Student journalists, their advisors, and legal advocates say colleagues and administrators are attempting to undermine student reporting on Jeffrey Epstein, Gaza, and other issues that public institutions would rather not have their reputations connected to.
Public records obtained by 404 Media show administrators taking meetings with parents and alumni when they take issue with student reporting and asking advisors to compromise their professional ethics. They also show escalating tensions between student newsroom staff and administrators, prompting more legal aid requests to advocacy groups.
This comes as student journalists at The Cornell Daily Sun earned recognition for
breaking the “Cornell Seven” story
regarding the
lawsuit filed in New York’s trial court
last month by a Jane Doe accusing current and former Cornell University students of drugging and sexual abuse. The student journalists told
The Cut
this week that a
vague university and campus police statement
from nearly two years ago prompted more questions than answers. Such is the basis for most accountability journalism on college campuses.
The cases we reviewed involved the phase of the reporting process that comes later, where a factual dispute the newsroom has defended or a complaint where the person doesn’t bother to explain what is allegedly wrong with the students’ reporting.
In Colorado, a high school social studies teacher emailed the student publication’s advisor at the time, accusing a
student’s opinion piece called “Why is Gaza Important?”
of being “published with factually inaccurate and racist information,” but then said in the same email, “I’m not going to start listing the inaccuracies along with the omissions.”
In California, a high school principal told a student journalism advisor to redact the name of an individual threatening to sue the district for defamation after student journalists published an
Instagram carousel
to their school’s newspaper account about the number o
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