The Hawk

Issue date: 11/17/06 Section: Opinion

A few weeks ago, as many already know, an undercover NBC10 intern got past security in LaFarge undetected, and aired the footage of his accomplishment as the highlight of a news broadcast featuring security measures in several local college campuses. The content of the NBC10 report on campus security is the first thing that must be brought into question. It goes over the statistics of murders and rapes on college campuses nationwide, but neglects to mention that these are crimes which occur frequently in all parts of the country. Someone is just as likely to be murdered, robbed, or raped in normal apartment buildings, particularly those in bad neighborhoods in Philadelphia, as on college campuses. In fact, I think it is fair to say that such crimes are much more common in those other areas of Philadelphia. However, the news does not focus on exposing the lack of security or lack of safety in impoverished, inner-city apartment homes, where crime rates are significantly higher, but focuses instead on the lack of perfection of security on a well-to-do college campus. To use an academic analogy that can surely be appreciated: it would be like a student who has a A in Marketing working tirelessly to achieve a A, while neglecting Philosophy, where they have a C, and are in danger of failing (that C is very generous in this case). If the goal of investigative reporting is to improve society by exposing how unfair, unjust, or unworkable something is, then shouldn't bringing that C up to at least a C+ be more important than bumping an A up to an A+?

But we must consider the target audience of NBC10. If they are focusing on that A, its pretty the clear the audience is a big fan of Marketing class; in other words, wealthy suburbanites who either have kids in school or soon will, or just the detached aristocracy, consisting of people who are far more interested in the well-being of a relatively few college kids than in those who reside in the poorer sections of the city. So, having narrowed down who this report was geared towards, we must ask why NBC would ever think that the security on college campuses, particularly St. Joe's, was lacking, especially in comparison to the security of the places within walking distance of the school. Has anyone ever considered actually trying to solve the problem, rather than just protecting ourselves from it?

Continued...

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