Back in January 2009, Innermost Parts was the first news outlet to report that the Board of Trustees had decided to close the Rose Art Museum. Last September, we were the first to announce that President Reinharz was going to resign. Both times, we were accused of irresponsibly publishing false rumors, but both times, we ended up being correct.
So when Emily posted on March 13th that the Spring Fest music committee had booked Passion Pit to headline Spring Fest 2010, I feel that our track record should have been good enough that we should have at least gotten the benefit of the doubt. However, we were again attacked in the comments, being called a “trash rumour site” and told we should “recheck our sources”. And when the Spring Fest line-up was revealed on April 19th, the headline act was — surprise! — Passion Pit. Imagine that.
I don’t know why our commentators thought it was appropriate to accuse us of rumor-mongering while they were doing that very thing, trying to spread confusion by claiming that it was actually Owl City who was coming. And I don’t know why they thought it was appropriate to lie in a public forum about how Student Events’ money — money that comes from all of us — was going to be spent. While I definitely appreciate the hard work that goes into planning events like Spring Fest, that doesn’t give anyone the right to be dishonest to students about student money.
My policy for handling confidential information is simple. If someone tells me something with the understanding that it remains confidential, I won’t say or publish a word about it. However, if someone with inside information shares important news with me because they want it to be publicized, I’ll write about it as long as 1) I’m confident that the source is trustworthy on the issue and 2) I think the information is interesting to the Innermost Parts community. I may have further reservations on a case-by-case basis, but for the most part, I think my responsibility as an activist blogger demands that I’m transparent as possible with what I know about campus events. I can only speak for myself, but I’m pretty sure that most Innermost Parts authors would agree with me.
By the way, Passion Pit alone cost us $40,000 dollars, and the newly-created Brandeis Sustainability Fund costs around $50,000 dollars. Why hasn’t there been a push against holding Spring Fest from the people who are complaining about spending so much money?