It is a crazy world, and sometimes people just need to laugh it off.

Chad Harris, Springfield resident and founder of Fair City News, hopes his satirical publication provides more than a few chuckles to usurp the insanity.

Fair City News is a tabloid newspaper that pokes fun at local events through fake news articles.

“We take tidbits of truth and spin stories around events that are happening here locally,” Harris said. “Satire is a great way to escape the madness that exists in our society.”

Fair City News started out as a blog in March 2009, but debuted a print product this month, leaving Harris to joke that the publication is “regressing in technology.”

Harris has a background in improvisational comedy, having studied it in college and performed it for the last 12 years. He is associated locally with the Skinny Improv and The Improvadors. He felt blogging was the “next logical step” and found writing fake news stories a great way to “have an alternate source of creativity.”

Harris writes the vast majority of articles appearing in Fair City News and pushes himself to write at least one satire article daily for the website.

“When you’re on stage, you’re on a tight-wire, putting your head in a lions mouth, and you have got to perform on the spot,” Harris said. “Similarly, at Fair City News, I sit down on the computer and look at the news topics of the day. It’s my time to get a little written improvisational humor.”

While the Fair City News blog garnered plenty of readers on its own, Harris believed the time was right for a move to print.

“This was right around the time GO Magazine went out of print, and I wanted to introduce something students would enjoy and graduates would enjoy,” Harris said, adding that advertising support has been solid thus far.

Chad Harris, founder of Fair City News.

Harris believes Fair City News may create an avenue for people to become more informed about local news topics by making it more appealing.

“If readers are interested in reading ‘funny’ articles,” Harris said, “they are more likely to read about the real issues and be more informed about the world around them.

Fair City News produces a print version once a month which is available on campus. Its blog can be found online at faircitynews.com. Fair City News is seeking student contributors.

Discerning news from non-news used to be one of the key functions of journalists and their editors. Back in the day, reporters were limited by the practical problem of limited physical space in the print edition. Some things made it, others didn’t.

While I love the Internet (as I sit here blogging), there are times I think editors should use old style discretion when deciding what is and what is not newsworthy. Some things should never be posted online and certainly not as news.

I write this after reading a gossip-style news tidbit from Politico which describes in every detail how Sen. Chuck Schumer called a flight attendant a “bitch” (or the “B-Word,” as Politico puts it) under his breath after she told him to turn off his cell phone before takeoff. After that long-winded gossip, we also get an account of Rep. Virginia Foxx “shooshing” one of her colleagues who whispered something to another person while she was speaking at a conference. Then, we get to hear the stunning news that Rep. Grace Napolitano made chili and guacamole for a party. This sounds like something you’d read in a celebrity gossip column. Have we gotten to the point that we look at politicians in the same light as celebrities, where people want to hear every little detail of the lives of the rich, famous and powerful?

I think the Politico and other outlets who report this nonsense need to exercise a little good old fashioned news discretion.

I write this message in great sadness after receiving news of the death of Jeremy Andrew Clawson. The world has lost a great citizen and I’ve lost a friend. I mourn the best way I know how – with words.

I want to tell you a little about my experiences with Jeremy Andrew Clawson.

I met Jeremy back in 2003. I was a 19-year-old college freshmen, joining the school newspaper. He was a 30-year-old non-traditional student, editor of Barton County Community College’s student newspaper, The Interrobang. A soldier, he was attending school between deployments while his wife worked as a Barton dance instructor.

I was a shy, nervous kid. He was a confident leader (and a very skilled journalist). I was so incredibly shy that I probably would have just kept to myself, did my work, and faded into the background on the newspaper staff had Jeremy let that happen. But from day one, I remember how friendly he was and how he made me feel like a valued member of the team.

At Barton, Jeremy spearheaded an Interrobang investigation into academic dishonesty and outright fraud in the athletic department. You can imagine the type of outside pressure that defying the athletic department can create for a person, yet Jeremy stuck to his guns and didn’t back down to anyone. He reported the truth, and wasn’t afraid to dig deep for the real story. Some of his best reporting involved the discovery of questionable credits received for classes completed at Barton by basketball players transferring to the University of Missouri under coach Quin Snyder. Eventually, all of this led to several members of Barton’s athletic department being indicted for various forms of fraud.

