For All You Daily Campus Naysayers...

[aus10fromhous10]

I mean no disrespect to the pf community, it is good to see so many people who are interested in the SMU athletics and The Daily Campus

BUT...

If you aren't in the newsroom during staff meetings or read the hard copies of the paper on a daily basis, there is no way anyone on this board is knowledgeable enough to know what really goes on at the paper.

I am the first to admit that the paper is not meeting the highest standards and that there is always room for improvement. That being said, to say that the paper makes "little to no effort" in covering SMU topics, especially sports, is an unfair accusation.

All last semester we ran a whole page, without ads, in color, dedicated to the weekend's sports, particuarly football on Tuesdays. The same thing was done in yesterday's paper for the weekend of basketball games.

[deleted] for tat about what people think about Ed Board's opinion. It's not Ed Board's job to have an opinion that pleases everybody. If you disagree, we'd love to publish your letter to the editor.

Trust me, its a lot harder to write it in the paper than hiding behind your computer monitor.

While there have been Ed Boards critical of the athletic deparment, there have been other Ed Boards critical of other departments in the university. But horrors of horrors, there have also been Ed Boards that support the athletic department, and other departments of the university.
How easily we all remember the negative things Ed Board says about athletics, and how quickly we forgot the positive things Ed Board has said.

If you search on the DC Web site the word "athletic" in the opinion section, you will find four Ed Board columns that are critical of the athletic department at SMU.

The first is the most recent Ed Board regarding Bennett's raise, another is about that trashy new logo they implemented this year. Another is about how they should get rid of Coach Dement and the fourth is about the athletic department's need to focus more on the students and not on floor side seats. The latter was in response to when they moved the cheerleaders away from the crowd and off to the side by the band to accomodate the newly added seats. Everyone should be able to admit that those are fair game topics for Ed Board, even if you disagree with the paper's opinion.

Now here's the kicker.

There are 10. Yes, 10 Ed Board Columns on the DC Web site that support the athletic department. Topics range from the football team to C-USA to the importance of attending basketball games.

How's that for "factual basis?"

So somebody (and that means you Julsonnet) explain to me how the DC has a negative atttitude towards the athletic department?

Austin Kilgore
Managing Editor
The Daily Campus

[Lamont_Cranston]

It may have been before you came onboard the DC staff but who was the 'brains' behind the Ed Board article to replace Peruna? That idea just plain sucked.

[aus10fromhous10]

Yeah I was on staff at the DC, but not on Ed Board at the time. I can't say I want to get rid of Peruna, but it was pretty funny seeing the onslaught of Mustang Bandsmen and Bandswomen (Bandspeople?) who were irriate about the idea of bucking the Peruna tradition.
Something else to keep in mind about Ed Board is that the members change every semester as editors come and go

[Spaz]

Yeah I was on staff at the DC, but not on Ed Board at the time. I can't say I want to get rid of Peruna, but it was pretty funny seeing the onslaught of Mustang Bandsmen and Bandswomen (Bandspeople?) who were irriate about the idea of bucking the Peruna tradition.
Something else to keep in mind about Ed Board is that the members change every semester as editors come and go

Oh yeah, Austin, that was a gas...idiot

[aus10fromhous10]

Oh Spaz you know its kinda funny

[abezontar]

you know, I think we should get rid of the daily campus and just let the DMN's quick and the Observer be the campus newspapers, everybody reads those more anyway, and the DC is just a waste of trees and space in Hughes-Trigg....


....funny?

[SMU Football Blog]

The Daily Campus would do better if it would stop trying to pretend the Greek community doesn't exist except when one of them screws up. It is a huge chunk of the student population, you know. You put the greeks in the paper, they would read it. That was my biggest complaint when I was a student and the problem still exists. Some organization sells $50 in baked goods at an event no one goes to, it makes the paper. A fraternity or sorority raises thousands of dollars or has an event attended by 100's and it never gets mentioned.

