The Clarion addressed the death of psychology professor Kenneth Guttman in an insensitive treatment to Guttman’s death through a post made on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter on April 19.
We deeply apologize for the mistreatment of the situation.
First, I’d like to provide my deepest condolences to everyone receiving this unfortunate news, his family, his fellow friends, his students and alumni and to those who saw a good glimpse of a person he was.
The Clarion staff understands, acknowledges and takes fault in the wrong treatment of the news of Guttman’s death as more of “breaking news,” rather than an in-depth reporting of who Guttman was.
I am no one to speak on the experiences with Guttman nor had the pleasure to have him as a professor. But, as I see comments from people who shared their brief experience with Guttman through the comment section on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, I can see Guttman was a man with the best in mind for everyone. Guttman cared about the success of his students. Guttman created bonds with students. Guttman made sure they’d never forget his dedicated mentorship to those who were fortunate to have him as a professor. Guttman made friendly relations with the Citrus College family, leaving an invaluable imprint to the college and the people who were able to interact with him.
After receiving reactions on the insensitive and inappropriate announcement the Clarion made in a post on our social media, I forgot to realize that I myself had never experienced the loss of a person dearly close to me. I failed to empathize with the circumstances, and proceeded with an inappropriate mindset to deliver the unfortunate predicament to the Citrus College community.
When we don’t reach out to our audience in the way we should’ve, we receive appropriate responses of anger, sadness and frustration of people who knew him. Citrus College math professor Paul Swatzel, a close colleague of Guttman, said he felt the post was “cold, and without empathy.” We acknowledge the post was cold and did lack empathy, we apologize to Swatzel. We also received direct messages through Twitter, had people make separate posts on Twitter about the issue and had people make comments on instagram and Facebook expressing the wording of the headline. People expressed the headline was “unacceptable,” “shocking” and had “lack of empathy.” Due to this, we believed it was necessary to show our respect to Guttman and the audience by taking down the post.
What I, with the rest of the editors who help in the decision-making, came to an agreement with is that we should’ve talked to professors who worked closely with him before making an announcement on Guttman’s death. We should’ve talked to students whose knowledge was expanded due to his teachings before making an announcement. We should’ve opened ourselves more to a more genuine and humane approach to the death of Guttman–before making an announcement. We should have shown honesty and humility to the reporting of the death of Guttman.
I plan on taking the nexts steps forward discussing ways of reporting ethically and sensitively to reporters who will be talking to people about Guttman. Two reporters, Opinions Editor James Duffy and Features Editor Vicman Thome, are in the process of writing a story of Guttman’s life through the accounts of his friends and family’s experience with him. I am, along with our adviser Patrick Schmiedt, discussing ways to teach empathy to reporters who talk to anyone about Guttman, and to respect people’s requests who don’t wish to speak on the matter.
From this experience, we’ve learned not to treat news of death as “breaking news,” but rather we should think about the people who feel affected by Guttman’s death. We learned it was inappropriate to use Guttman’s photo for the news of his death without providing further context to his death. We learned we needed to provide a voice to Guttman’s family, friends, students and alumni who would tell their experience with Guttman. We learned we shouldn’t have been the one to break the news in such an inconsiderate manner to the public without all the facts and experiences of those who knew Guttman.
The Clarion will be courteous, considerate and cautious in the reporting of the death of Guttman, as well as to keep the same approach to future reporting of death. We apologize once again. We will be better and will learn from their mistakes. We will make sure of it.
