Time for Hauser to apologize

Over the many years I spent at Iowa State, I have seen many examples of unprofessionalism at the Daily. However, the Daily is a learning environment for all, particularly for the journalism students, and therefore, most examples of such unprofessionalism are excusable, unless they are repeat offenses. In this particular case, however, the unprofessionalism was committed not by the three editors, but rather by the editor in chief herself. Ms. Hauser should seriously consider how her actions affect the integrity of The Daily. Ms. Hauser, if you are really concerned about the integrity of this newspaper, you should apologize and reinstate their jobs, and you too, will be excused for your unprofessional behavior. Go ahead and do it; you know it is the right thing to do.

Robi Polikar, Ph.D.

ISU Alumnus

Glassboro, NJ

Firings a justifiable punishment

Andrea Hauser was justified in firing the three editors who appeared in “Toons” last week.

The Daily is a learning environment, where staff members are gaining valuable experience in their future careers. The editors fired last week learned a very valuable lesson about proper behavior expected of an employee of a media outlet that they aren’t likely to repeat.

This is not a matter of “free speech,” as Alex Rodek wrote in a letter to Toons editor Richard Lem, and published in the current issue of Toons. This is a matter of misrepresentation, in which the journalistic integrity of the Iowa State Daily was compromised by the Toons article in question.

The Daily requires considerable amounts of money to produce and distribute, especially when you consider that it is made available to students at no cost all over campus. A portion of this money comes from advertising revenue.

When three editors from the Daily, or any newspaper, are voluntarily depicted in another publication, humorous or otherwise, they are representatives of their respective paper, whether they like it or not. It is completely possible that an advertiser could see the article in Toons and rethink their decision to advertise in the Daily, if it seemed their editors don’t take their positions seriously.

Richard Lem is not helping the situation by making light of it in the current issue of Toons, where he “challenges Andrea Hauser, and her supervisors, of the ISU Daily, to a duel.” While I’m sure he sees this issue as a joke and loads of free publicity, he needs to realize the Daily has vital interests to protect.

If the newspaper in question was a high school paper, then reprimanding the editors or briefly suspending them would be an appropriate consequence. At a university, however, the environment is different. The Daily is a place for future journalists to get a feeling for how professional newspapers are operated. If an editor of the Des Moines Register was in a similar situation, they would undoubtedly be fired as well.

Journalistic integrity is the reason you don’t see Dan Rather selling Coca Cola. The professional journalist is a public figure with a reputation for credibility to uphold. While the Daily editors were not quite public figures, they were representatives of the Daily and should have known better than to let themselves be photographed by Richard Lem.

Sean Corcoran

Senior

Journalism & mass communication

Daily editors finally taking stand

In my years here at Iowa State University, the Daily and its editor are finally taking a stand. The firings at the Daily shows that Hauser has some guts as well as showing off her leadership at the paper. It doesn’t really matter if I agree with her decision or not, she made a choice that, in her eyes, was best for the will and integrity of the paper. Let’s look at this situation as if it were the Des Moines Register and a similar occurrence took place.

Those editors from the Register would most likely fall to the same fate as the Daily editors. The Daily is a professional institution that should uphold its journalistic integrity. Hauser, in my view, should be commended for taking a stand and firing the three editors. I did see the ad in Toons with Tennessen, Weiskircher and Dennis, and frankly I was shocked to see them so openly mocking their positions at the Daily. It might have been done all in good fun but it was a mistake by them and now they suffer the consequences.

It’s all about professionalism and Hauser proved that she has it. I plead to Hauser not to re-hire the editors and show that the Daily can finally take a stand.

Kenneth Reed

Junior

English

KURE the alternative for Ames

In Wednesday’s edition of the Daily, Jason Hough criticized KURE for playing “music that does not represent what the majority of average trendy college students listen to.” He’s exactly right. From its very beginning, KURE has touted itself as being “Ames’ Alternative.” The radio station offers a wide variety of programs that listeners would not normally hear on commercial radio. The purpose of KURE is to define and explore new music – not to follow in the tracks of so many others.

