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Dates: during 1990-1999
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First, the fact. In the first week of April, a member of the Kuumba Singers sent out an e-mail over the group e-mail list questioning whether the increasing number of non-blacks in the group diluted Kuumba's mission of sharing a black musical tradition. An intense e-mail debate followed, with members of the choir examining issues of diversity and inclusion vis-a-vis the possibility of the new multicultural demographics detracting from an "authentic" black experience...
...problems arose when The Crimson, a subscriber to the e-mail list, decided to run a story about the debate using quotations from the e-mails sent out over the list. Andrew Mandel '00, the staff writer assigned to the story, contacted members of the group to confirm their e-mail quotations...
...reporting of the article provoked a strong reaction from the Kuumba community on a number of counts. "Our e-mail list is absolutely not a public forum," David Brunton '97-'98, Treasurer of the group, explains. "Kuumba is like a big family, and to the minds of the choir members, e-mails on the list are informal and intimate. There are no guarded responses here, like there would be if it were intended for public use." Members also contend it is easy to tell which posts are public--like an announcement of concert times and venues--and which are meant...
Crimson insiders have three responses. Mandel says, "firstly, there is an issue of whether anything you post to a list of 242 members can be private. Especially when you know a newspaper is among the subscribers. Once you post something, I think it's out there, it's on the record." Crimson President Matthew Granade '99 adds, "anyone can check who's on the list--they know we're on the list. If you want a private list, you can close lists, this was an open list." And finally, The Crimson claims it also had a source within Kuumba forward...
Most executives on The Crimson recognize the incident exposed some gray areas in the newspaper's policy, especially with regard to the use of electronic media. Some of the issues that need to examined further are: Is everything on an e-mail subscription list public? Should unconfirmed e-mail be cited? To take it a step further, can a paper use e-mails where the author denies permission? These issues will become more important as use of electronic sources becomes increasingly widespread. As Managing Editor Andrew S. Chang '99 points out, "Some people, like Dean Harry Lewis, now prefer...