Local media coverage concerns TSU
Tray Miller
Staff Reporter
Issue date: 3/19/07 Section: Campus News
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TSU officials have expressed disappointment that proper university protocol wasn't followed by WSMV Nashville Channel 4 News during the station's recording of its Tuesday, Feb. 27, news segment about rumored male sororities on campus.
Linda Sparks, TSU's associate director of public relations, said an "unwritten ethical" journalistic rule was violated when the policy, which requires an outside media group to request permission to come onto school property, was ignored.
Sparks said WSMV reporter Darian Trotter and his crew entered campus and ignored the TSU police escort safety requirement, among other coverage inaccuracies, which could result in the university requesting a formal apology from the station.
Trotter used Internet photos of male students from Texas Southern University, also known as TSU, pretending to be members of an already established sorority.
"Not only did Trotter and his crew violate TSU and Public Relation's policies, but he also gave a misleading and low-fact story that is very unbecoming of the Nashville evening news," Sparks said. "It's very misleading to your viewers to depict photos that you know are going to make the TSU community look bad and it's even more misleading that he didn't know from where the photos came."
The news segment opened with Trotter standing just on the edge of campus at the corner of 32nd Avenue and John A. Merritt Blvd. holding up the photos of the Texas Southern men. The photos were used without of identifying campus affiliation, Sparks said, thus giving Nashville the impression that these men were from Tennessee State.
When contacted by The Meter, Trotter said he did not specify where the photos came from due to his news deadline.
"I was unable to clarify where the students in the photos attended school before newstime," Trotter said. "So, I made no specific reference on who was in the photos. The pictures were just used as general reference and nothing more."
Trotter added that he did not feel that it was unethical to use the photos without stating whom or where the images were obtained from due to the fact that he used no names.
Linda Sparks, TSU's associate director of public relations, said an "unwritten ethical" journalistic rule was violated when the policy, which requires an outside media group to request permission to come onto school property, was ignored.
Sparks said WSMV reporter Darian Trotter and his crew entered campus and ignored the TSU police escort safety requirement, among other coverage inaccuracies, which could result in the university requesting a formal apology from the station.
Trotter used Internet photos of male students from Texas Southern University, also known as TSU, pretending to be members of an already established sorority.
"Not only did Trotter and his crew violate TSU and Public Relation's policies, but he also gave a misleading and low-fact story that is very unbecoming of the Nashville evening news," Sparks said. "It's very misleading to your viewers to depict photos that you know are going to make the TSU community look bad and it's even more misleading that he didn't know from where the photos came."
The news segment opened with Trotter standing just on the edge of campus at the corner of 32nd Avenue and John A. Merritt Blvd. holding up the photos of the Texas Southern men. The photos were used without of identifying campus affiliation, Sparks said, thus giving Nashville the impression that these men were from Tennessee State.
When contacted by The Meter, Trotter said he did not specify where the photos came from due to his news deadline.
"I was unable to clarify where the students in the photos attended school before newstime," Trotter said. "So, I made no specific reference on who was in the photos. The pictures were just used as general reference and nothing more."
Trotter added that he did not feel that it was unethical to use the photos without stating whom or where the images were obtained from due to the fact that he used no names.
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