Hough criticized the station, though, as not “living up to its potential.” Personally I would disagree. KURE affords listeners the exact alternative the station defines in its slogan. The station plays new music before it hits corporate radio, explores new or less popular music genres, and even broadcasts a wide variety of ISU sports programs that would not normally be heard on other stations. For example, in 1996, Hatebreed, a band absolutely unheard of at the time, had a new album added to the music library at the station. Due to that release, Hatebreed has grown tremendously in popularity, signing to a major label and even performing an interview last week with Hough’s acclaimed Lazer 103.3. Numerous other examples follow include: Blink-182, Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eat World.

KURE continues to play other new bands, always dedicated to exploring new music and offering listeners something they may not find on other stations. The station goes well beyond it potential in offering alternative programming.

In addition Hough criticized the station for having no listeners. Quite honestly, I’m a little uncertain as to how Hough actually measured our listening population since he does not currently work at the station.

Did he simply poll the rest of the shoppers standing in line at the Gap? KURE has a modest audience of fans and listeners interested in hearing something different. Most DJs receive a modest number of listener requests interspersed throughout their program. Strong programs with dedicated fans, such as our loud rock listeners, receive dozens of requests simply because KURE offers some of the only hardcore and punk programs you’ll find on the airwaves in Iowa.

If Hough and others are interested in listening to music currently being played on corporate radio, they by all means should tune into Lazer 103.3, Kiss 107 and MTV. For those interested in cute emo boys who play mind-blowing punk rock, tune into pop-punk with DJ Blondie on KURE. For those interested in the pounding hip-hop sounds of Japan, tune into Japanese for Everyone with DJ Toasty. For those who think Slayer plays the same soft rock your Grandma sings in church on Sundays, tune into All Gods Die on Thursday nights. KURE offers diverse programs all with strong fans, strong music and great rock you can’t hear anywhere else.

Greg Rice

Graduate student

Computer engineering

KURE Loud Rock Director

English-only bill will hurt Iowa’s poor

About the prospective Iowa English-only bill, I speak only English, but as a college student, I’ll have to learn another language. If Rep. Dwayne Alons feels strongly about the inclusion of language other than English, then he would lobby against the curriculum. Unfortunately, the perception of himself that he projects is that of a fearful bigot; he’s complacent of his position in the world, and that only leads to stagnation, which leads to fears of change.

The inclusions of foreign languages is a blessing to this state, considering the state is desperate for growth in population. A language is part of a person’s identity and is enmeshed in its culture of origin. A new individual to this country brings with him his culture and shares gladly with others. His culture integrates seamlessly into our society and for that, we should be grateful.

The intent, if not the letter of the proposed law, is different than what it at first appears to be – changes in standard operating procedures by way of simplicity. The law would require most state paperwork to be in English. Nothing wrong with that, right? After all, a majority of Iowans understand English. But what of those who don’t? I will never be affected by this bill. The bill will have very little impact on most people. So who does this bill affect? It affects the poor. Specifically speaking, the Latino population.

The socioeconomic status of Latinos is lower than the rest of the population. As their class slowly rises, so do their influence in politics. Perhaps Alons and company are protecting our way of life, or bracing for changes that are coming.

Rather than fighting and forcing upon new immigrants, who speak little to no English, new laws aimed indirectly at them, we should welcome them. We need not fear their contributions; our state can only be enriched by them.

Matt Campbell

Freshman

Journalism and mass communication and political science

The end of the Cael Sanderson era

This Saturday at 5 p.m. marks the end of an extraordinary era in Cyclone athletics, the final home wrestling meet for the graduating seniors. This occurs every year, and in every sport, yet this is a closing of a career, of a lifetime. Cael Sanderson is one of these seniors. As you may or may not have realized he has established himself as the greatest collegiate wrestler of all time, surpassing the insurmountable Dan Gable.

In the process running his current record to 150-0 and a three-time NCAA champion. Yet during this amazing run he has showed his brilliance to ridiculously small crowds at Hilton Coliseum.

