Your Turn Letters to the Editor

Don’t spy on me

As each week comes and goes, there is one thing I look forward to that helps keep me occupied during a long and boring course, The Commonwealth Times. I was reading through the articles and one caught my eye: Bush and his wiretapping issues. Ah yes, Bush has caught a lot of heat about that. No warrants were involved and the media have been jumping on this like a homeless person jumping on some free food. I have to remember the Clinton administration. Did everyone forget that good old Clinton did the same thing? In 1994, President Clinton expanded the use of warrantless searches to entirely domestic situations with no foreign intelligence value whatsoever. So who was Clinton going after? The lucky man was CIA official Aldrich H. Ames, who ultimately pleaded guilty to spying for the former Soviet Union. And the wonderful thing is that the majority of the U.S. supported it! So why the big deal about Bush? It seems that when Bush does something wrong, he gets the wrong end of the stick. But our former president can do the same thing and get away with it? What are we missing? I think you should show both sides of the story. I saw no mention whatsoever about President Clinton or Al Gore. If I have missed anything, please let me know because I can only wonder what The Times complained about when Clinton was in office. Because he was a perfect angel, right?

Kena Banks

Editor’s reply:

Underneath the column to which you refer was another on the wiretapping issue, ‘Hello? Afghanistan?’ That column, by Derek Rinaldo, mentioned none other than the Clinton administration. As for the CT’s complaints during Clinton’s presidency, doubtless they were numerous as well.

‘Expensive’ challenge

I am writing today to discuss an issue that fundamentally concerns each and every student at Virginia Commonwealth University. That issue is freedom of speech and The Commonwealth Times’ lack of it.

Each year The Commonwealth Times is awarded money from the Student Media Commission to operate. The Student Media Commission generates this money from a portion of each student’s tuition fees and without it The Commonwealth Times would be unable to operate.

While each student is forced to pay, each student is not allowed the same access to publish in and staff The Commonwealth Times as preferential treatment is given to students in the School of Mass Communications.

Before you run out to look at the bylaws of The Commonwealth Times, be advised they say they are fair and have no link to the School of Mass Communications, but actions speak louder than words.

In one mass communications course, the object for the students is to have articles published in The Commonwealth Times. Coincidentally, there is a huge conflict of interest as this course is taught by Wilma Wirt, the faculty adviser of The Commonwealth Times and is a place the executive editor, Katie Gantt, usually is seen at editing the students’ stories.

At the very least it is taxation without representation, as you pay for The Commonwealth Times to operate yet you cannot participate in it because you are not in the School of Mass Communications.

The funniest thing about it is that The Commonwealth Times contradicts itself each and every day on its masthead as it claims to be “independent.” But it is nothing of the sort, as it is dominated by mass communications majors and advised by an active mass communications professor.

If you do not believe me, that’s fine. Try to write for them as a non-mass communications student and you will encounter the same ignorance I have.

That is why I am challenging them, as something needs to be done to correct this unjust use of student funds. I have started in motion a hearing before the Student Government Association. E-mail or write your senator and tell them you want to know why The Commonwealth Times is allowed to operate.

I have also taken steps to acquire funds to form a new student-operated newspaper, which will place emphasis on diversity of staff and writers rather than inclusiveness. It will also maintain no connection to any department, making it a place where any student can have articles published or gain experience.

If you or any student has had problems in working with The Commonwealth Times please contact me to let me know. Also, please stop by our table, which we will have every Thursday in the student commons, starting the week of March 1.

In closing, I have a challenge for the School of Mass Communications and The Commonwealth Times. If you wish to maintain exclusiveness, give all the other students their money back and become a department-funded publication. Then since you will be a private department publication, you publish on your pages anything you want. Bet you won’t call my bluff because that would be too expensive. To the other students tuition is expensive, and we want to know why we can’t take advantage of the newspaper we pay for.

Sincerely,
Michael R. Dickinson
President of the Free Speech Foundation
s2mrdick@vcu.edu

Editor’s reply:

Thank you for your letter to the editor. The Commonwealth Times is always open to feedback from readers, even if it is not an opinion with which the editorial board members agree. We also encourage all students to submit pieces for publication including articles, commentary, photography and other artwork including comics and graphics.

The CT does not give preferential treatment to mass communications majors. Some of the staff members are from that school, and they work at the newspaper because it prepares them for the profession they are studying.

However, not all of The CT staff members – which includes unpaid contributors – are mass communications majors. Of the eight paid editors on staff, one holds a bachelor’s degree in English, another is a sports leadership graduate student, and a third is a history major. One of the production staff members is a French major. Concerning writers, in last week’s two issues of The Commonwealth Times, we included articles from students pursuing degrees in mechanical engineering, English, business and film.

The CT is in fact made up of a diversely educated group of people, and all students are welcome to apply for a position at The CT.

The CT is an independent publication. While The CT does receive funding for some costs – as do many other campus publications – other costs (including student editorial staff salaries) are paid for by the advertisements sold by our business department.

Also, The CT is independent of prior editorial review. The decisions to publish works are solely left up to the executive and managing editors based upon newsworthiness and content, not based upon the author’s school of study. The student staff also makes the final decision regarding potentially libelous or inappropriate content, grammatical errors, editorial tone, clarity and length.