Acting ‘out of anger’ put newspaper in a bad position

Dear Editors of The Red & Black,

Please allow me to apologize for starting the rumor that I worked for The Red & Black and had “caught the editors making fun of writers to the paper.”

I admit that I have no connections to the paper or any of its writers. I hope that any readers will not portray The Red & Black in a bad manner, and I can not let my friends take responsibility for my idea to pretend to be part of the paper.

I know nothing that goes on or how the editors operate in the newsroom, and I allowed my anger of Greeks “being portrayed in a bad light” to skew my judgment. What I did was totally immature, and could have ruined the reputation of the newspaper.

I will work towards supporting the paper, the future of the editors, and the reputation of The Red & Black.

I take full responsibility for opening this can of worms, and will take responsibility for any damage done to The Red & Black staff.

I will use much better judgment in the future and not act out of anger.

Stephen Jenkins
Junior, Gainesville

Posting false comments was ‘beyond immature’

I would like to say I am sorry for mine and my friend’s actions by posting on The Red & Black website pretending to be a member of The Red & Black. By doing this, we were hoping that someone would admit to deliberately not editing a letter written into the paper.

Although we made the paper staff look bad, I still call into question your motives behind putting so many {sic}’s in the girl’s letter, and not editing this. It seems to me that the editors that allowed this to get printed, did this because they disagreed with her point.

I still want to restate that the comments on The Red & Black’s website saying we were a person who worked for The Red & Black and saw the editors laughing at the girl’s article are completely untrue, but this does not prove that you did or did not act in this behavior.

My friend and I took the matter far beyond original intentions, and made the staff look unprofessional and bad.

Although we were lying about being on the staff, we sure did get your attention, just as the staff got our attention when editing that girl’s letter in that way.

I acted beyond immature, and I apologize for that.

Ashley Petris
Junior, Athens
Biology

Red & Black doesn’t owe anyone an apology

The Red & Black is not here to suckle or coddle anyone. If the “college” student using their “computer” does not have the sense to use their spell check, before submitting an item for public consumption. they have no room to complain. I personally do not believe the paper has anything to apologize about.

People, get a grip!

You are adults now and you should be held accountable for your own actions. What. someone sends in a letter with a few misspelled words, so now everyone is afraid to submit an article?

Please. are we still in high school? Put on your big girl panties and step it up.

To The Red & Black. you owe no one an apology.

Jacquee Rosumny
Staff, Kinesiology department

Unwarranted criticism nothing new to newspapers

While I was an undergraduate at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, I regularly wrote for the student newspaper. In my time there, I saw no shortage of criticism for the newspaper from all sides.

The conservatives accused us of being liberals, the liberals accused us of being conservatives, the non-whites accused us of being racists, and the whites accused us of being anti-greek.

At one point, even the corrupt SGA at that university began to take action to shut down the paper, thanks especially to one of my inflammatory articles criticizing the drunken, violent, racist antics of the social frats at that institution.

This lead to a major scandal on campus, and eventually the SGA backed down once it was faced with the fact that it had brought hell down upon the university in the form of possible lawsuits from people like the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

I know what it’s like to face unrelenting criticism from barely-literate people who only contact you when they get sore over their pet causes. It’s the same here, it seems, and those that have a problem with The Red & Black are showing their uncivilized, neanderthal-like minds in their vandalizing of your website’s comment area and in their poorly written letters to the editor. Instead of trying to contribute, they resort to bullying and whining.

To hell with them, you guys do a great job. Keep it up.

Jacob Lovell
Graduate Student, Tiger, Ga.

New letters, comments policies are illogical

I am extremely disappointed in The Red & Black. Not only did you not apologize for the snafu yesterday, but instead decided to explain that the new policy is to not edit for spelling. Was this the policy when you published the letter? No, but now you have this completely illogical and reactionary policy that will be done away with once this whole thing blows over.

Really, how much sense does it make to edit letters in every way except spelling? It’s ironic that you’re doing this to try to protect your reputation on campus because all you’re doing is reinforcing the belief that The Red & Black has no integrity whatsoever. When a credible paper gets called out, the paper will apologize for the incident and explain the mistake.

So far all I’ve seen is an explanation. Not even a “sorry for the misunderstanding?”

Way to go, Red and Black. You just lost a reader.

Annie Skinner
Graduate Student, Kennesaw
Social work

Red & Black full of biases and agendas

“Journalistic” bias is nothing new.

While the Mercado story and mailbox letter incident have been a recent example of The Red & Black’s bias, no one should be surprised, even if you continue to be outraged by it. As observant readers of The Red & Black can attest, it (at least in recent years) has always had its agendas and biases.

One used to be able to tell by the types of articles selected from the AP to give a snapshot of the global news. This year Bill Richards’ pointed and consistent editorial cartoons helps further the case. And one has always been able to see the biases clearly by reading the tone of supposed “news” items, right next to the editorial evincing the same attitude.

Bias, ideology, and agenda on the part of The Red & Black are nothing new. Neither is it new to journalism. That we no longer look to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal as testaments to objective reporting but rather to see where the left and the right stand is a telling example.

So while I agree with Mr. McAfee’s words condemning what happened, I expect nothing less than continued anti-Greek and other biased opinions from an organization that has a long and detailed history of bias in an industry quickly crumbling from the desertion of its original principles of integrity.

Ian Gunn
Junior, New Orleans
Psychology and philosophy