Fact – police say a kid chunked in a cab, then told them his fraternity made him drink. Fact – he took it all back a few days later. Fact – The Red & Black is “anti-Greek” for reporting it all?

I don’t think the last fact is true, but the anti-Greek argument is easier to make in the wake of Rebecca McGee’s letter published in The Red & Black’s Monday Mailbox. McGee suggested the yacker made it all up to save himself. By writing to the paper, she chose to add her voice to a very public conversation, which is exactly the point of this page. But this newspaper, for which I work and greatly respect, didn’t properly edit her letter as it does other letters I’ve seen in that mailbox.

Instead, opinions editor Michael Fitzpatrick and his superiors chose to leave the misspellings in and sardonically added (sic) to each one. Cute.

But policy or not, the handling of the letter sent a message to many readers which was clearer than anything McGee was trying to say. Each “sic” said, “Hey look at this idiot who can’t spell ‘fraternity.’ Look at this fool who can’t pay attention to those zigzagged red lines under the word “vommit.” How can someone like this criticize our paper’s reporting?”

I understand why the editors feel as they do. It’s hard putting in hours doing the legwork, getting the quotes and trying to be accurate and fair when you know the only people who appreciate it are your boss and your proud Grandma.

It’s tough continually correcting the horrific grammar of people who write your paper to complain about how terrible your writing and reporting is – never stopping to think of what other institution than the newspaper gives such an opportunity for its own critics to air their attacks.

So I think the editors slipped. They tried to be clever, and in the process further alienated a large part of the campus community already looking for ways to call them out. I heard last week I was anti-Greek when I wrote about hooligans in Sanford Stadium’s 300 section – without any direct reference to whether or not all of them were Greek.

Instead of agreeing with me that there are jerks in every population, as the IFC guy I quoted in that column did, many critics pulled out the anti-Greek argument after only reading the first paragraph.

But now, arguing that I and my Red and Back colleagues aren’t anti-Greek will be a lot harder. The editors in charge of the Monday Mailbox should have held their heads high, corrected her spelling, and printed her criticism – just one more from someone who obviously never closely read the original piece she was criticizing.

I think the editors messed up. They lost their patience and lowered themselves almost to the childish level of the clownish online commenters. I’m pretty sure they know it. And I’m certain we’re all learning from it. If we’re going to make a living in part by pointing out the mistakes of others, we have to be able to examine our own.

It shouldn’t happen again. For when you call someone out on their spelling – while printing thousands of words per day – you’re asking for trouble. And readers didn’t have to look far to find it on Monday.

Because Michael Fitzpatrick, the opinions editor who added (sic) seven times to Rebecca McGee’s letter, wrote an institutional editorial which was printed a few inches to the left of McGees letter.

And in it is a word which also should have been underlined in zigzagged red. I think I’ll reprint the line the way it should have read: “.the nonexistant (sic) office of sustainability.”

Did you mean non-existent, Mr. Fitzpatrick? Because when it comes to the dictionary, “non-existant” is non-existent.

Hey – everyone makes mistakes. We at The Red & Black might want to think about that the next time we are tempted to shred someone’s credibility in an attempt to defend our own.

- Marc McAfee is the online editor for The Red & Black. Send him comments at mmcafee@randb.com.