It was just after I left the Shell gas station off Interstate 84 in Hood River that it happened.
There were three reporters in my car when Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On” started playing through my car stereo. We were on our way home from Richland, Wash. — a six-hour drive — after attending the Society of Professional Journalists’ William O. Douglas chapter’s Mark of Excellence conference.
I couldn’t help but chuckle as I heard Robert Plant screeching. The first thing I said when I picked up all three of my passengers for the drive out to Richland was “alright, ramblers, let’s get rambling,” a line from one of my favorite movies.
Every time the chorus played, Plant’s insistence that he would “ramble on” had another meaning for me: keep up the good work.
Let me set the scene.
It was a little after lunch. We had just listened to a keynote by Tom Hallman, Jr. of The Oregonian in the commons of Washington State University, Tri-Cities campus. The tension at our table was palpable.
Mai Hoang, the SPJ chapter chair, stood at the podium and called out the names of three publications. Central Oregon Community College won third place. North Idaho College took second.
Reporters, editors and a lone photographer waited with bated breath as Hoang made the announcement: The Torch was chosen as the best two-year student newspaper in not just Oregon, but Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
That’s right, your student newspaper is going to nationals.
The news was icing on the cake.
We spent the day listening to professional journalists and madly scribbling and typing notes on everything we learned at the conference. Check out SPJ’s official Twitter feed and you’ll see it was dominated by updates from two very active Torch staffers. You can find it at @spjwod.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: We have an outstanding staff this year.
While it’s nice to be recognized for the work we do, what’s most important is that we’re learning something. Even though our best efforts netted us an award last weekend, we’ve still got a ways to go as journalists.
You can see it in the newsroom every time The Torch’s editors, reporters and photographers get together on deadline day.
We edit.
We rewrite.
We attempt to clarify the meaning of our articles to each other.
Even after we go through several drafts and revisions, mistakes come through. Take, for instance, the clarification on the back page of our paper this week.
Every sentence that appears in The Torch — whether in print or online — is scanned for accuracy and clarity. I personally read and edit every story in order to maintain consistency and quality.
But the sentence in a reporter’s story on the college’s second speaker on Islam that labeled the Pacifica Forum as anti-Semitic made it past me.
Regardless of the circumstances under which any given mistake is made — tight deadlines, sleep deprivation, heavy work loads — the fact remains: an error is an error.
As journalists, we refrain from injecting unfounded opinions into our stories. Ultimately, it’s up to me to ensure this happens and I didn’t catch my reporter’s mistake. For that, I apologize to our readers and to the folks who have been mislabeled.
But the error only emphasizes that, no matter how many successes The Torch has had this year, there’s always room to improve.
For now, we’ll ramble on. At the same time, we’ll remember to keep sight of what’s important: Providing the college’s staff, faculty and students with the best newspaper we possibly can.
And, I’m totally up to the challenge.
Editor Eder Campuzano can be reached at 541-463-5655 or torcheditor@lanecc.edu.
