To the editor:

I would like to come to the defense of the Iowa State Daily. In her March 30 letter to the editor “Reader questions Daily honesty, ethics, humanity,” Brenda Crawford attacks the Daily and it’s staff for, frankly, frivolous reasons. According to Ms. Crawford, the Daily committed some form of egregious action because the amount of photo space allotted to the women’s basketball team was not exactly equal that of the men’s team.

The Daily edition in question led with the following: “Double Heartbreak: Men and women suffer dramatic defeats in NCAA tournament.”

The article goes on to say, “After putting together the greatest combined season in Cyclone basketball history, both the men’s and women’s teams were eliminated …”

Any honest reading of such an effort would have to conclude that a more than reasonable effort was made to give “equal” coverage to the two teams, the photo spread notwithstanding.

Rather than being an example of unfairly biased coverage, this article places the two teams on equal footing, something that would not have existed even a short time ago.

Rather than dwelling on petty details such as the size of photos, it would be better to acknowledge the substance of what the Daily printed (i.e. the article itself). Equality does not mean exactly the same.

The Daily does not have an obligation to give exactly the same coverage to every event and every organization.

What it does have the obligation to do is give equal and fair consideration of each potential story (or photograph) before deciding, based on the merits thereof, which stories are the most newsworthy.

Rather than being criticized, the Daily staff should be applauded for balancing the need to give reasonable coverage to the women’s basketball team and the very real difference in the newsworthiness of the two events. To deny that more readers were interested in the men’s defeat than that of the women’s — and attribute its cause to the Daily — is intellectually dishonest.

While striving to create a country free of sexual inequality, let’s not complicate the issue by insisting that men and women be treated exactly the same in every instance. Ultimately, such actions do more harm than good to the cause of gender equality.

So rather than measuring column inches of photo spreads, let’s — for example — eliminate glass ceilings and salary disparity.

David G. Mosby

Alumnus

Former Daily opinion editor

Bujumbura, Burundi