OPINION
By Emily Huntington
As a journalist representing the Horizon, and therefore representing the college, the biggest part of my job is to stay objective. In other words, my opinions have to stay out of my writing and my interviews.
It gets difficult, because I have a lot of opinions. When there are demonstrations on campus that display huge signs against abortion, I want to speak up. When the LaRouche men came with the Obama/Hitler mustache poster on October 28, I was angry…but all I could do was shake my head as I walked past them. That was until about 1:30, when myself and a classmate decided to take our notepads down and talk to them. Not to do a story, but just to see why they were there and what they had to say.
The first thing they said to us was “Hey, did you see our poster?” Now, what I responded probably could have gone unsaid, but I feel that doing something like that to the president of the United States – whether you love him or hate him – is unacceptable. Besides, I find it ironic that one of the men looked like a carbon copy of a younger version of him! After I said what I said and they realized that we were with the paper, they wouldn’t talk to us. “We don’t give interviews,” one of the men said. He also said that because I “insulted” his friend they weren’t going to talk… had we been “normal” people (not student journalists), they would have answered our questions. Since we weren’t, however, all they did was hand us a magazine with a number on the back. “Call this number if you want an interview,” he said. They were downright rude.
Unfortunately, no matter how offensive or rude some demonstrators are, the college cannot disallow them to come to campus. There is a form they have to fill out and they can only be on certain areas, but as long as they are keeping their hands to themselves and not following students with propaganda, they can be there. No matter what kind of demonstrations come, whether it be anti-abortion posters, or if the LaRouche men come back, I have to keep my cool and refrain from saying what is really on my mind, even if they return with the same poster or something more offensive.
Thanks for sharing this Opinion piece, Emily. Yes, as a reporter you are responsible for staying objective. But as a human being you are responsible for sharing your opinions and ideas, writing Opinion pieces, writing letters to the editor, and calling your Representatives to voice your concerns. So, thanks for doing that here!
Ms Huntington,
These propaganda peddlers are no more at fault than you are. Before you were identified as a journalist you took a swipe at their political jihad, yet you expect to be treated with deference and fairness?
They were downright rude. So were you, and the day ends with an impasse rather than discussion or understanding.
You were personally offended by the equation of Obama to Hitler. If blind support of our leaders becomes an emotional, guttural reflex; we have been tricked. We have been suckered by the hype, and they are free to do as they please. Remaining able to question the logic and evaluate the effectiveness of any nation’s leaders is vital.
I’ll choose truth over political advertising any day. What about you?
I fail to see how disagreeing with Obama being compared to Hitler equates to blind support of our leaders.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with questioning the effectiveness of our leaders, but when someone has to resort to such ridiculous and inflammatory rhetoric, it makes me wonder…do they really have something to say, or are they just trying to piss people off?
Disagreeing with an image on logical grounds is entirely different from responding emotionally because we’re personally hurt by the same image. You’ll notice I used the phrase, “personally offended”.
A large part of their strategy is, obviously, to piss people off. So don’t let them succeed. It’s that simple.
I think abortion is absolutely wrong and President Obama’s new healthcare plan will put our country in an even greater debt than we are already in, not to mention increase taxpayer funding of abortions and other vile things. The reason why the demonstrators depict Obama as Hitler is because his health care reform bill is almost identical to Hitler’s T4 Euthanasia Health Plan. If you actually spent a little time to do some research on their views, even if you don’t necessarily agree with them (it would be the least you could do as an honest journalist) you would know that. I think the people that come to your campus to demonstrate are very courageous and they should be commended for their good work reaching out to the community, not shunned. I find your writing to be non-objective and obviously biased towards these demonstrators. I think if you have a problem with them demonstrating on your campus, you should probably go live in another country, because in here in America people have a right to Freedom Of Speech.
I don’t think she has a problem with the demonstration itself rather then their method of delivering their message.
I realize this thread has been open for a very long time, but this anonymous post above just really got to me. I feel compelled to respond to a few statements this person wrote.
“The reason why the demonstrators depict Obama as Hitler is because his health care reform bill is almost identical to Hitler’s T4 Euthanasia Health Plan.”
-Absolute, unequivocal lie. If you are going to make a statement like that you had better have some actual evidence to back it up. Unbelievable.
“I find your writing to be non-objective and obviously biased towards these demonstrators.”
-I don’t disagree with you on this one. But see, if you will direct your attention to the top of the page you will see this piece is clearly labeled an opinion. As such, this writer is merely saying what she thinks, not necessarily trying to be objective. Don’t attack her journalistic integrity just because you fail at reading comprehension.
“I think the people that come to your campus to demonstrate are very courageous and they should be commended for their good work reaching out to the community, not shunned…I think if you have a problem with them demonstrating on your campus, you should probably go live in another country, because in here in America people have a right to Freedom Of Speech.”
-I am glad you understand one of the tenets of our First Amendment. We do have free speech. Good for you for recognizing that. I do not see any indication that the writer is “shunning” these LaRouche folks. She admits they have a right to be there. Her beef is with their tactics and absurd rhetoric, and I happen to agree with her. I think if you have a problem with a journalist expressing their CLEARLY-LABELED opinion on a matter they obviously feel strongly about, then maybe you should take your own advice.