# My school newspaper actually printed this? Buh?! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 1, 2003, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054 "2003-02-01T05:31:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/21 "2003-02-01T22:17:30Z")
Opinion or not, I’m just surprised they printed it. What did it have to do with anything? They must have been either desperate for controversy or desperate for letters to the Editor that week. Esprix ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/22 "2003-02-02T04:34:12Z")
Controversy gets people reading. GMU’s newspaper had an absolute asshat writing for them for about a year and a half. Every month or so they’d have someone write in to correct the guy on an article or two. But hey, more people read, so they figured they were doing their job. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/23 "2003-02-06T15:34:39Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by Libertarian_ > The letter is an editorial. Editorials are for opinions. The writer expressed his. He need not supply any “evidence” for his opinion. He’s giving his viewpoint — the way he sees what the Democrats have done. Wrong. An editorial isn’t just mindless spewing of unsubstantiated opinion. It should have some factual basis to support its argument, otherwise it is just bad journalism. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/24 "2003-02-06T17:34:53Z")
C’mon, the business model of every newspaper is to sell readers to advertisers. By publishing that letter: 1. the people who agree with it keep getting the paper 2. the people who disagree with it tell themselves that the editor is exposing the ignorance and keep getting the paper Result - readers to sell to advertisers! ---
**Author:** ![AntaresJB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@AntaresJB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AntaresJB)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/25 "2003-02-06T20:57:39Z")
**Icarus** – this is a college newspaper, and a very very small one at that (campus population is about 3500) - There are very few advertisers, maybe the occasional plug for the pizza shop downtown or a dance on Saturday, but that’s about it. The paper is free, it’s a bunch of college kids writing the articles and doing the editing and shit. So I doubt this was a part of the “business model.” But they’re usually better than this. In an update: This weeks edition came out yesterday, with a printing of both my letter and a letter from the president of the school’s College Democrats with a point-by-point rebuttal of the original letter’s ramblings. I received an email from said president thanking me for having the balls to express my opinions. So… we’ll see what happens, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![AntaresJB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@AntaresJB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AntaresJB)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/26 "2003-02-06T21:00:41Z")
Also - the link in the OP now doesn’t work, it links now to one of THIS week’s editorials… I think the only way for me to post the original letter would be to type it up manually… and I don’t have the time… so maybe this thread should be closed? or perhaps just the link deleted? Mods? ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/27 "2003-02-06T21:43:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AntaresJB \* > \*\*But they’re usually better than this. \*\* What precisely do you mean by that? That they have strayed from your comfort zone by publishing a viewpoint you don’t wholeheartedly agree with? What I’m saying is that there may be segment of readers who lean toward the original letter writer. The editors serve their readership by publishing it, as well as serve their readership by publishing your letter. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/28 "2003-02-06T21:52:59Z")
I dunno. The response from the president of the school’s College Democrats was no prize. While lacking the raging, foaming-at-the-mouth idiocy of the original letter, it was only marginally better constructed, containing several errors of fact (also unsupported by citation) and several errors in logic. I suspect that there are times when it really is better to allow a person to simply demonstrate their own foolishness unassisted. “Never wrestle a pig. You both get muddy and the pig enjoys it.” ---
**Author:** ![markdiscordia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@markdiscordia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdiscordia)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/29 "2003-02-07T05:23:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Imagine if the letter, instead of being about Democrats, had said “Jews,” or “White People.” Would you have printed it then? You do realize that self-chosen labels such as political and religious affiliation are subject to criticism, while accidents of birth such as ethnicity and skin color are not, right? You seem to have slipped from arguing that the letter-writer is wrong to arguing that no one should \*\* ever \*\* criticize a political party. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/30 "2003-02-07T08:02:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by markdiscordia \* > \*\*You do realize that self-chosen labels such as political and religious affiliation are subject to criticism, while accidents of birth such as ethnicity and skin color are not, right? You seem to have slipped from arguing that the letter-writer is wrong to arguing that no one should \*\* ever \*\* criticize a political party. \*\* And you do realize that ethnicity is a cultural construct that is more about a person’s chosen lifestyle than it is about accident of birth location or genetics, right? And you further realize that race has no demonstrable basis in fact beyond the cultural/political norms that have grown up around the mistaken notion of the existence of genetic rifts within the species _Homo sapiens_, right? Giving race and ethnicity any more significance than any other social construct is wrong. All forms of hate are equal, merely the level of hate varies. Expressing disagreement is not hate, but bashing away at something while being resistant to learning anything about it is. Racists and Fascist Nationalists are both bigots, united in the common bonds of Hatred of The Other, no matter which cockamamie division lines they choose to create. – **Derleth** , human. ---
**Author:** ![Hazen21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Hazen21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazen21)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/31 "2003-02-07T17:14:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\* Racists and Fascist Nationalists are both bigots, united in the common bonds of Hatred of The Other, no matter which cockamamie division lines they choose to create. > > – **Derleth** , human. \*\* Cry me a river, hippie. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/32 "2003-02-07T19:08:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Esprix \* > \*\*Opinion or not, I’m just surprised they printed it. \*\* But it got people talking about it and the paper. When I lived in Shreveport, LA (truly a hot bed of liberalism:)), I swear the Op/Ed editors would purposely print the most idiotic, back-woods letters. I picture the editor holding one up: “You _gotta_ read this one! You won’t believe it!” My favorite was the woman who was agin’ Daylight Savings Time. The extra hour of sunlight would only burn up her lawn. I swear it’s not an urban legend. I read it with my own two eyes. ---
**Author:** ![bristlesage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@bristlesage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bristlesage)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/33 "2003-02-07T19:32:55Z")
_Originally posted by iamthewalrus(:3=_ \*\*"…I often eat at [Women’s college], which is home to a large lesbian population." \*\* I went to that Women’s college, and our lesbian population just wasn’t that big. Oh, and what a fucking idiotic statement. Good to know things haven’t changed too much in Claremont in the last couple of years. (Oh, and let me be a total jerk: just which college did the writer of that nice statement go to?) ---
**Author:** ![bristlesage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@bristlesage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bristlesage)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/34 "2003-02-07T19:34:20Z")
Oh, and **iamthewalrus(:3=**, none of that was directed at you. I’m so sorry; I didn’t read closely enough. It sure looks like it was, but it was directed at the jerk who wrote that article. Sorry, all. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054/35 "2003-02-07T20:37:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hazen21 \* > \*\*Cry me a river, hippie. \*\* Ooh. Now I’m scared. Obviously, you know precisely dick about me. Come back when you have _three_ neurons to rub together. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-school-newspaper-actually-printed-this-buh/152054.md?page=1)