on no stipend, while expected to often work full-time jobs, assumes a pretty dramatic financial cushion.

This past summer, I worked for a media criticism journal in Manhattan and lived in Morningside Park (the area near Columbia, between Harlem and the Upper West Side). It took my savings, support from grandparents and extended family, as well as sacrifices on my parents’ behalf for me to even be able to scrape by for three months in the city. To provide a scale of the insanity, Clif Bars cost 3 bucks at the nearest convenience store. I seriously ate so much soup.

I digress. If I hadn’t had that experience, I wouldn’t be a viable candidate for any of the internships to which I’m applying…and following the long-term trajectory, I wouldn’t be a very appealing candidate for a job in the field.

I’ve also noticed that lots of paid fellowships and internships are being cut in this financial crisis, adding substantially to the difficulty in finding a position that provides in-depth experience and offers some semblance of financial feasibility.

Are any of you guys encountering similar issues? Do you completely disagree with me? What are your plans for the summer, anyway?

-Elizabeth, Features Editor

I know we’ve complained all year about not getting any letters to the editor. But we seem to have finally hit on the right subject.  Last week we received two in response to a headline we wrote on a news article by Liz Brasington, “Controversy surrounds Hamphire’s divestment from Israel.”  The letter proposed that we were incorrect and “propagandizing” by claiming the divestment was actually from Israel, though Hampshire claims it was not. The facts in the article seem to agree with this headline, however, Hampshire did not offer another valid reason to pull funding for those companies, and the advice they received from the survey seemed to indicate it was socially irresponsible to fund companies that in turn funded Israel. 

In any case, the Sophian stands by our article, I do not think, as one writer claimed, that the article was biased or slanted in any direction, but merely presented the facts of a controversial issue, as news stories are intended to do.

The letters we have received this week (online) have been shocking to me. One poster in particular seems to be following our coverage of Israeli-Palestinian conflict stories extremely closely.  She made online comments on every one of our articles that mentioned the conflict, and there were a lot of them this week. The http://www.smithsophian.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticleComments&ustory_id=94188397-853c-4ef3-8b9b-0f1ef9c4a79d#7b9c322a-7472-4205-88cc-d58dc9ded465 to me comes under Christina Nyquist’s news article: “Faculty panel on Middle East issues tackles complex issues.” The poster, who claims to be a Smith alum, (though does not cite her name or graduation year), takes several jabs at our newspaper. Here are some of the highlights from the poster, who calls herself K2K2:

“A LOT more intellectual curiosity and critical thinking is needed in The Smith Sophian’s coverage to enable any kind of dialog.”

“As an alumnae, I am ashamed at what I am reading in The Sophian about anything to do with Israel, especially in printing the “editorial” by Elizabeth Guthrie ‘09 in the Feb 12 issue where Ms. Guthrie trashed the excellent panel on the Israeli elections held on Feb. 5. ”

“The level of intimdation faced by anyone who supports Israel’s right to exist and defend her citizens is so intense in the Five College area that it is very, very sad that Smith College is now afraid to lead a positive dialog in the same way Smith led in fighting McCarthyism in the 1950’s.”

In response to this, I’m curious to know what the rest of The Sophian thinks, especially those of you who have written on this topic. I find it interesting that K2K2 says she is ashamed to read anything we write on the topic, yet her comment on Julia Reed’s editorial on the same subject this week is highly praising.

Secondly, claiming Liz Braisington’s news article as an “editorial” is simply wrong. There were no opinions expressed in the article, merely the facts that Brasington reported and wrote. And based on the comments to that article, it seems that the people interviewed even are backtracking, as this issue is highly controversial. K2K2’s comments on this article are also intriguing:
“The Smith Sophian needs to hold itself to higher journalistic standards than they currently employ when it comes to Israel. The Sophian should certainly not be allowing it’s pages to be used for progaganda by a Hampshire College student. For example, Alan Dershowitz’s original blog piece was also posted at the English language Jerusalem Post, where I read it, and was then the subject of an intense blogpost by Martin Peretz of The New Republic (required reading by the White House), where the URL to Hampshire’s open letter to Dershowitz was included in one of the comments. 

The Smith Sophian would have a more intellectually stimulating article if they had explored the reach and media echo of the SJP/Hampshire/Dershowitz controversy instead of giving Dina Jacir and the SJP a propaganda platform.”

In regards to all of this, I stand by the Sophian and our choice to be covering all of the controversy in our area and the events regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I believe is a worthy one.  It seems to me that wishing a newspaper would not interview a student involved, or not provide the viewpoints of pro-Palestinians, would be what would lower the ethical integrity of our newspaper.  And, despite her claims that we are not promoting healthy dialogue, it seems, that in fact our coverage is getting people to talk, evidenced by the many comments and letters we are receiving on these articles. 

I’d love to see what everyone else thinks on this topic as well. Feel free to comment or post.

