You know I'm a mere blogger, not a $1500 a month "reporter," but it doesn't seem too difficult to tell the difference between the two major universities in North Dakota. One is in Grand Forks, one is in Fargo. One has the nickname Fighting Sioux, while the other school's teams are known as the Bison. One has a DI hockey team, one doesn't. It's pretty easy for most people to understand.

But I guess such basic knowledge is too much to expect from Tom Elko at the Minnesota Monitor:

This latest incident comes the same week NDSU sorority Gamma Phi was put on "temporary social probation" for a party in November in which members and their guests donned red paint and mock Indian clothing.

NDSU has frequently been criticized for its "Fighting Sioux" nickname and its Native American logo. The school's administration has fought to retain the name and often cites support from the Native American community to soften accusations on insensitivity. Recent events may imperil that support and make defending the logo more difficult.

NDSU, UND they all look alike. Fifteen-hundred a month doesn't get you much these days, does it?

UPDATE: Call me cynical, but I had a hunch that despite their vaunted "journalist code of ethics," the folks at Minn Mon would correct the grievous factual errors in this story with nary an admission of error. And whadya know, so they have.

Fortunately, through the wonders of technology, I captured a screen shot of what the story looked like before it was cleaned up. Again, I'm not a "journalist" like the Minn Mon crew, but that sort of behavior doesn't strike me as being all that ethical.

UPDATE II Mitch has more on the slurring of the Bison. Personally, I find the Sioux more defamed by the confusion.

This is one of those media errors that actually knocks the legs out of the whole premise of the story once it is revealed. Elko's pitch was that this was just the latest example of racism at the University of North Dakota. The fact that this incident happened in a DIFFERENT school in the same state makes it far less relevant.

UPDATE III: Speaking of ethics, here's what the Poynter Institutes's guidelines for ethical journalism on the Web says about online corrections:

The obligation to correct mistakes and be transparent about the error is not diminished in the online environment.

UPDATE IV: Someone at Minn Mon finally pulled out their dusty ethics manual and issued the following correction:

In a prior version of this report NDSU was misidentified as the "Fighting Sioux" when they are in fact the "Bison." Subsequently, the Gamma Phi sorority was misidentified as part of NDSU, rather than UND. Minnesota Monitor regrets the error.

Actually, the sorority was misidentified first and then the UND nickname and logo. The correction is accurate as fars as it goes, but makes it seem as if the misidentification was simply a matter of screwing up a nickname when it fact it was about confusing and conflating events at the two schools that are not related or relevant. And it fails to address the fact that the underlying basis for the story itself--another incident of alleged racism at a school with a previous history of it--is no longer valid.

SP JUMPS IN WITH UPDATE V: The confusion between North Dakota and North Dakota State reminds me of this classic scene from Dumb and Dumber.

Lloyd: That's a lovely accent you have. New Jersey?

Lady at bus stop: Austria.

Lloyd: Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!

I suspect it mirrors almost exactly the conversation between the Minnesota Monitor reporter and editors on this story.

Labels: Media-Local (08-09)

Posted by Chad--Link