An Editor’s Note
It’s obvious that I’m a news hound, and there’s certainly no shortage of news in FaySpRogVille (a portmanteau of Northwest Arkansas’s four main cities). Throughout the areas news media, coverage of the University of Arkansas naturally stays prominent, not only because it’s one of the largest employers of the Ozarks but simply being a pillar of what makes us, us.
It’s the flagship campus of the U of A System with the most students and in recent years displays a top R1 rating for “Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production.”
Still, it was surprising that the campus on Wednesday, April 15, was favored with an unusually large number of articles. Excluding sports, count the headlines from that day’s Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
- “New Proposal Targets King Fahd Center; Amendment to Bill Would Defund Middle East Studies”
- AG to Appeal Ten Commandment (sic) Ruling”
- “Man Admits to Attempted (2021) Rape of UA Student … Gets 60-Year Sentence”
- “‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Author Talks Writing”
- “Professor Facing Termination Files Civil Rights Suit against UA”
Roughly, Wednesday’s coverage parallels how the UA has been faring this decade. Bruising, eh?
The coverage midweek from local TV stations and other credible information media besides the Demzette – KUAF Public Radio, the Arkansas Times, Arkansas Advocate, Axios NW Arkansas, the campus Arkansas Traveler and Fayetteville Flyer – was comparable. (Note that outlets set up limitations such as KUAF rarely covers spot news while the Flyer focuses on the one city.)
For so-called good news, check out University of Arkansas News.
The best way to address this – speaking as a longtime editor who taught a few semesters of journalism here – is broadly: News is not the cynical “if it bleeds it leads” grabbing people’s fascination with scandal and disaster.
What it is: News is what’s new. Period.
We expect the university to do its job. We expect reasonable rates of successes, because that’s what all of us at every level in this state are paying for, in various ways. The fact “good news” doesn’t make big or at times any headlines is ironically proof that the UA succeeds in most ways. These achievements are not news.
That makes the ugly stories stand out.
Article 4 though is good news, as a “news is what’s new.” This is the first visit to Arkansas by 86-year-old Canadian Margaret Atwood, prize-winning author of more than 66 books.
Ears of writers among the roughly 1,100 in the audience perked up when the interviewer let Atwood talk about craft instead of several questions about the video adaptation of the headlined novel:
“There’s four combinations of people. This isn’t just for books. It’s for real life, too.
“There’s ordinary people in ordinary times. There’s extraordinary people in ordinary times – usually thought of as weirdos. There’s ordinary people in extraordinary times, and there’s extraordinary people in extraordinary times. And the kind of ones I’m interested in are ordinary people in extraordinary times, which often transforms ordinary people into extraordinary people, because they come up to the moment as it were.
“So in really turbulent times, a lot of people are mostly interested in keeping their heads down and not falling victim to the times. Then there are other people who take another position, which is usually ‘I’m going to join the underground’ in some form or other.”
Authors turn ordinary characters extraordinary. In real life, we choose for ourselves.
© 2026 Ben S. Pollock
This column, before slight edits, first was published in the April 2026 newsletter of UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965, of which Ben Pollock serves as 2023-2026 vice president.
