Inside the Newsroom: Reporting the Morris Berger story
January 29, 2020
It’s been a wild week for the Lanthorn, and it’s only Wednesday. Today also happens to be Student Press Freedom Day, and as such we want to reflect and provide insight into what has been going on inside and outside of our newsroom over the past few days.
What was originally a straightforward article getting to know Grand Valley State University football’s new offensive coordinator has become an international story, attracting attention from viewers far beyond our west Michigan community.
On Thursday, Jan. 23, the Lanthorn published an interview with newly hired GVSU football offensive coordinator Berger in a Q&A format. This format is consistent with how we have introduced other key figures entering or leaving the GVSU community in the past. The last story ran in a Q&A format was president emeritus Thomas Haas’ final interview with the Lanthorn.
We published the interview in full, including a part at the end where Coach Berger expressed his admiration for the leadership skills of Adolf Hitler, the German dictator responsible for the World War II genocide of some six million European Jews.
The story remained up in its original form until a representative from GVSU Athletics called our sports editor on Saturday and requested that Berger’s final response be removed from the online piece.
When confronted by a university official in a position of influence, the “student” portion of “student journalist” kicked in first. In a lapse of journalistic vision, we removed the portion in question. We quickly realized that was a mistake.
We began an internal conversation about whether the final section of the interview should be reinstated. With our duty to the community in mind and journalistic ethics to guide us, we came to the decision that Berger’s comments were undeniably newsworthy to our readership, and we made the decision to revert the piece to its original state on Sunday, Jan. 26. We notified the Athletic Department of this revision immediately.
This decision was not made lightly. We decided not to bend to institutional censorship which would have effectively cast the Lanthorn as a branch of the Athletic Department’s public relations rather than an independent outlet of student journalists.
Our decision triggered pushback. Between Saturday and Sunday, our sports editor received five phone calls from GVSU Athletics. The subject matter of the calls ranged from an appreciation of our journalistic work to an attempt to make us feel guilty for our actions.
Let this be clear: we neither feel guilt nor excessive pride at what we’ve done. We are satisfied with doing our job as journalists. The journalistic bar we cleared — after an initial lapse of judgment — is in fact very low. We chose to run a recorded, verbatim comment made by an influential member of the GVSU Athletics community whose job is to mentor young men. The further ramifications of Berger’s statement are out of our hands.
That doesn’t mean that our role in the story is over. By Monday, local TV outlets Fox 17 and WOOD-TV 8 had picked up the story and, thanks to social media, it had spread like wildfire. Our reaction to media requests from around the nation was to stand beside our honest journalism with pride. This was never designed to be a “hit piece.” It started as a simple Q&A, and turned into an opportunity to put our education, and our principles, to the test in the face of institutional censorship.
So, where do we go from here?
Like any other outlet, the Lanthorn will continue to cover the Berger investigation as an evolving news story. We will continue to facilitate campus conversations surrounding this situation. We will continue to stand by the quality of our work. We will continue to report and publish with deliberateness and a clear ethical perspective.
As mentioned at the start of this editorial, today, Jan. 29, is Student Press Freedom Day, which is described by the Student Press Law Center as “a national day of action when we celebrate the contributions of student journalists and highlight the need to support their independence without censorship or threat to their advisers.” Of course, we did not anticipate the Lanthorn’s most public and controversial story in years to coincide with this celebration. Regardless, we are as proud of our work as always, and we promise to continue reporting and publishing fairly, accurately, and without fear.
Kevin • Feb 1, 2020 at 4:38 pm
Wow, Hugo, thank you so much for letting us know, and speaking for “society!” It must be a very important job, and here you took time out to comment on this! The ultra-politically-correct school wouldn’t want to go against “society” and have people actually think.
But of the comments here, it seems 3 of the 7 disagree, but of course the three of us aren’t part of the “society,” and shouldn’t comment. Just like Martin Niemöller shouldn’t have been so critical back when he was alive? Oh, but of course Hugo, you’ve never heard of Mr. Niemöller.
And no repercussions from “society” or the ultra-politically-correct school for that “insensitive” Kellen Voss, who stated in response apparently agreeing with Mr. Berger, “The way he was able to get people to rally around him was crazy.” But some are more equal than others, look that up Hugo if you’ve got time.
Hugo • Jan 31, 2020 at 7:22 pm
If you think the school overreacted, that is your opinion and you are entitled to it. However, that is not the opinion of society. There is a big difference.
Berger is free to express his opinion, and GVSU is free to disassociate with him.
Ultimately, it works that way.
