Journalistic Failure
The original publisher of the Oregon Commentator, Dane Claussen, once said that the OC’s purpose was to print the news that, “the other publications are unable to tell you because of inexperience, incompetence or the narrow-mindedness of their staffs.” That was some 26 years ago and it seems the OC still has purpose. Not to continue to toot our own horn or anything but, as any regular reader of the blog knows (because we’ve been pimping it hard), the OC has recently published a 25th anniversary book edited by the current publisher Timothy Dane Carbaugh.
Call me crazy, but it seems to me students creating, printing and selling a 300-page hard bound history book completely on their own volition about a student organization that’s survived significant adversity for more than 25 years would be a newsworthy event. Which is why I am glad to finally announce that, now just about a month after the book was released, the Daily Emerald has gotten around to publishing a story.
You’d think that this would be the sort of thing that would hit the front page of any daily student newspaper, but here at the University of Oregon you’d be wrong. Instead, the story was buried deep in the “scene” insert. I would link to the article, but it is suspiciously absent from their online content. Luckily for them, we’ve published the article here.
I wonder if ol’ Mr. Claussen would chock this up to simple narrow-mindedness or gross incompetence? I can’t say, but you take a look at this editorial cartoon about Sarah Palin’s book recently published by the Emerald and you will probably agree that it is a real chicken shit outfit over there.
Do not ridicule someone’s “intellectual substance” if you are going to screw up the spelling of “rogue”.
*Whoosh*
If you guys want the paper to promote your book buy an ad.
“Continuing to dominate”?
Erroneous!
If y’all had done some research, you would know that the cartoon was actually spoofing the new paperback, “Going Rouge: An American Nightmare” – A book that examines the “nightmarish prospect of her continuing to dominate the nation’s political scene.”
I was unaware that the ODE ran such a Pro-Palin outfit … Kind of ironic, don’t you think?
Good catch on the cartoon, that’s funny.
I think Vincent has definitely found the real problem here.
Why yes, Tim. It seems that they do! Moreover, did you know that “[w]hile nightlife on East 13th Avenue near campus revolves around the college lifestyle, many said downtown represents a Eugene identity separate from the University”?
Huh! How remarkable!
Bars come in genera now?
Vincent, that may be one of the most back-handed compliments/insults that I have ever read.
I think you just don’t understand that the Emerald places extraordinary importance on articles like their astonishingly fascinating piece on such mundane phenomena like “people go to the bars downtown to drink on their off-time” (“Saturday Night: Downtown”).
Webspace is valuable, you know. It’s not like they can’t just add links to new content willy-nilly, especially on their front page. After all, if they started linking to stories they carried in the print version of the paper, they wouldn’t have room for all those thumbnailed articles about the Civil War game that they inexplicably dump right in the middle of their layout. Besides that, I’m sure any extra links to stories more current than “Scene” articles fresher than November 19th would leave no room for all those crucial “LATEST PODCASTS”; those have, after all, been the talk of campus, at least in the circles I move in.
Frankly, Guy, I think you’re just being bitter and over-critical. Doesn’t it seem just a little bit petty to suggest that the Emerald deign to post content that isn’t approaching a month old on their website?
Seriously, grow up man. The people running the ODE are clearly professionals who know what they’re doing and have a firm grasp on this whole “online content” thing. There’s no doubt in my mind that they, having taken classes in the J-School and all that, understand much better than simpletons like you or I the wisdom in keeping such painfully dull and useless stories about the “downtown scene” on their website for weeks at a time rather than posting newer, fresher stories about things that are actually happening on the campus “scene”.
After all, how else would we know that “within a four block radius, there are more than 15 bars, each with its own style and genre”?