The Diamondback
Encyclopedia
The Diamondback is the independent student newspaper
of the University of Maryland, College Park
. It was founded in 1910 as The Triangle and renamed in 1921 in honor of a local reptile, the Diamondback terrapin
(the terrapin became the official school mascot in 1933). The newspaper is published daily Monday through Friday during academic sessions and once a week during the summer, with a print circulation of 14,000, down from a high of more than 21,000, and what used to be annual advertising revenues of more than $1 million. It is usually only about eight pages due to declining advertising revenue in recent years.
The paper's current independent status was originally intended as punishment—the Board of Regents cut off student funding after The Diamondback's actions in 1971, when it ran two pages blank in protest of campus censorship and placed tombstones on its editorial page in protest of the Vietnam War
.
The Diamondback is an affiliate of UWIRE, which distributes and promotes its content to their network.
Libertarianism
. This philosophy is seen in its opposition to rent control
, calls for privatization
, opposition to tax
hikes and inclination for the university to decrease reliance on public funding, and support of a resolution to relax marijuana penalties on campus.
Mark of Excellence Awards ranking of daily student newspapers. It received the first-place award for its region.
For the 2005-2006 school year, The Diamondback received a Mark of Excellence award, placing 3rd nationally for Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper and placing first in its region in the same category.
Student newspaper
A student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, middle school, or other school. These papers traditionally cover local and, primarily, school or university news....
of the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
. It was founded in 1910 as The Triangle and renamed in 1921 in honor of a local reptile, the Diamondback terrapin
Diamondback terrapin
The diamondback terrapin or simply terrapin, is a species of turtle native to the brackish coastal swamps of the eastern and southern United States. It belongs to the monotypic genus, Malaclemys...
(the terrapin became the official school mascot in 1933). The newspaper is published daily Monday through Friday during academic sessions and once a week during the summer, with a print circulation of 14,000, down from a high of more than 21,000, and what used to be annual advertising revenues of more than $1 million. It is usually only about eight pages due to declining advertising revenue in recent years.
The paper's current independent status was originally intended as punishment—the Board of Regents cut off student funding after The Diamondback's actions in 1971, when it ran two pages blank in protest of campus censorship and placed tombstones on its editorial page in protest of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
The Diamondback is an affiliate of UWIRE, which distributes and promotes its content to their network.
Sections
The Diamondback is split into four sections:- News - The news section covers both on- and off-campus newsNewsNews is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
, specifically in the region of College Park, MarylandCollege Park, MarylandCollege Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA. The population was 30,413 at the 2010 census. It is best known as the home of the University of Maryland, College Park, and since 1994 the city has also been home to the "Archives II" facility of the U.S...
, but also expands coverage to Annapolis, MarylandAnnapolis, MarylandAnnapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
, when the state's legislature is in session. - Opinion - The editorial section contains The Diamondback's editorialEditorialAn opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
, op-eds and letters to the editor, and editorial cartoons. - Diversions - The entertainment section contains reviews of movies and music, as well as concerts and plays around the College Park region.
- Sports - The sports section covers University of Maryland athleticsUniversity of Maryland athleticsThe Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 27 men's and women's athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I competition...
, including men's basketball and football. This section often has a combination of news and opinion articles.
Editorial Line
The editorial page of The Diamondback has a general stance of free marketFree market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
Libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
. This philosophy is seen in its opposition to rent control
Rent control
Rent control refers to laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing. It functions as a price ceiling.Rent control exists in approximately 40 countries around the world...
, calls for privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
, opposition to tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
hikes and inclination for the university to decrease reliance on public funding, and support of a resolution to relax marijuana penalties on campus.
Awards
For the 2008-2009 school year, The Diamondback placed second in the national Society of Professional JournalistsSociety of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists , formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is one of the oldest organizations representing journalists in the United States. It was established in April 1909 at DePauw University, and its charter was designed by William Meharry Glenn. The ten founding members of...
Mark of Excellence Awards ranking of daily student newspapers. It received the first-place award for its region.
For the 2005-2006 school year, The Diamondback received a Mark of Excellence award, placing 3rd nationally for Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper and placing first in its region in the same category.
Journalists
Notable journalists who worked at The Diamondback include:- Jayson BlairJayson BlairJayson Blair is an American reporter formerly with The New York Times. He resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of plagiarism and fabrication in his stories. Since 2007 he has worked as a life coach in the field of mental health.-Background:Blair was born in...
(editor-in-chief in 1996), former journalist for The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. Blair achieved nationwide notoriety as a journalist at the Times for serious reporting errors, fabrication of facts, and plagiarism. A letter signed by 30 former Diamondback staffers regarding the situation with Blair also complained about the lack of involvement by the board that owns the paper. - Norman ChadNorman ChadNorman Chad is an American sportswriter and syndicated columnist who is seen on the sports channel ESPN. He also was an occasional guest host on the ESPN show Pardon the Interruption and has appeared as both host and movie critic on the ESPN Classic series Reel Classics.He writes a weekly...
