Daily Illini

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The Daily Illini is an independent, student-run newspaper published for the community of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The newspaper was founded in 1871. Twenty-thousand copies are produced each weekday during the university's fall and spring semesters and distributed free at more than 250 locations throughout Champaign-Urbana.

The student paper publishes news, sports, features, comics, opinions and special sections. It has regularly received awards such as the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold and Silver Crowns and the Associated College Press Pacemaker Award. [1]

The Daily Illini is a publication of Illini Media Company, a not-for-profit corporation which also publishes the Illio yearbook and The Illinois Technograph, an engineering magazine, and operates WPGU 107.1 FM, a student-run radio station. While the IMC has no official ties to the university, university professors and others in the academic community serve on its board of directors.

The newspaper's editorial, business and production departments are staffed by students, who might come from any of the University's degree programs. Several full-time professionals, including the newspaper's publisher and the advertising and circulation managers, are employees of IMC. Students also are paid for their jobs in reporting, editing, production and advertising.

The newspaper's offices are currently located on Green Street in Champaign. In May 2006, the newspaper, along with the other IMC entities, moved east on Green Street in Champaign to a new building closer to campus. In doing so, the company consolidated the offices of WPGU, which had been in a separate location, with the offices of the rest of the IMC entities.

Notable alumni of the newspaper include movie critic Roger Ebert, novelist Dave Eggers, folk singer Dan Fogelberg, Playboy founder/CEO Hugh Hefner, Deadspin blog founder and author Will Leitch, columnist Robert Novak,Coast to Coast Live radio host Ian Punnett, movie critic Gene Shalit, and several Pulitzer Prize winners [2].

[edit] Controversies

Anti-semitism

A Daily Illini columnist was accused of being anti-Semitic because of a column misquoting Ariel Sharon, [3][4], as well as the publication of a November 2004 comic strip by Matt Vroom. The comic in question was the November 5, 2004 strip of I Hate Pam, a popular yet controversial staple of the Daily Illini comics page from September, 2003 until Vroom graduated in May, 2005. In fact, Vroom had been told the strip was unacceptable and had submitted a different strip to run that day, but it was an editor's error that saw the original strip published in the paper. In January 2003, The Daily Illini printed an allegedly anti-semitic letter in its opinion section titled "Jews Manipulate America" [5]. A large amount of criticisms followed soon after calling into question the paper's editorial policy. The editors responded by defending their right to publish it.

Jyllands-Posten participation

The newspaper's former editor-in-chief Acton Gorton and opinions editor Chuck Prochaska made a controversial decision in February 2006 to print the cartoons from the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy that had previously been printed in Europe and had led to protests around the world and a few instances of violent rioting by offended Muslims. Gorton's column that accompanied the cartoons [6] was cited to support the first view. Prochaska and Gorton were also criticized by fellow editors in a later editorial [7] for not following protocol in previously discussing their printing, though it was revealed later that some of the staff did know about it in the hours prior to printing. A firestorm of letters and calls from all over the country and the world came into The Daily Illini expressing both support and outrage. Gorton and Prochaska were suspended with pay for 2 weeks to investigate whether proper procedures were followed. As of March 14, 2006, Gorton was terminated from the Daily Illini. Prochaska was offered the opportunity to return to his position but refused.

Editorial accuracy

Daily Illini editorials were halted on September 22, 2006, after the September 20, 2006 editorial on the Midnight Madness basketball event [8] was found to contain misinformation and misinterpretation [9]. The paper resumed publishing editorials on October 9, 2006 with an editorial explaining the changes to the way editorials will be researched and published [10]. According to the editorial, The Daily Illini will publish one editorial per week for the foreseeable future. However, even with the new guidelines, on November 29, 2006, the newspaper printed an editorial [11] calling Representative Charles B. Rangel a Republican when describing his draft bill. Rangel is a Democrat.[12]

[edit] See also

• Ouze Merham

[edit] External links

• Daily Illini