-Maggie

Associate Editor

This week’s issue presented a variety of articles about two topics in particular: Smith’s budget problems and campuswide discussion about Middle East conflict. I think it is important that the Sophian cover Smith’s reaction to the financial crisis because it is an issue that is affecting everyone. I also wanted to commend Julia Reed for her article this week because it presented a view of on-campus discussion that is pertinent in many areas of Smith.

The Features section this week was memorable for its coverage of many interesting upcoming events, such as the popular bulb show, and for Meredith Hutchins’s always well-written and interesting food column, “The Bite.”

Megan Burbank’s column “Pop Rocks and Coke” was the highlight of the Arts section for me, but I also really enjoyed reading the previews of events on campus this weekend. (My calendar is filling up as a result.)

It was nice to finally see some letters to the editor this week in the Opinions section, as well as the Sports section branching out to cover club sports.

Sophian editors always welcome feedback, so please reply to this post and let us know what you think!

Anna

Here are links to two stories about newspapers going out of business. Not exactly the most cheerful topic, but important to be educated about. What does everyone think will happen to the newspaper industry? Will it go completely out of business, or will we always have our paper newspapers?

‘Rocky Mountain News’ Bids Readers Farewell: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101256305

San Francisco May Lose Its Main Paper: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101133208

(There are other links from these stories to more pieces about the newspaper industry.)

Anna, Editor-in-chief

Since Liz Brasington’s  article was written, the Hampshire Divestment has caused further controversy. Here is a link to an article The Boston Globe ran earlier this week.

-Ellen (News Editor)

I know The Bite is not a new column in our Features section, but I just want to point out this week how adequately Meredeth made me want to go to Local Burger.  Making a burger place appeal to people who follow any diet is quite a skill. I don’t eat meat so I was a little bummed that the new restaurant downtown was a burger place, and I expected there to be no refuge for any other food. I’ve heard they prepare a mean veggie burger and have a plethora of other options. The pickles were an excellent choice to highlight; some Smith students go crazy for pickles, and I’m among them.

Great job Meredith, and to all of the other contributors this week.

Melissa, Arts Editor

One of my favorite parts of working on the Sophian is the variety of articles that we always have, and this week was no different. In particular, the Features section had articles about JYA, Convocation, a Smith club, perspectives on nutrition, and a food column; the section presented a wide range of perspectives, all well-written and interesting.

It was also great to see so many new writers contributing to the Sophian this week, especially first-years. I hope to see many new writers in our upcoming issues.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge this week’s Staffers of the Week, Michelle Steiner and Amy Yee. They do wonderful work all of the time, but it goes unappreciated by many.

-Anna Newman, Editor-in-chief

A second journalism related event hosted by the CDO:

Considering a career in Journalism or International Affairs? Come hear alumna and Pulitzer Prize winner Trudy Rubin ’65 speak about her career path in as a foreign affairs correspondent and her work in journalism. February 23, 2009 12:00 – 1:00 PM Campus Center 205

Trudy Rubin is the foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a member of The Inquirer’s editorial board. Her column appears twice weekly in The Inquirer and runs regularly in many other newspapers around the United States. In 2001, Ms. Rubin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary for her columns on Israel and the Palestinians. In 2008 she was awarded the Edward Weintal award for International Reporting. She is the author of Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq. Ms. Rubin has special expertise on the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe and travels abroad frequently. In 2003-08 she made ten trips to Iraq and visited Pakistan, Iran, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, China and South Korea. In recent years she has visited, India, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Central Asia, Russia and Georgia. She teaches a seminar at the University of Pennsylvania entitled “Covering the Middle East.”Before coming to The Inquirer in December 1983, she was Middle East correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, covering Israel and the Arab world, and lived in Jerusalem and Beirut. Earlier, she was a national correspondent for The Monitor, covering election campaigns and national political and social issues. Prior to that she was a staff writer on American politics for The Economist of London. During the Prague Spring of 1968, she worked in Prague, Czechoslovakia as a radio correspondent. In 1993, Ms. Rubin was a Jefferson Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu. In 1990 she was invited as an exchange journalist to the Moscow News in Moscow. She spent 1975-6 as a fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University as a participant in the program for senior diplomats started by Henry Kissinger. In 1974-5, she was an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow in Cairo and Beirut. She holds a B.A. from Smith College and an Msc.(Econ) from The London School of Economics. In 2007 she was awarded the Smith Medal for outstanding Alumnae.

This just popped up in my inbox. Looks exciting–hope to see you there!

–Elizabeth

“Student, Writer, Editor”
Monday, 2/16, 4pm
Seelye 201

Jessica Brody ‘01, author of “The Fidelity Files,” Andrea Spooner ‘92, executive editor of the children’s division of Little Brown in New York, and Jennifer Gabrielle ‘06, journalist, will discuss their experiences and answer questions at a panel to which students of all majors and class years are welcome.

After the discussion, the panelists will be available to mingle with students and Jessica will sign books.

This event is being sponsored by the Department of English and is being partially funded by the Alumnae Association of Smith College.

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