Don Mariutto ate breakfast with his potential boss, student media director Marti Harvey. Then he met with the search committee – and got fried like bacon.
The first half of the hour-long meeting was all about the University Press. The conversation veered from uncomfortable to inexplicable. It began with Bob Bailyn, the only journalism professor on the committee, asking if Mariutto had read some of the blogs and press coverage about FAU's student media – which, during his phone interview two weeks ago, Mariutto admitted he had not.
"I wonder if you wanted to revisit your answers from the phone interview?" Bailyn asked.
"I was remotely aware of some controversy about the position when I applied," Mariutto said. "Not a lot, frankly. I really just didn't want to get into the muck with everything that's going on."
Since then, Mariutto said he's read everything he could find. And he had a question...
One of the questions I was asking Marti this morning is, "What's the chain of command here?" Karla, you're the editor, who do you report to?
UP editor Karla Bowsher replied, "Depending on the context, I'm the end of the chain of command. If you're talking about funding, we're under the umbrella of Student Government."
"Then Student Government is who you answer to, if that's where the money is coming from, right?" Mariutto asked.
"Well, the fact that they give the money doesn't mean we answer to them," Karla said. She tried to explain further, but Mariutto said, "I think it's very odd about the reporting structure here – it doesn't seem to go any higher than you. And you're a student editor."
Mariutto tried another angle...
One of the questions I asked Marti this morning was: "If something clearly libelous is posted on the [UP] website, who has the keys to go in there and take it down?"
When Karla insisted the buck stops with her, Mariutto replied, "One of the flaws I see in the structure is that there is not a universally recognized chain of command in terms of editorial."
Karla repeated, "The chain of command ends with the students who run the student newspaper. When you mention the word editorial, I can answer that very clearly."
Mariutto wondered aloud why Student Affairs Dean Corey King, who chairs the search committee, wasn't the boss.
"Do you think he should be in the editorial chain of command?" Karla asked, barely controlling her incredulity.
"There seems to be a lot of discussion about that," Mariutto replied.
Professor Bailyn interrupted, "What's your position on that?"
"Yeah, I'm curious about your solution, too," Karla muttered.
"You have to have a chain of command," Mariutto insisted. "Maybe you have a committee of journalists who are oversight."
When the TV station manager said FAU was exploring a Student Media Advisory Board, Mariutto interrupted...
That's something Marti mentioned, and that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking purely editorial here. Say you have the editors of The Palm Beach Post and SunSentinel and people from other publications in South Florida. You have them be a panel. It'll be an obligation – a legal obligation. I mean, you're not immune from lawsuits if you defame somebody.
Karla interjected, "So who should be dictating editorial if not the editor?"
"The editor's bosses." Mariutto replied. "That's the way it works at a professional newspaper. The editor reports to the publisher."
DANGEROUS DON?
"He's entitled to think what he wants, but it puts him at odds with prevailing law," says Adam Goldstein, an attorney with the Student Press Law Center outside Washington, D.C. "And it makes it tough to see him as someone who should be helping run a student media program."
Student newspapers at public universities don't run the same way as privately owned professional newspapers, Goldstein says...
A publisher pays for something out of his own pocket. In this case, that's not what the administration or the Student Government does. The students pay.
Because of that, "the student editors are their own bosses" when it comes to content – not administration or SG.
What about Mariutto's idea for a panel of outside journalists? Would that protect FAU from lawsuits?
"I've never heard of anyone attempting to set up a separate panel," Goldstein says. "I don't think that would do what he would want it to. It wouldn't absolve the school of liability. It's a bedrock legal principle that liability follows control."
Such a panel would simply shift the legal responsibility from the student newsroom to this new oversight panel.
"Here's the dangerous thing about this guy," Goldstein concludes. "What he's expressing is a hostility toward the civil rights of students. Why would you hire someone to work with students who doesn't understand civil rights for students?"
TOMORROW: One down, two to go.
