The folks over at GW Blogspot opened up a big can of worms with this post, accusing the Hatchet of...well, I'm not sure. Being evil and in cahoots with Stephen Knapp, or something like that.

I think the complaint is that the Hatchet has become too close to the University to remain meaningfully "independent," instead capitalizing on its close relationship with the University administration in order to obtain "scoops" (like the news that Obama would be coming to GW with Eric Holder for the latter's swearing-in as Attorney General). GW Blogspot's Nick Fabiani:

The GW Hatchet is supposed to serve as a the information source for and voice of the students of GW, not a mouth piece of the university. But when that "independent" newspaper comes to have a close, intimate relationship with the institution they are supposed to be turning a critical eye on, they cannot possibly be doing a good job. I understand the desire to get good scoops, but I think the Hatchet is sacrificing too much for it.

[...]

The paper has become watered down and useless; so concerned with keeping its ties to the information lines in the university that it refuses to challenge the status quo.

A damning charge, for sure. The problem is that it just isn't true. I see no evidence that the Hatchet has "sold out" the student body in order to ingratiate itself with the administration. (I would be more sympathetic to Fabiani, obviously, if he had provided some proof that the Hatchet had done so.)

I'm all about the alternative student press. I think that the development of alternative media at GW--the Daily Colonial, the Patriot, GW Blogspot, Inside the S.A., etc.--is a wonderful thing, and I hope that alternatives to the Hatchet only grow stronger in the future.

We must, however, be honest here. (What is a journalist if he isn't honest? Joe the Plumber?) The people at the Hatchet do more (and harder) work than probably any other student journalists on campus. They get wonderful scoops--as many commenters over at GW Blogspot have pointed out--because they do the tedious, thankless reporter work that most of the rest of us avoid. I sat next to a Hatchet reporter at every SA Senate meeting. While I was gleefully taking pot-shots on our liveblog at senators' sartorial choices, that reporter had a Word document open. In it, she took notes on everything that happened. She has a liveblog now, too. Instead of writing her boring notes into the Word document, she just posts them online into a boring liveblog. She has a terrible, tough, thankless job.

But it's damned productive. It's real journalism. After witnessing that, I stopped calling myself a journalist. I call myself an "opinionist," now.

It's their hard work, and not some super-secret, smoke-filled-room relationship between the Hatchet and the administration that gets them the stories we'd all love to break. Don't be bitter, guys. Be realistic. More often than not, we shouldn't be attacking the Hatchet: we should be emulating it.