FRONT PAGE, dudes!!
I'm so thrilled that this *slightlyokaymorethanslightly* biased article got by my editor. And hey. I don't mean to side with the democrats. I just really wanted to make a little fun of Dino Rossi and the College Republicans, because they are retarded
( Read more... )
Rossi WAS complaining a lot about "winning twice", and I thought it would be good to point that out, especially since one of the people I interviewed said that. And let me point out that I am perfectly within my rights to post my own opinions on my own live journal. If my article was too biased (which a lot of people didn't think it was at all, I talked to some republican friends), it wouldn't have been run under the news title, but would've been moved to the opinion section.
And one thing we take pride in at the Daily is we are not required by anyone to report something in any one way. We can be biased if we want (even though we try not to be), we can give our opinions, and we can point out when someone is complaining about an election that is over and done with. It's a COLLEGE newspaper. Get over it, really. And the people on that site are RETARDED (oh yes, notice the play on words?) to associate my opinions on my live journal with what I wrote. Yeah, I did call the UW College Republicans retarded. IN MY LIVE JOURNAL. Yeah, I did say an intelligent [UW college] republican was an oxymoron. IN MY LIVE JOURNAL. Those live journal comments did not run with my article, however, and I thought I was more than fair in it. Considering the fact that I didn't call the college republicans retarded for no reason, as I've had to interview them numerous times on numerous subjects...
Finally, let me just say that my main goal in my writing, or in journalism is to provoke controversy and get people to think about the things that I'm saying, the way that I'm saying them and why I'm saying it. My article was fair, and even though I wrote it with a few personal biases, I don't think those necessarily came out (as I had to explain what I was going for to people after they read this post).
So thanks, actually, for helping me stir things up.
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I also think that you have to worry about perception. People from Boeing, the Washington Business Roundtable, KOMO, Metrokc.gov, the US Navy via NCTC, and Dino Rossi's Forward Washington (to name a few) have all seen my post about you - and I encourage you to think about that long and hard. When you make public statements on your LiveJournal equating Republicans to retards and then proceed to not just write about them, but post in your LiveJournal bragging about sneaking this past your editor... I think we Republicans have a right to - with dignity that you respectfully lack - raise the issue of bias.
One other thing: Knowing disabled people, they consider the word "retarded" just as bad as the... f-bomb. I'll leave you w/ that thought.
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If you were in fact a media professional, you would realize that there have been several incidents of journalists actually being FIRED for their irresponsible comments made in personal blogs that reference material/topics they were writing stories on. One of the things I have learned as a journalist--and any reporter/editor/news professional will agree with--is that when your byline appears in public, you are no longer allowed the same rights as everyday citizens. You are held to a higher standard, much like that of politicans or public figures, and no matter how much your blog may be your *personal property*, the things you say are appearing in an international forum. In that respect you are representing your publication/business/the media conglomerate in general with EVERY WORD YOU SAY.
Most importantly, there is a reason that any and all newspapers keep their editorial (opinion) writers separate from their news writers, simply to avoid potential conflicts of interests.
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"I just want to say that I don’t mean to try to defend my situation [no longer] in any way, and I think trying to clarify what I was trying to do will only exacerbate the situation. I want to acknowledge the mistake that I made to everyone and apologize publicly to the daily for any kind of damage I’ve done. Furthermore, there are steps being taken to assure it won’t happen again.
I’ve learned a lot about journalism and the ethics that go along with it, and from now on I intend to keep my opinion where it belongs - completely separate and away from anything I write or say about my writing. I just want to acknowledge my mistake and learn from it, and have the issue be left at that."
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