As a journalism publication, La Voz aims to bring facts and objectivity to the De Anza community, including faculty, staff and students. We have ethical standards to protect our community from defamation or libel, but we are not responsible for the perception of any organizations, groups or individuals that we cover — instead, we aim to present stories that are accurate and true to life.
In regard to requests for favorable coverage, journalism’s purpose is not to supplement public relations and advertise clubs or other organizations. While we encourage and appreciate tips from the community, we do not cover stories to depict the subject in a positive or negative light, including those we receive information from. Staff writers maintain as much objectivity as possible while reporting and describing things as they happen.
“Negative press” at La Voz is a product of factual events. In serving the De Anza community, it is our responsibility to shed light on injustices, misconduct and other mistakes. We refuse to avoid coverage of information that may reflect poorly on certain parties, so long as it is factually accurate.
On events and issues involving two primary, polarized viewpoints, La Voz spreads its coverage as evenly as it has the capacity to.
For example, our coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict includes a rally against antisemitism, a walkout in support of Gaza and opposing pro-con pieces on student encampments at Columbia University.
Coverage of the Foothill-De Anza Police Department’s current bid for Tasers reports on arguments, questions, statements and opinions on both sides of the debate, as stated by both police officers and community members.
Opinion pieces contain either the opinion of our staff writers — who are also De Anza students and reflect diverse viewpoints within the community — or the collective opinion of the editorial board, and depend heavily on research from reliable sources.
While opinion pieces are meant to sway the reader toward one side of an argument, La Voz does not censor opinions just because we find them unsavory.
To be clear, we will not platform hate — if anything, we have an obligation to advocate against it — but we have a threshold for determining what is and isn’t hate speech. Political dissidence does not meet that threshold.
We encourage our audience to submit letters to the editor, factual corrections, comments and other thoughts about La Voz articles; we make errors, and in order to maintain the goal of producing accurate information, we address them when they are brought to our attention.
The role of a journalist is not to appease the public or authority, it is to report truth whether it be popular or contentious. We should never be relied upon or expected to provide anything but truth, or omit anything to pacify outrage.
