Letter From The Editor

Dear Readers,

As I write to you on the eve of this issue’s deadline, I am surrounded by a brand new staff of student writers, editors, photographers, artists, and designers. There must be twenty desks of different sizes and shapes in this newsroom at the Letters & Science building. We have restructured within a week and have just gotten to know each other for the first time.  The chair I’m sitting in right now looks older than both Photo Editors’ combined, and yet I’m typing in a Google Doc on a state of the art computer. This old newsroom has nurtured both earnest historians and curious rebels at Santa Monica College.  We have diligently recorded the losses and wins of collegiate athletes, welcomed a visit by then California Governor Schwarzenegger, lamented your parking woes, and pushed for solutions to your academic obstacles.

2017 has taken most of us by surprise no matter who you are and how you view the world.  Within two months, we’ve witnessed shocking changes and unrest across American society as well as within the field of journalism. This new environment makes our predecessors’ already urgent goal of digitizing The Corsair a top priority.  As we experiment with virtual reality, 360 video reporting, live stream broadcast on social media, and numerous new and perhaps unorthodox ways to deliver news to you, one tradition will never change: We will always be honest, factual, sincere, and compassionate in our work.

The age of social media has challenged our perception of truth. Reality seems to shift on an hourly basis. I am, however, optimistic.  

“I was there the camera does not lie, the approaching storm, the Death Strip in Berlin, it was real. Jesus on the Cross, who knows? It was so long ago. True or False? It must have been flesh and blood and stone and mortar, otherwise it would not be on film.” -Helmut Newton, Monte Carlo, 1991