Nestled within the pages of the April 12 issue of the Times Union, Marc Parry’s “Campus Notebook” covered the salary of Union College’s president, a recent public relations hire at Skidmore College, and The End of the ’Tute—an online video created by Rensselaer students. The spoof, available at http://endofthetute.com/, is a parody of another animation, Jason Windsor’s The End of the World, which presents a satirical view of the world ending in nuclear warfare. The RPI version imitates the original almost exactly, changing references where appropriate to be local to the Institute.
This is not at all what Parry presented, however. He portrays the video not as a humor piece imitating a popular online video but as a childish and profane commentary about President Shirley Ann Jackson and Rensselaer. To support this viewpoint, he notes several individual elements of the animation that may be damning in and of themselves—until they are taken in the context of a comedic work. While satire may often have a pointed message behind it, there is hardly anything revolutionary about the use of crude humor in this manner.
Parry was also careful to include a quote from the FAQ found on the End of the ’Tute website to demonstrate the students’ obvious disregard and lack of respect for RPI and Jackson. That same document, however, notes that the video is a parody and that it is full of jokes. We find this to be a highly one-sided and inflammatory take of the situation.
What is possibly most appalling, however, is the article being marked as a “News” piece. As of the time of this publication, Parry’s piece is grouped on the Times Union’s website with a set of “Local news story” entries. Common ethics among journalists require that stories attempting to present news do so in a fair and unbiased manner. Work that represents an opinion should be labeled as such; such is the purpose of an Ed/Op section. News pieces most certainly should not contain snide remarks about the Institute’s values in entrepreneurship, nor should they contain off-hand remarks about how a website might be taken down in the future.
While we typically feel that the Times Union is a respectable newspaper, stories like Parry’s are an embarrassment to the publication.
