If anyone read my diary a few days ago about me starting to get involved in the campaign, you may have came across one of my comments in there about my school paper. If not, here's a synopsis of the situation.
My school paper (The Daily Illini, for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) for the first two weeks of this semester was spent mostly talking of Barack Obama--almost always negatively, sometimes substantive sometimes not--but barely a word of John McCain, either good or bad. I mentioned it on here and was encouraged to write to the paper about it. So I did. Well, it got published yesterday!
Well at least according to the newspaper. The website archives for some reason does not have it, so I had to scan a copy of it. Sadly, I actually saved the page for an entirely different reason without noticing that I was on there, only knowing when a friend wrote to me on facebook to tell me she read it.
So here you go, with a transcript at the end (probably not necessary but I like being complete), with my notes in []:
Opinions should represent whole campus
I have to admit I find it funny how the editors and many of the published letters do a lot in going out of their way to bash Barack Obama for everything from legitimate policy issues to the inane, yet they can't muster a word about John McCain, good or bad. Why is that? Is everyone so disappointed with him that the political discourse has been relegated to attacking one candidate while ignoring the other one completely? Not that I am against political discourse and disagreement, but it would be nice to actually, you know, represent the campus as a whole in the end and not solely some conservative elements [the average person on campus leans progressive]. If this is what The Daily Illini has devolved to, I might as well read the Orange and Blue Observer [underground conservative/libertarian newspaper]. At least with them you know what you're going to get. Plus, they actually have the gall to criticize Saint P.O.W. [yes I actually said that] It's a sad day when the underground papers have to do the job that the main campus paper neglects. Sad Indeed.
Probably didn't make the archives because I was critical of them; that or they don't want others to read the OBO, which does lie very close to wing-nutty often. Well at least I got my copy for posterity.