Acorn

Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Jen Richter

If you were to walk into The Acorn office-which I encourage you to do-you'd find someone who is afraid of fish, a person obsessed with Johnny Depp, a guy fluent in Polish, a girl who was Peter Pan last Halloween and a sophomore who is one hell of a bass fisherman. You'd find people who have suffered through bad break-ups, celebrated their dog's birthdays, lost grandparents, gotten engaged, starred in plays, broken bones and fought with their parents. Yes, they all have parents. And favorite colors. And-sometimes-social lives. The students who work on The Acorn are just that-students. They're a lot of other things as well-hardworking journalists, devoted athletes, aspiring thespians-but when it comes down to it, not one of these Drewids is any different from their counterparts on the other side of the print. For some reason, our readership seems to forget that.

I'm perfectly content with the knowledge that one of the first avenues on which blame is placed when the Drew community feels unsettled is the newspaper. We report the truth, and sometimes, well, we all know what Jack Nicholson had to say about the truth. If we didn't report each week on the goings-on on campus, we wouldn't be doing our job-which is protecting the student body from not being informed. It is extremely frustrating when this effort is interpreted by our readership as intentionally insensitive, and furthermore, dishonest. Of course, I am referring to the recent theft of The Acorn from its delivery spot and the reactions of students who accused the staff of intentionally attacking a student simply to get publicity.

I don't usually encourage the Acorn staff to respond to letters to the editor-which is why we print each one, but never include a defense to complaints lodged against us. I have faith that every one of our articles can stand on their own. However, this time, due to the reactions of some students, I feel I must respond.

We care about the student body. If we didn't, we wouldn't devote our whole week to making sure that the student body is informed. We wouldn't stress out over unclear photographs or spend time coming up with the best headline. We wouldn't care if we labeled people correctly in captions or whether or not the members of campus had a place to display their own opinions.

But we do. So to be accused of personally attacking a member of the student body-who is no different from all of the other members that we protect through information and investigation-seems absurd and all the more frustrating.

Continued...

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