I remember how he recounted a fairly hostile conversation he had with Barton’s head basketball coach concerning the negative publicity the paper was creating.

“How am I supposed to recruit students for the basketball program when your paper is printing this garbage!?” the coach said to Jeremy.

“I didn’t know the school newspaper was supposed to be a recruiting tool,” Jeremy shot back.

Jeremy put pressure on the college’s administration to shape up (most famously through a column he wrote comparing the escalating situation with dishonesty at the college to frogs not jumping out of a pot on the stove that was slowly rising to a boil). He forged alliances with faculty who believed in the importance of truth and brought facts to light that the college trustees most assuredly would have liked kept secret.

Jeremy received a well-deserved First Amendment Award from the Kansas Associated Collegiate Press in 2006 for his investigative work at Barton.

He was a strong leader, but also a smart, charismatic and likable guy. He really brought out the best from each person from the newspaper staff and helped shape the Interrobang into one of the top two-year college papers in the state.

He could sit and joke around with people one minute, and yet have a deep philosophical conversation the next.

I remember when the newspaper staff took part in a school shooting simulation at a local high school. We played the part of the news media, helping the local police department simulate all aspects of a potential shooting for the drill. I remember Jeremy decided that he was going to check if the police had the school locked down properly and the perimeter secured. I don’t know what journalist in their right mind would do this in real life with the gunmen potentially still inside, but, hey, you never know.

Jeremy walked around, got shooed away by police at a couple entrances before jumping a fence and finding an unlocked, unsecured door. I think he went in and took a few pictures before exiting.

The police thought they were prepared for every contingency, but they did not count on the presence of investigative journalist Jeremy Clawson. He was always doing crazy stuff like that, all in good fun of course.

When I needed an actor for a television commercial I was creating for my dad’s business, I turned to the funniest guy I knew – Jeremy Clawson. He was a real trooper, despite the fact he wasn’t getting paid a dime for it. He put on the goofiest looking suit he could find, slicked back his hair, climbed onto the roof of a manufactured home and transformed himself into Grease Mitchell, slimy pizza-flinging salesperson for Big City Homes. It was a lot of fun.

Jeremy was deployed to serve in Afghanistan at the end of the fall 2003 semester. We all respected his bravery in serving our country, but were also saddened to see our friend and leader depart. Jeremy and our newspaper advisor decided to name me as his replacement as editor-in-chief for the Spring 2004 semester. It was not an enviable task to follow in the footsteps of such a great editor. Using his leadership as an example, I forged my own path and eventually earned the respect of my fellow staff members.

I had kind of lost touch with Jeremy after our time together at Barton, sadly, save for an occasional email, but I still thought of him as a friend. I can’t claim to have known him on a deep level, but consider myself privileged for the time I did have with him. He was a man of honor and integrity, two qualities I hold very high. He was a very talented journalist and writer and the best newspaper editor I have ever served under. He was a charismatic and all around great person. He was also a soldier and sacrificed to serve this country. I thank him for service. I also thank him for all he taught me.

Jeremy leaves behind a wife and a daughter. To them I offer my deepest condolences. My thoughts and prayers are with you in this difficult time.

Farewell, Jeremy Andrew Clawson. You will be greatly missed, my friend.

Assistant Editor

Considering the SF Chronicle is on the verge of disappearing, I found this little nugget to be especially poignant.

The whole thing is great, but I love at the end how the internet edition is $10 and takes 2 hours to load, while the paper edition is 20 cents. Here we are, almost thirty years later, and the situation is reversed. Print is more expensive than the internet.

You probably have some questions about the newspaper in your hand (or the website you are reading from).

Like, what is this? What’s the point? Why should I read it?

Well, I’ll try and answer those as best I can if you just give me a few moments.

First of all, this is not the sort of newspaper that you see twelve copies of in your neighbor’s yard back home or in vending machines for a handful of pocket change nobody ever has, but the kind of newspaper that’s free and isn’t about obscure people or strangers who you don’t know or care about.