Kevin • Jan 30, 2020 at 7:31 pm
I’m going to agree with Brian, the reaction and repercussions for Mr. Berger are VASTLY over-reactive. I would go further and say tragic. My dad fought in WWII (Pacific theater though), I had a distant relative executed by the Nazi pigs for being in the Danish underground, this was as the war was winding down and obvious that Germany would lose, it destroyed his mother too, and I’ve read every book on The Holocaust and WWII that I can find. And there are entire books dedicated to Mr. Berger’s answer, “How he rallied a group and a following, I want to know how he did that. Bad intentions of course, but you can’t deny he wasn’t a great leader.” Read about the German Police, the Einsatzgruppen killing squads sent out across Europe, and other “regular people” who turned on neighbors they’d lived next to for generations when they found out they could pillage their neighbor’s possessions. Should those authors have their books burned now because their words are insensitive and offensive? Of course not, actual adults can handle the truth. If you want to further analyze this incident, the reporter Kellen Voss follows up with the comment, “KV: The way he was able to get people to rally around him was crazy.” So should Mr. Voss be a pariah in the journalism world now, kicked out of school, banished from society? At a minimum Mr. Berger should have had the opportunity, which AFAIK he didn’t, for The Lanthorn publish a clarification of his 29-word-comment. Grand Valley State University, and yes The Lanthorn and all involved with this story, would get a big red F if I was grading them.
Brian • Jan 30, 2020 at 6:19 pm
As a near 50 yr old, it appalls me to see yet another example of a college- presumably THE place where young adults are supposed to be challenged mentally to consider MANY viewpoints- is once again VASTLY over-reactive. The coach did not endorse Hitler’s views in ANY way, but rather, seems intrigued how a skinny little dictator so completely swayed so many to join his cause. Maybe as a big jock he is intrigued by this dichotomy of this diminutive, unimpressive person being at the center of the Aryan race, with their presumed enhanced physical traits. Maybe this coach feels he needs to be better at motivating his players. Their certainly are many sports-centric persons he could’ve chosen that would have been safer and perhaps smarter, but its awfully narrow, and intellectually lazy, to not really grasp what he is saying, and simply go to “Mentioning Hitler is bad- I’m offended”…The “3 people you would have dinner with” has been around forever; I had a teacher perhaps in Jr High once make us all answer it… Saying “George Washington, Lincoln, and Jesus” was about as boring as one could get, although now you would probably offend atheists and Muslims. The routine answer might have Jim Morrison or Janis Joplin- drug users, Genghis Khan- plunderer and killer,, or Charles Manson- crazy. Our teacher wanted us to come up with unique ( someone no one else in the class would think of) and creative people and justify the choice. AMAZING!!!! It’s sad that our country is being made antiseptic by this thought police, that claim to be so tolerant- except to anything that actually challenges their pat little world. This guy might be kind of a meathead, but the overreaction is , in the big picture, FAR worse….
Alan Myrtle • Jan 30, 2020 at 12:08 pm
GVSU should be proud to have a REAL newspaper that reports the truth, even when the truth is painful. Many successful coaches look to men such as John Wooden for lessons in leadership. Wooden told his players his goal was not to teach them basketball; his goal was to teach them how to be better men.
Mr. Berger was recently fired from Texas State University after his football team sank to the bottom of Division I football. He should set aside his interest in the “leadership” methods of the insane monster Adolph Hitler and instead closely study the leadership methods of John Wooden.
Mr. Berger is not currently qualified for a senior leadership position at a university, but if he closely studies and emulates truly great leaders, he might someday become a successful Wooden-style coach.
Florence dickerson • Jan 30, 2020 at 11:47 am
As a person who lost her grandparents,aunts uncles and baby cousins in the Holocaust I can’t be rational or objective ithe following comments.
I believe coach Berger deserved to be suspended(really a slap on the wrist )for his insensitive remarks.
Yes I believe in freedom of speech but not to the point of it being offensive and hurtful.
Hitler was the personification of evil. How can evil be considered great. To me great means heroism, love good works charity , being valedictorian etc etc. I see Great as a description of all good things. Perhaps an other adjective could have been used to describe this Evil,Insane poor excuse Of Humanity.
Even though freedom of speech is our right under the second amendment it should be qualified with good taste good sense and filters whenever it is used.
Josh • Jan 29, 2020 at 9:36 pm
Applause to the student journalists and coach Berger for their ethics and honesty. I feel that Berger did an excellent job of hedging everything he said in that interview, and he very clearly stated that he did not support Hitler’s actions in any way, but he simply admired his ability to get people to rally behind him. We all have good and bad qualities, and there is nothing wrong with being curious about the leadership qualities of someone, even if that person did horrific things. It is also okay for someone to remind us of the terrible things that somebody did, while that person is often regarded as a hero to most of society.
I thought it was terrible that The Washington Post suspended one of their political journalists for reminding us that Kobe Bryant, given his infidelity and rape allegations from 2003, may not be the hero that the media is portraying. That organization has since reinstated her in full and apologized for making her suspension public knowledge. I hope the officials at your university have the same good sense.
I admire coach Berger for being honest about why he has that curiosity, and I’m sorry that our overly politically correct society pressured the weak university administration into an unfair suspension. I hope to hear that he has been fully reinstated soon.
Len Painter • Jan 29, 2020 at 6:04 pm
Nice job, Lanthorn.