Life is an empty shell

"You're a good journalist; you're just a bad person."
-Breanne

Today I attended the c-ticket hearings in Evanston Civic Center, where various NU students had to pay fines for underage drinking, using fake IDs or other offences. It was for a story that will run in The Daily tomorrow. I used the students' names in my article. This officially means I am a hypocrite. This weekend I likewise engaged in underage drinking but since I was not at a loud party, I was not caught by the police. For the students who were cited, it was simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And then, to add insult to financial injury, they had their hearing the day I was there to observe it. None of them did anything I wouldn't do (except using a fake ID to purchase alcohol); I feel so sorry for them that they now have to go through the humiliation of having their names printed. What is the point of my story anyway? Yes, it's interesting and a little funny, but only at the expense of other people. I will get nasty e-mails and feel horrible about myself. But I've written the story and it must go forward. It will be too much trouble taking it out.

I felt so great writing it because it was so interesting and exciting, but now I feel like crap. As journalists, we have access to so much information and we must use our own discretion to decide what is newsworthy.

So the police gave me copies of the citations. Does that necessarily mean I need to follow up on them and attend the hearings? When is it newsworthy and when is it just gossip? I suppose when I apply for a reporting job at The National Enquirer, I can use this story as a clip.

I have really pushed the envelope with this blog. I've had to remove the link to this site from my facebook entry for fear the students quoted in the article will go here and discover me for the idiot that I am. I am such a weakling.