Daily Stun Reports Shocking News Story!! (see correction below)

Correction: Daily Sun reports bogus instead.

I typically don’t advocate this type of behavior – but pick up a Daily Stunner today. First, read Corey Brezak’s near-perfect article on the C-town social scene.  Then, more importantly, turn to page eight, bottom right corner, where the editors of your school’s trusted news source casually mention a blooper from last week.

That blooper (pointed out in a letter to the editor by Tommy Bruce, vice president for Univ. communications): the info surrounding the giant $400K bonus received by Cornell’s ex-CIO James Walsh in ‘2009’ – the bonus that ignited a fume of anger toward the administration two weeks ago – was well, false.  The outrage was sparked by the August 31st article titled ‘As Endowment Plummeted, Chief Investment Officer Received $400K Bonus,’ and was quickly followed by a scolding in the Sun’s editorial the next day, dramatically titled ‘Wall Street on Tower Road.’ Editors at the Stun, eager to shed their shining ethical light of moral awareness on us all, trounced the administration for bestowing such lavish gifts upon its higher-ups.  It was “disheartening,” they said, that “even if there were circumstances out of his control, a nearly 100 percent bonus in a year when the endowment fell by one-quarter is unwarranted.”

Only problem is, that bonus was received by Walsh in 2008 for his performance in 2007, which was “a record-breaking year for Cornell’s endowment performance — and not during 2008, the year the market crashed,” as stated by Bruce in his letter.  In fact, the endowment’s value was up 19.9 percent in 2007, the year for which Walsh received the controversial bonus, according to PR Director Claudia Wheatley in an email to The Review.

“Mah b,” said the editors today in their brief ‘corrections’ write-up in the middle of the newspaper.  “2009 is totally the new 2008,” they may as well have added.

A $400K bonus is certainly a substantial, perhaps excessive, one for a University CIO; also substantial is a front-page claim that the University’s Chief Investment Officer received said bonus at such a controversial time.  During an economic recession when disgruntled citizens are eager to throw the first stones at financial ‘fatcats,’ an editorial from the University’s self-proclaimed leading newspaper, tossing the CIO – who was praised by Skorton – into the same fire as ‘greedy Wall Street bankers’ is sure to incite animosity among the populous populace.

But as demonstrated by today’s Sun, such a massive factual blunder does not even warrant a story re-write.  For claiming to be the bastions of informative journalism on campus, the editors lack the fore-and-hind-sight to fact check, edit, or even give a front-page story correction to an originally page-1 story.  Instead, the average Cornell reader will only come across this correction if they happen to be flipping unusually slow through the pages on their way to Mr. Gnu.

Luckily, the positioning of the Stun’s apology is quite revealing, as it lies quietly across from an article titled ‘The Importance of Sensitivity and Nuance.’ What a splendid slice of irony.  One may think the newspaper’s lack of sensitivity and nuance in fact-checking and defaming a departing administrator is a mere lapse of judgment, but the editors’ real issue is reflected by the lack of a front-page story re-write (such as the one given to the Knight Institute).  Regardless of how the endowment fared in any year, 2007 or 2009, the editorial board at the Sun would turn their noses up at the mere whiff of any large bonus.  So for them, this just apparently isn’t a big deal.  Breaking the desired code of egalitarianism at any level of higher education deserves punishment, they believe.  “Meh,” they said.

Good news is, the editors’ eagerness to judge has highlighted some new features of the paper: accurate news stories will now be found solely on page 8’s correction corner, and – remembering last year’s FWS instructor gaffe – it appears there are plenty of employment opportunities available at TDS’s fact-checking office.  Applications available now, (federal work study preferred)!