Don Bush's Intercom article & the role of Intercom

[Bryan, John (bryanjg)]

I don't really mean to be contrarian in this interesting conversation.
I agree that Mr. Bush's column reflected, at best, ignorance and maybe
some longstanding resentments.  But I suspect his views may be more
mainstream than we imagine among our non-academic colleagues.  The
answer, I think, is not the heavy-handed intervention of Intercom's
editors but a vigorous counter-argument from us.  Keep that conversation
under wraps by editing out Mr. Bush's views and those who share them
will persist in their ignorance.

As the ethics columnist for Intercom for almost 15 years, I have been on
the receiving end of significant editorial reaction and guidance from
time to time, especially when a column has the potential to be
controversial.   (What authentic ethics case isn't controversial?)  For
example, a bit more than a year and after 9/11, I submitted a case about
a Palestinian working as a contract employee in a US company doing
classified DOD work ("Alienation").  The Intercom editors and STC
management feared a strong-potentially violent-negative reaction from
the Arab-American community.  First, they suggested that I change the
Palestinian into a generic American.  When I argued that such a change
would miss the point, they backed off, but publication was delayed while
they sought reactions from the Arab community.  Eventually, the piece
went to press with only a disclaimer (see
http://www.stc.org/intercom/pdfs/2003/200304_37_43.pdf). 

Before we assume the Intercom editors aren't doing their jobs, let's
remember that published columns are meant to be opinion, not reporting,
and that columns we read everyday in the mainstream press hope to be
provocative.  We should also look to Mr. Bush's foolish opinions as an
opportunity for expanding our overdue conversation with the non-academic
side of our field.

John Bryan
MA Program in Professional Writing
University of Cincinnati

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-stc-ac-277548 at lists.stc.org
[mailto:bounce-stc-ac-277548 at lists.stc.org] On Behalf Of Ann L. Wiley
Consultants Inc.
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 3:54 PM
To: stc-ac
Cc: maurice at stc.org
Subject: [stc-ac] RE: Don Bush's Intercom article: plan to create a
topic on the Forum

Maurice will create a topic on the STC Forum for each of the articles in
the 
February issue of Intercom, and I'll link to Tommy's post from the topic
for 
Don Bush's article.

We gave up on creating forum topics for each article because the
response 
was so minimal, but I'll renew my efforts to bring this discussion 
opportunity to the attention of people who might be able to participate.

Thanks, Kathy, for the attempt to post because it gave me feedback from
a 
customer that I could act on, to reactive the forum for Intercom 
discussions.

I did talk with Maurice about what editors do when an article is
received 
that raises some questions. I'm concerned as an STC editor. We can
refuse an 
article, of course, but we can also look to readers to write a response,

which can be published in the letters to the editor (or comments on the 
blogs, http://stc-on.org). In this case, a response to the Intercom
editor 
is very welcome.

Ann

Ann L. Wiley, Ph.D.
Ann L. Wiley Consultants Inc.
ann at annlwiley.com
Fellow, Forum lead

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Northcut, Kathryn
To: stc-ac
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 1:34 PM
Subject: [stc-ac] RE: Don Bush's Intercom article


Tommy - I was intrigued, so after 15 minutes of logging in, registering,
and
reading the legalese on the disclaimer, then agreeing to it after not
actually reading it, I was disappointed that I cannot start a discussion
forum. I can only respond to your response to some other guy complaining
about not enough responses under the forum titled "Coming Soon -
Discussions
of Intercom Articles." This doesn't fit my mood or my needs right now.
If
you can start a forum, "Responses to Don Bush" would show us where to go
and
feel less like an afterthought.



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