Keesia Wirt should resign as editor in chief of the Iowa State Daily. Her failure to have the caption under the picture of Matt Dietrich in the Feb. 10 issue changed plainly shows that she is unfit to fulfill the duties of her position.

This is not a simple mistake that the Daily can sweep under the rug with an apology. This requires action on the part of Matt Dietrich and the Daily staff. Mr. Dietrich should take whatever legal action is necessary to correct the damage caused by the Daily’s blatant disregard for the consequences of its actions.

Further, those staff members at the Daily who have any responsibility in the matter should resign. This includes the photographer who wrote the cutline, the photo editors who read the cutline, and Keesia Wirt, the editor in chief of the Daily, who holds primary responsibility.

As students, we support this paper. In return, we should require accuracy and fairness. In this instance, the Daily staff has failed miserably on both counts.

Apparently this sort of “fun” has happened before at the Daily. Who knows how many times a picture of an innocent student with a “funny” headline has floated around the Daily offices?

The Daily staff needs to be brave about this incident. They will probably take cover behind their “inexperienced student” status, but the severity of the incident requires that they take action. By Keesia Wirt’s own admission, this is “a textbook example of one of the worst mistakes a newspaper staff can make.” She saw the cutline, she knew it was her job to make sure it was removed, but she didn’t get the job done and an innocent person got hurt.

The Daily’s actions have had direct consequence on Mr. Dietrich. Their actions should also have direct consequences on themselves.

We as students should require that Keesia Wirt find a new job.

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Chris Azevedo

Graduate student

Economics

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John Crooker

Graduate student

Economics

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Kari Azevedo

Graduate student

Statistics

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Michael C. Poray

Graduate student

Agricultural economics

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John Gabrosek

Graduate student

Statistics