Serious Concerns Over Erroneous Articles: A Letter to the Editor

In the April 5 issue of The Pointer, William Helmke voiced serious concerns about an article featured in The Pointer the week previous titled “Occupy Spinoff comes to Miller Park, Brings Beer, Apathy.” These concerns need to be taken very seriously.
The article in question was written by Aaron Osowski and published around April 1, 2012. In his critique of Osowski’s article, Helmke asserts “the stereotypes presented in this article are no better than conservatives calling a woman desiring access to birth control a ‘slut’ or calling Occupy protestors ‘unwashed hippies.’” He goes on to say, “This sort of liberal-slanted satire belongs on an entertainment website such as the Onion.” Come on, The Pointer. Where’s your sense of journalistic professionalism? Anderson Cooper would be so disappointed.
Helmke was right in bringing attention to this article’s serious lack of “facts and reasonable arguments.” I whole-heartedly agree with Helmke. Not only was Osowski’s article full of factual mishaps, the entire publication (released around April 1) was plagued with misinformation. The cover story, which dealt with kittens in space, ran amuck with graphical and logical errors. Another story titled “Local Hipster Suffers Brain Injury, Goes ‘Bro’” lacked serious scientific credentials, not to mention being offensive to self-defined hipsters and bros. Don’t even get me started on Michael Wilson’s embarrassingly erroneous “One iPad Per Student” article. It’s almost as if the entire April 1 newspaper was some kind of big joke.

 

Shane Stricker

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