Fall 2005 PDF - Milton Academy

Charlie Riggs, Abby Padien-Havens, Molly Cohen and Noah Lawrence, Milton Paper co-editors in 2004–2005.“Look at Clear Channel,” Siobhan says.“The owners have stakes in so many businesses.There are no independent entitiesany more. They ‘name’ something, andthat name is repeated in multiple media; itbecomes real. The Internet is the greatequalizer. So the trends are paradoxical: asingle owner controls a huge number ofmedia outlets, and the Internet representsan infinite number of alternative options.”“There seems to have to be a narrative, astory line for everything,” Dan says. “Forexample in our crisis, the Globe’s lineseemed to be ‘rich kids gone awry.’ Whyelse would they publish the tuition everytime they wrote a story?”Life lessons“There are 80 writers on the Paper staffand an editorial team of 16,” says Noah.“We put out 10–14 pages every week. Youlearn to delegate. We’re ultimately independent,so you experience depending onyourself. Being accountable felt good; Ilearned about identity, and guts—the gutsto state something and the guts to apologizewhen I made a mistake.”“Some people tutor eighth-grade math, Ihelp arrange ideas for the community conversation.I think of it as community servicefor Milton Academy. From generationto generation this role is passed down; thepeople before me were just seniors, butthey were giants to me.”“Last year and during the summer Ithought about the extent to which thePaper could be what it needed to be,” saysCharlie. “I studied papers: read news, followedstories, understood the norms andexpectations and styles of what a good editorialis. We set more rigorous standards,ultimately had to pick our battles: Weimproved a lot, and had to yield on somethings.”“Writing about the sexual incident atSchool last spring was like walkingthrough a meticulously rigged ethicalminefield,” Charlie continues. “We knewwe would be scrutinized, and quoted, andtaken out of context. We had to be veryprecise in choosing words and ideas. Itwas taxing.”“We worked on four or five drafts of theeditorial after the sexual incident,” saysMolly. “Charlie began; Noah followed;then Abby and Charlie and I went at itagain to deal with issues of gender andpower and sexuality. Finally, we all wentback over it again with Noah. Working onit together built confidence. We saw thesensationalism of the press around us,and asked ourselves, ‘Do we ever do thatwith our stories?’”“We had an issue of the Measure all readyto go, that week of the sexual crisis,” Dansays. “We were tempted to take a newangle and get an issue out quickly. But wemet about a few unresolved details andissues. We knew that what we wrote wouldbe picked up by the outside press andprobably quoted in the Globe. We decidedto wait, to rethink the audience and theapproach, and that’s how we came up withthe special edition, the comprehensivetreatment.”“Journalism is best learned on the job, inreal time, with real issues, in a real community.Writing news is a craft,” saysNoah.“This is such a tangible thing to have donewhile in high school,” Abby says. “Five orsix people, working three or four nights aweek for a whole year; deciding what storiesto run and when to run them, trainingother writers about news, trainingthem to be careful not to editorialize, gettingreactions from people, having aneffect on the community. I definitely wantto continue doing this.”Cathleen EverettA Journalistic TraditionThe November 16, 1894, issue of TheOrange and the Blue was printed byL.H. Lane of Boston; it sold for 10cents a copy. The paper’s advertisersincluded local plumbers and pharmacists.The inaugural edition’s editorialstated: “This is the first number ofthe first printed paper ever publishedat Milton Academy.” And so it was.27 Milton Magazine