This is a newspaper made by students at Missouri State for everyone who is a part of MSU. It’s about your fellow students, your teachers, school activities and other happenings that might affect your life as an MSU student.

And the twice-a-month publication is completely independent from the university, meaning it has the freedom to cover controversial topics without the conflicts of interest inherent in official student newspapers.

We are not even an official student organization and we do not receive any funding from the university.

Second, what’s the point?

I had to ask our editor about this. Zach Becker is a graduate student from Great Bend, Kans., working towards his Master’s of Business Administration degree.

He feels that there’s a need for another newspaper on campus, because it is difficult for one news organization to cover all facets of life on a large university.

“The more options people have for their news, the better it is for students,” he said.

Zach’s wife, Jenny, an MBA student from Ellsworth, Kans., is serving as the publisher of the paper, handling most of the business aspects of the publication.

She also has “the final say as wife of the editor,” she remarked half-jokingly.

Jenny shares Zach’s view of providing students more options when it comes to campus coverage.

“I want this paper to appeal to all students on campus,” she said. “I want to get at the essence of what it means to be a student at Missouri State.”

Zach’s goal is to listen to the “heartbeat of campus” and create an open forum that gives students the chance to easily contribute and participate in the MSU community.

He also wants to create a more graphically oriented format to the paper than what is seen in The Standard, with larger photos, more in depth features and more varied content.

So why should you read The Underground?

Because it’s about you!

Zach says this paper isn’t going to be just topical news coverage or a repeat of stories you’ll see in the other paper.

Instead, its focus is telling “the story within the story. What’s really happening on campus.”

And he has experience doing this.

Zach and Jenny previously started a similar independent student newspaper called The Edge at their undergraduate college, Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kans. During that time, The Edge won many awards from the Kansas Associated Collegiate Press, and Zach himself was named First Runner-Up Kansas Collegiate Journalist of the Year in 2007.
They operated that paper successfully for several years before moving on to Missouri State.

Zach sets the bar high for The Underground staff, aiming to cover all stories with “honesty, accuracy, integrity, fairness, and public service.”

By doing this, we’ll prove to students we can be a trusted voice on MSU. That way, our investigative stories and coverage of controversial subjects can be fair and accurate.

The Underground is entirely student run; written by students, communicated via email, produced on a PC in the Beckers’ apartment and printed at Nowata Printing Company in Springfield. It is distributed at the college and at local businesses.

It’s a very flexible system that allows for maximum student involvement, independent from the university.

The paper is funded entirely by advertising and is a sole proprietorship owned by Zach and Jenny.

Once you know all of this, the newspaper in your hand becomes more than just another piece of paper.

It’s an opportunity for you to be involved in your school community.

The Underground is actively seeking student volunteers.

Time commitments are entirely up to the individual student and the paper works around your schedule.

There are plans to include new and unique content, from a faith page for all students’ beliefs, to sports commentary and intramural sports coverage, as well as video and audio content available online.

If you have a story or a voice to be heard, The Underground will give you a chance to make that happen.

You can learn even more outside of it.

The university is a wholly unique institution in our society. It provides a stage where young adults can work to find themselves, cultivate interests and explore the possibilities of life.

And that exploration doesn’t end in the classroom.

At Missouri State and in Springfield, opportunities abound for enriching oneself.

Internships.

Volunteer activities.

Student groups.

Art.

Theatre.

Cinema.

There are so many chances for students to enhance their life experiences, to help others and help themselves – to expand horizons.

If all you do is go to class, do your homework and study for tests, you are only getting part of the university experience. The opportunities exist, but you have to step up and take them.

Participate in a broad range of student activities.

Volunteer at local schools or nursing homes.

Attend an art show.

Or make your own artwork.

Contribute to your college newspaper.

Escape your normal routines. Test your boundaries. Force yourself out of your comfort zone.

Find out what you truly enjoy. Make friendships that last a lifetime. Discover the things you never thought you could do.

Don’t just graduate Missouri State with a degree. Don’t just graduate knowing a bunch of facts and figures. Graduate with the experience of a lifetime.

Use this time to find out who you are and what you truly want out of life. Explore the unknown possibilities.

The opportunities are out there.

It’s up to you to seize them.

-Zach Becker

For the Editorial Board