Yale Daily News did its annual passing-of-the-torch issue Monday, which is traditionally an extra chance for the editors to do an April Fools-type news-parody edition. The main headline, “Yale Calls ‘Backsies’ on Peruvian Artifacts,” suckered me, I admit—not because I fully believed it, but because I believe that the university’s dealings with Peru were more complicated or covert than the media knew (or cared to know), and could buy into a sensationalized sense that Yale had reneged.
Other headlines in the issue—“Yale’s Fucked”; “Vagina Painting: Do We Dare?”—aren’t far afield from what the Yale Daily News might run on a non-parodic day. Even some of the real ads—David Halperin’s Wednesday talk is entitled “How to Be Gay”—blurred lines between what might have been considered the height of poor taste just a few years ago and now is accepted attention-getting discourse.
The new YDN staff is already joking about the long sleepless nights and diminished social opportunities in store for them. Truth is, they’re doing good work and should be undeprecatingly proud of it. The Yale Daily News often has fresher street reporting than the local daily, and some of the reporting on the recent Democratic primaries equaled the local-news gold standard around here, The New Haven Independent.
Standards for the parody issue can be loose and sloppy (The heading “Holy Shit This City is Dangerous. Get the Fuck Outtttt” is too cheap and obvious to offend even the most patriotic townies. Even on non-parody days, the guest op-ed columns year-round can frequently disappoint or enrage with their insufferable entitlements. There is the impatience of waiting for novices to master their trade—going too far, or just as often not far enough. But overall, the Yale Daily News has become a strong and reliable community newspaper, in an age when such things are no longer sure.