I do not understand how we, as students, can fill Hilton to capacity for basketball games or concerts, yet given the opportunity to see the greatest of all time we decide there are more important things to do, and let thousands of seats go empty. Let us show our appreciation to all of the wrestlers this weekend. Let us fill the stadium to its peak and tell Cael Sanderson, Joe Heskett, Billy Maldonado, Mark Knauer and the rest of the wrestlers that we do appreciate their many hours a day training, and the effort they have put into the Iowa State Wrestling program to make them national contenders each and every year.

So this Saturday save a few dollars at the basketball game, do not buy that last beer, and come to Hilton, to be a part of history. A day like this does not come around often, do not waste it.

Josh Loeffelholz

Junior

Education

Golden days of Daily editors behind us

As an ISU alumnus, a former Daily opinion editor, a professional journalist and one who is familiar with Andrea Hauser’s work, attitude, professionalism and other assorted traits, I would like to add my perspective to the debate on the firing of Wendy Weiskircher, Sara Tennessen and Valerie Dennis over a satirical feature in Toons.

Hauser is not hated because she is a hard-nosed pro who “makes the tough decisions” as she likes to claim. She is hated because no one even knows what she does at the Daily besides make horrific decisions like firing three editors who were the heart of the paper and the most likely to eventually become editors in chief themselves.

Gone are the golden days of strong editors who took charge of the paper and didn’t even need advisers like Tara Deering, Staci Hupp and Sara Ziegler. They were not always buddies to everyone, but they were absolutely respected for their integrity and skills and still some of the best editors I’ve ever met at any level.

The satirical ad in Toons was most certainly NOT a firing offense. I have seen it and expected much worse. To lend any credence to Hauser and her sub-moronic notion – inspired in part if not in whole by Daily adviser Mark Witherspoon – that what these three competent women did was seriously questionable let alone worthy of termination is ludicrous.

As for Mark “Spoon” Witherspoon, his influence on the Daily and its students has always been rather questionable. I believe he is acting more out of self-interest and job security than out of concern for students or that paper. Since his hiring, I cannot recount one instance in which he has helped a student find a job or internship they couldn’t have found on their own. His critiques were rarer than Sasquatch sightings and unhelpful at best. It saddens me, frankly, because I liked Spoon and thought he cared until last year.

I lost faith in Spoon the first day of training when Carrie Tett was editor in chief. Spoon stood up and said he was looking forward to working with Carrie because former editors Sara Ziegler and Kate Kompas “were so good they didn’t need his help.”

At that moment, several of us understood, as did Carrie Tett on some level, that she had likely been chosen for the job because others thought she would be the easiest to lead around by the nose. She surprised us all with her management skills.

The real tragedy of this situation is that it is going to hurt the Daily no matter what. These women need to fight and fight hard and that could hurt the paper that is in our blood, but they have my encouragement and support. Sometimes you have to risk destroying the things you love to save them. They have done nothing wrong I didn’t do 10 times worse and got to keep my job and go on to some professional success. The Daily is all about screwing up and moving on. This instance should be no different.

Hauser was out of line and just to prove to the world how unprofessional she is, she runs a story on the firings? Word to the uninformed, that is not proper, it is an in-house decision and NOT NEWS. But thankfully she was ignorant and pig-headed enough to do it so now we can all roll around in this muck and hopefully get dirty enough to need a good house cleaning when it is done. Let the highly qualified students get on with running that paper and pray the editor in chief position is not inalterably weakened due to Hauser’s short-sightedness.

On a final note, Andrea, you are causing permanent damage to your career if you think this little scandal won’t follow you into your professional life. Daily alumni are at every newspaper in every state and Iowa’s papers are filled with them. Do the right thing – apologize – and get your act together in the final months, Andrea. Try to see through some of these people you think you can trust who could care less about your dominion and start thinking about the big picture. It is not YOUR Daily, it is OUR Daily. It belongs to everyone who has ever worked there as much as you. It belongs to every student of ISU past, present and future. Don’t screw it up.

Greg Jerrett

Alumnus

Council Bluffs

Hauser action, a abuse of power

I am shocked and outraged at the sheer abuse of power on the part of the editor in chief. I believe that the Daily has suffered more from her actions than that of the three former editors. I ask that Andrea Hauser step down from her position and allow a new more civilized and realistic editor take her place.

Michael Mack

Senior

Chemistry