Tragicomedy

The school paper tries really, really hard to drive home the importance of their stories through dedicated reporting and quality writing. While they don't often succeed through those methods, sometimes they accidentally prove their point through the inept and clumsy attempts at reporting that those of us who read the paper have grown to expect and even, sometimes, to love.

Case in point: There was an angry protest rally on campus on Friday. The Governor of Tennessee recently announced a six percent cut in higher education funding, and people are not happy about it. They had speeches, signs, and anger, which I saw when I was walking back from a lunch meeting:



The school newspaper, known for their hard hitting headlines, gave the rally extensive coverage that included three photos, two of which had captions:



"More then 100 students"? Like there were more students, and then 100 came after that? That seems wrong, but surely a newspaper staff that boasts a news editor, three copy editors, and two chief copy editors knows the difference between "then" and "than", right?

The second caption may shed some light on the answer to that question:



I had no idea that all of the people at the rally were named Friday, but it was good of the Fridays to rally against the budget cuts. God knows that, based on the quality of the student newspaper at the state's flagship institution, higher education needs all the funding it can get. Or, in the case of the second caption, higher eduation.

We can start by spending that money on English teachers.

student journalism at its finest

My coworker Angi and I both bring in our lunch every day, and on Mondays we sit at our desks in our offices across from each other and read the student newspaper. Monday is the best day for this because Monday is the day when the laughable conservative columnist writes. If you went to college, you know the type. She's a sophomore white girl from the suburbs who wants to know why there's a black history month but no white history month, who thinks Obama is a socialist, and who opposes the teaching of non-Christian science. Sometimes when her column is really awful Angi and I read pieces to each other and giggle, and wonder what it will be like when she grows up.

Today I eagerly opened the paper, expecting to get my weekly fix of "marriage is only for men and women" or "everyone in Iraq is a terrorist", but my eye was caught by the apologetic letter from the editor. The paper wanted to assure us, the readers, that they stand for good journalism, that they were heartfelt in their sorrow over possible offense that Friday's headline might have caused, that they bear no ill will toward the Vols or the Gamecocks, and that they have nothing but respect for the AP news feed.

What the hell?

"Hey, Angi, do you have Friday's paper still?"

"I think so. Why?"

"The letter from the editor thing says there was an offensive headline."

"I don't remember anything too bad. Come look."

It didn't take us long to burst out laughing.



Inadvertant? How is that possibly not deliberate? I don't think "inadvertant" means what the school paper thinks it means.