It's been almost two weeks since student media director Marti Harvey wrote the words above – and attached them to the end of a Palm Beach Post editorial that suggested, "To improve student media, the university needs to first improve its communication with students."
I don't think Marti's comment was what FAU had in mind.
Since then, Marti has skipped the UP's past two Friday staff meetings. And she won't comment to EIC Karla Bowsher unless an interview is set up through Media Relations.Karla did have a brief, terse email exchange with Terry Mena, the associate dean of Student Affairs and Marti's boss. It took four days for Mena to provide these answers...
Q. What exactly does Marti mean by "the National Enquirer method of journalism"?
A. I won’t speculate on someone else’s commentary and, more specifically, what they met [sic] by it.
Q. As the associate dean of students, do you agree that Koretzky teaches or that the UP practices "the National Enquirer method of journalism"?A. I am not going to speculate on what was meant by “the National Enquirer method of journalism”.
Q. Marti said "FAU has put up with it for 12 years," but she's only been around for half a year, so how would she know that "FAU has put up with it for 12 years"?
A. I won’t speculate on someone else’s commentary and what they meant by it. Please note, again, Marti’s previous comments are not representative of official University response.
Karla replied...
I simply asked you if you think Koretzky teaches or the UP practices the National Enquirer method of journalism [and] how Marti, who's been here six months, knows that FAU had been putting up with Koretzky for 12 years. You did not answer that.
A day later, Mena emailed back this single sentence: "I believe I have answered your questions."
If Marti shows up at today's staff meeting – and as the UPs "official interim adviser," she can't stay away forever – I know the students will ask her those same questions.
If she pulls a Mena, that'll be surreal: A student media director standing in the middle of a student newsroom, refusing to explain what she wrote about her student newspaper in a professional newspaper.
MONDAY: Enjoy Fourth of July "observed." On Tuesday, what happened today.
