By Bobby Moore Former Editor-in-Chief 7inchatlanta@gmail.com

After yet another controversial opinion piece in The West Georgian, questions should be raised about the student body's knowledge of the newspaper medium and its tolerance for opinions dissenting from the status quo.

Last Wednesday's article by Jacob Lovell satirically spoke out against Greek life in a clearly marked opinion piece. In fact, the article was right below the heading "opinion" and the oh-so-important First Amendment. Later that day, I had to bite my tongue in class as I listened to a fraternity member claim this opinion piece was "proof" that news writers do not check their facts. He went on to say people who write for newspapers have it easy, as their major is a "joke" and all they have to do is write on a fifth grade level. Mr. so-and-so went on to say he does not respect people who work for newspapers.

His opinions on the news were news to me, since I work for a newspaper. Writing for a local newspaper day in and day out is not a stress-free job. The pressure and job skills needed sadly do not equate a high salary, but it is still a challenging and rewarding career in spite of the misguided opinions of people who think news writers, though they are no less biased than anyone else, report on what happens and not their own opinions.

Opinion pieces, on the other hand, are just that: someone' opinion. While one would hope a writer sharing their opinions would back his or her claims with facts, this is not always the case. Does that reflect poorly on news writers or the newspaper business as a whole? It shouldn't. Ignorance about the newspaper business is not just an issue on college campuses. I wish I had a nickel for each of the bizarre questions I have been asked by professionals about my job (i.e. "Do you actually write the stories?").

How did society go from casting heroes like Clark Kent as newspaper men to thinking many of them are biased liberals or democrats with "joke" jobs? Sadly, part of the blame can be laid on cable television. When some people see how biased Fox News and CNN tend to be, they likely expect that kind of bias from other mediums.

Also, young people generally do not get their news from newspapers. Instead, they have the internet, where bloggers can post whatever they want (within reason) without dealing with copy editors. While there are plenty of good blogs out there, some bloggers are self-righteous people with political agendas and no real knowledge of how newspapers work.

Finally, everyone who reacted to Lovell's article, or past controversial opinions in The West Georgian, should step back and ask themselves why someone would have such a dissenting opinion instead of resorting to name-calling and seeking to have the campus newspaper shut down. After all, supposed intolerance should not be combated with more intolerance. In this information age, there is no excuse for being ignorant about how campus newspapers work, even if you do not agree with this paper's content. In this country, there is no excuse to stifle free speech.

1 comments

john

Tue Jun 9 2009 02:19

Good story .I agree with you .Zero tolerance for intolerance.we have to tolerate each other .one of my friend who is the student of scea certification .He also very abusive and intolerant person.

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