Kogan deserves her privacy
By Michael Martin
Published on Monday, February 19, 2007
To the Editor:
In response to the letter by Dylan Kane '09 with regards to printing "unpleasant" material ("Unpleasant news is also fit to print," Feb. 15), I think Kane is missing the point. Music professor Jon Appleton's response to The Dartmouth printing shoplifting allegations against French professor Vivian Kogan does not seek to advocate a suppression of information, but rather a more delicate handling of the facts of the story ("Keep the personal matter of a professor private," Feb. 13). It is irrelevant, in my opinion, whether the person in question is Kogan, an administrator, a student, or a member of the maintenance staff. Privacy is something that should be respected, and to publish the name of the suspect before any sort of verdict has been rendered is not only a form of public embarrassment, but unfairly biases the opinions of all who read the article into thinking that Kogan is in fact guilty of shoplifting.
In a geographically isolated and socially intimate atmosphere like Dartmouth, extra attention should be paid to how the things we say and the things we write impact one another. Articles like the one The D published about Kogan do a lot more to publicly embarrass a woman who has dedicated her life to promoting educational ideals of the highest standard than it does to uphold free speech or the "obligation" of the journalist to report the "news." Maybe The D should publish an article about her phenomenal work concerning Michelet instead of spending time finding ways to make a rather banal story controversial.