[EastStang]

As one who wrote for the DC, there are a couple of things I would pass on to today's leadership. First, when you hear a complaint from a student challenge them to write for the DC, that's how I started. I ragged on the Sports Editor and he challenged me with the "if you think you can do a better job".... Secondly, we devoted at least one page a day to sports (even on a four page day). When there wasn't a football or basketball game there were other sports, there were feature articles on players, there were intramurals. As for not covering greeks, perhaps if someone wanted a greek doings column, they could volunteer to write it. Otherwise, I guarantee you if a non-greek wrote it, it would be perceived as a slap piece or a condescending piece. Try writing a social column sometime and see if you want to put your name on it for all the world to see. I do agree that some of the stuff coming out of the Ed Board is pretty strange. Bring back Jim Dent.

[ponyplayer]

As one who wrote for the DC, there are a couple of things I would pass on to today's leadership. First, when you hear a complaint from a student challenge them to write for the DC, that's how I started. I ragged on the Sports Editor and he challenged me with the "if you think you can do a better job".... Secondly, we devoted at least one page a day to sports (even on a four page day). When there wasn't a football or basketball game there were other sports, there were feature articles on players, there were intramurals. As for not covering greeks, perhaps if someone wanted a greek doings column, they could volunteer to write it. Otherwise, I guarantee you if a non-greek wrote it, it would be perceived as a slap piece or a condescending piece. Try writing a social column sometime and see if you want to put your name on it for all the world to see. I do agree that some of the stuff coming out of the Ed Board is pretty strange. Bring back Jim Dent.

can`t, he is out playing on the pga senior tour.........

[aus10fromhous10]

The Daily Campus would do better if it would stop trying to pretend the Greek community doesn't exist....A fraternity or sorority raises thousands of dollars or has an event attended by 100's and it never gets mentioned.

HUH?

Are you aware that the DC has five members of the Greek Community on staff (myself included)? Even if we wanted to, it's impossible to ignore the Greeks on campus. What motivation does the DC staff have to ignore the Greeks? They're faithful advertisers, as well as valued members of our staff.

I just searched Philanthropy AND Fraternity, as well as Philanthropy AND Sorority on the DC Web site, and came up with 36 stories and that doesn't even include stories about Greeks in events like homecoming, sing song, family weekend, etc.

And surely you aren't suggesting the DC not report when Greeks make serious violations of the Code of Conduct and when students are endangered from BS pledge antics?

The paper has a responsibility to report news events invovling Greeks on campus, both positive and negative. The reailty of it is that the Greek community is not off always screwing up and breaking rules. They generally are organizations that represent our university well. So when a house does screw up, it is a serious news event that the paper should be covering

[couch 'em]

Yeah I was on staff at the DC, but not on Ed Board at the time. I can't say I want to get rid of Peruna, but it was pretty funny seeing the onslaught of Mustang Bandsmen and Bandswomen (Bandspeople?) who were irriate about the idea of bucking the Peruna tradition.
Something else to keep in mind about Ed Board is that the members change every semester as editors come and go

Well you were defending yourself pretty well until this post. "Let's say something completely idiotic in the Ed Board section and see how many people we can [deleted] off! Yeah, we're a high quality paper!" That is the kind of thing that causes the massive hate everyone has for the DC.

[Spaz]

Agreed. I could easily post a newspaper that says "Black People eat babies."
That'd stir up a bunch of controversy, but that doesn't make it good reporting.

[CalallenStang]

Look, guys, he said he wasn't on Ed Board at the time. He said he didn't agree with the effort to find a new mascot, but he did find the reaction quite amusing. Not anywhere does he specify that the Ed Board at that current time really didn't believe in their cause.

Ed Board's editorials are just that---the opinions of the current Ed Board. You don't have to agree with them. As a matter of fact, they might be the only people on campus who have those opinions, but they publish them in order to shed a different light on an issue.

If you've never been in the newspaper business, lay off.

[aus10fromhous10]

Thank you CalallenStang

[CalallenStang]

Thank you CalallenStang

No problem.

I'm an editor on my high school paper, and it sickens me when people who have no idea what is going on make comments that really are so off-base it's not even funny. I can only imagine how hard it must be for a paper with such a small staff to even do as much as the DC has been doing. Heck, our high school paper has a 26-person staff and we struggle to get a 24-page paper out once every six weeks.

Those who are criticizing the DC do not have any idea how hard it is to put out a quality product in the newspaper business. Apparently they also do not understand the concept of editorials.

In a few minutes, I'll send you a PM.