Saturday, December 17, 2005

I'm Like Edward R. Murrow, But With More Tits

Some of you may have heard of this already: A mini-scandal has erupted at the University of Western Ontario, where a young woman's birthday present to her boyfriend (in this case, a strip-tease) was photographed and shared on the web.

Now, because I'm nothing if not a fan of attractive young women taking their clothes off, I had heard of this a few days ago. Then yesterday this issue became a lot more relevant, as I woke to a phone call from the national editor of Carleton University's school newspaper.

She explained to me that the paper really wanted this story, but two others had backed out of it. What I didn't say at that point was "Who the hell backs away from a story like this?" But I really should have. The editor made it seem like my predecessors had backed out because the subject because they were uncomfortable, but for all I know it could have been exams.

So anyway, my day yesterday went from being: "Gee, I think I won't do anything today." And instead became "Boy, I think I'll interview staff at a university about the sexual habits of their students. This should be fun."

I'll say this about Western's Administration: They're handling this matter exactly right. I spoke with the VP of housing, (who's also quoted in the above article) who said in no uncertain terms that student's rooms are private, and so long as no laws are broken the University has no intention of policing consensual activities.

So good for them.

But more importantly, how does this affect my possible journalistic career? After all, the path I start down at this point in my life might very well determine what events I cover for the rest of my life.

My God - What if I'm forced to report on coed strippers for the rest of my life?

Please God let it be so! That would be terrible!

1 comment:

Mike said...

Ah the Charlatan! I wrote for her for many years when I was in J-School at Carleton myself.

John, This kind of stuff used to happen all the time in Carleton Res back in the 80's and nobody cared.

Of course, we didn't have the web to enlighten us.

BTW, if you ever need you own 'Jimmy the photographer' for those coed stripper stories, just let me know...

;-)