Learning what it means to be an “editor”
The most important things I’ve done for ‘The Tech’ came when the paper had to choose between the easy route and the hard one
If you message me, you may notice that I always respond with correct grammar and punctuation, which apparently disturbs others. I still don’t know why people think it’s strange — I just hold myself to a high lexical standard! So, when the opportunity came to judge other people’s writing as a copyeditor for MIT’s student newspaper, I had to go for it.
As a copyeditor, I immediately felt the importance we brought to the quality of the paper. While I wasn’t much of a writer (hence why this is my first Campus Life article), I felt fulfilled using the power of precise language to draw out the full potential of an author’s message.
As Co-Copy Chief, I got a taste of what it meant to be an “editor” for The Tech. I aligned the newspaper’s copyediting standards with the Chicago Manual of Style and got to train a new generation of pedantic copyeditors. However, it was upon my election as the new Managing Editor that I truly understood the meaning of the term “editor.” As V145 Managing Editor, I managed the chaos and complexity of the newspaper’s organizational logistics. Because being an “editor” for The Tech is more than just checking other people’s work. It is to harness the vast and roughshod potential we had and to harness it for the best ends possible.
Along the way, I’ve been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to wear even more hats. I’ve helped with breaking stories when the News Department needed a hand. When the Photography Department needed me, I donned a camera and became a mediocre photojournalist. I’m now helping the Technology Department rebuild our server infrastructure. All these roles have been in service of making The Tech a better-run organization. I’ve never been afraid to poke and prod at a system to see if I could make it better, even if the result wasn’t perfect.
However, all that was not the true reason I joined The Tech. I joined because The Tech is such a core part of the fabric of MIT. A student newspaper is not very different from an established publication. We have the same standards, the same rules, and the same goals. We have a responsibility to hold the powerful accountable and report the truth however we see it. As the saying goes, “If someone tells you it’s raining, and another tells you it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. It’s your job to look out the window and find out which is true.”
The most important things I’ve done for The Tech came when the paper had to choose between the easy route and the hard one. I’ve always considered myself relatively good at standing my ground. The principles I hold are important to me, and I’m willing to be unpopular in order to adhere to them. It was Atticus Finch who said, “Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” On many points I have disagreed with the actions of others at The Tech, or with the newspaper’s previous stances. For example, I wish we could’ve taken a stronger stance on the genocide in Gaza when the discourse was more prominent on campus and that we could’ve gone harder against the MIT administration on several issues. I’ve once wondered if the right move for my conscience was to step away. But I came to understand that the disagreements I had with The Tech were proof that I needed to be there. If I forfeited my place in the sphere that is a newspaper team, who would take it? What stories get buried because there’s no one to push for them? What perspectives go unheard?
At the best of times and the worst of times, I’ve never regretted joining The Tech. I would encourage anyone who hates or loves some part of our newspaper (or some part of our world) to engage with it. It is when we forfeit our participation in the public sphere that we truly betray our own ideals. We work best with people who will debate and wrestle with the hard choices to make for the newspaper. To be strong in the face of opposition, even from MIT. Plato said it best: “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”