(editor-in-chief in 1978), an ESPNESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
columnist and World Series of PokerWorld Series of PokerThe World Series of Poker is a world-renowned series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Harrah's Entertainment...
commentator. - Brian CrecenteBrian CrecenteBrian Crecente is an American journalist and columnist, the Editor-In-Chief of Kotaku, and the writer of Well Played, a weekly column internationally syndicated by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services....
(reporter 1993–1994), editor-in-chief of Gawker MediaGawker MediaGawker Media is an American online media company and blog network, founded and owned by Nick Denton based in New York City. It is considered to be one of the most visible and successful blog-oriented media companies. , it is the parent company for 11 different weblogs: Gawker.com, Fleshbot,...
website KotakuKotakuKotaku is a video games-focused blog. It is part of Gawker Media's "Gawker" network of sites, which also includes Gizmodo, Deadspin, Lifehacker, io9 and Jezebel. Named to CNET News' Blog 100, Kotaku is consistently listed in the top 40 of Technorati's Top 100...
named one of the 20 most influential people in the video game industry over the past 20 years. - David MillsDavid Mills (writer)David Eugene Mills was an American journalist, writer and producer of television programs. He was an executive producer and writer of the HBO miniseries The Corner, for which he won two Emmy Awards, and the creator, executive producer, and writer of the NBC miniseries Kingpin.-Early life:Mills was...
, a former features writer for The Washington TimesThe Washington TimesThe Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
and The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
. Mills also found success in Hollywood. He was a television writer for NYPD BlueNYPD BlueNYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
from 1995 to 1997. He also wrote several episodes of Homicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
and ERER (TV series)ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
. In 2003, he created KingpinKingpin (TV series)Kingpin is an American crime drama television series which debuted on the NBC network in the U.S. and CTV in Canada on February 2, 2003 and lasted 6 episodes. NBC's answer to The Sopranos and also influenced by The Godfather, Macbeth and Traffik, the story was about a Mexican drug trafficker named...
, an NBC miniseries. He has won two Emmy Awards. - Michael OleskerMichael OleskerMichael Olesker was a columnist for the Baltimore Sun newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland. He resigned on January 4, 2006, after it was alleged that his columns contained passages plagiarized from articles at other newspapers. Olesker is known for his liberal viewpoints and for his criticism of the...
, former columnist for the Baltimore Sun, commentator for WJZ-TVWJZ-TVWJZ-TV, channel 13, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Baltimore, Maryland. WJZ-TV's studios and offices are located on Television Hill in the Woodberry section of Baltimore, adjacent to the transmission tower it shares with four other Baltimore...
and writer for the Baltimore Examiner. He resigned from the Sun after accusations of plagiarism. - David Simon, author of Homicide: A Year on the Killing StreetsHomicide: A Year on the Killing StreetsHomicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is a 1991 book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon describing a year spent with detectives from the Baltimore Police Department homicide squad...
and The CornerThe CornerThe Corner is a 2000 HBO drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon and Ed Burns and adapted for television by Simon and David Mills. It premiered on premium cable network HBO in the United States on April 16,...
. Based on his books, Simon later created the TV series Homicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
and The WireThe Wire (TV series)The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States...
, as well as the mini-series, The Corner.
Cartoonists
- Frank ChoFrank ChoFrank Cho, born Duk Hyun Cho, is a Korean-American comic strip and comic book writer and illustrator, known for his series Liberty Meadows, as well as for books such as Shanna the She-Devil, Mighty Avengers and Hulk for Marvel Comics, and Jungle Girl for Dynamite Entertainment...
's strip Liberty MeadowsLiberty MeadowsLiberty Meadows is a comic strip and comic book created, written and illustrated by Frank Cho. It relates the comedic activities of the staff and denizens of the titular animal sanctuary/rehabilitation clinic.-Publication history:...
started as a cartoon strip called University2 for The Diamondback. - Aaron McGruderAaron McGruderAaron McGruder is an American cartoonist best known for writing and drawing The Boondocks, a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip about two young African American brothers from inner-city Chicago now living with their grandfather in a sedate suburb, as well as being the creator and executive...
's comic strip The Boondocks first premiered in The Diamondback in 1997. The comic has since gone on to widespread success in syndicationPrint syndicationPrint syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....
, and has its own television show. - Jeff KinneyJeff Kinney (writer)Jeffrey "Jeff" Kinney is an American game designer, cartoonist, producer, and author of children's books including the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. He is also attributed to be the creator of the children-oriented website Poptropica...
's comic strip Igdoof ran in The Diamondback in the early 1990s. He writes and illustrates the Diary of a Wimpy KidDiary of a Wimpy KidDiary of a Wimpy Kid is a realistic fiction novel by Jeff Kinney. It is the first book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The book is about a middle-school child named Greg Heffley and his struggles in middle school. Greg also had problems with his best friend, Rowley Jefferson. The books focuses...
book series and web comic.