There have been quite a few letters to the editor recently concerning the quality of the Iowa State Daily and the reporters who work there.

Nearly all have been unfair characterizations of the organization. These venomous and spiteful letters are poorly written, and serve only to debase the writer and their subject. As a writer for this newspaper, I take offense at these attacks.

I shouldn’t even have to use my column space to defend my colleagues. Their actions serve as defense enough against these personal attacks. However, the recent ill-tempered and moronic statements of various local imbeciles have forced me to do just that.

I will admit before I worked for the paper, I had many of the same opinions of the newspaper that many others do now. I decided if I was going to complain about the newspaper, I should do something about it.

I signed on during the summer of 1996 and my opinions changed rather quickly. I discovered most of the people who work for the Daily are very concerned with the quality of the newspaper they publish. They work hard to make this paper the best it can be.

They are certainly more concerned than any other non-newspaper person could be. Many of the writers have daily deadlines they have to meet. How many people out there got an extension for one of your papers because you couldn’t get it on time?

Many of the editors spend their free time not at home, but in the newsroom. Many editors arrive early in the morning and stay late at night to turn out their product.

They often only leave to attend class, and cannot call in sick if they feel like staying home. How many of you have skipped classes before because you had “the sniffles” or were hung over?

A few lucky students get up at 5 a.m. to deliver the paper across Ames. Every school day, they go across campus and make their deliveries so you can do the crossword puzzle when your instructor is trying to give a lecture.

Are these people perfect? Hardly, but who is? The Iowa State Daily is a student-run newspaper that not only informs the public of Ames, but also provides an excellent opportunity for students to learn how to be good journalists.

It is run by students. The writers, editors and advertising account managers are all students. Mistakes are going to be made and we can’t always hit a homerun with our articles. That’s why we are in college, however: to learn from those mistakes.

Our mistakes, though, are part of the public record. The everyday, run-of-the-mill student is lucky. Their homework is only seen by their instructor. The homework for Daily writers is published daily for almost 15,000 people to see.

Now that the paper is also published on the World Wide Web, our exposure increases exponentially. How many of you would like your next test results with your name published on the Internet?

How many of you would like it if you got a letter from a stranger telling you how crappy your last history essay was, or how miserable and stupid your math test made you look?

For a bunch of students, I think we do a pretty good job. I would go so far as to say we give a lot of community papers a run for their money (including one local paper that shall remain nameless.)

It’s not easy to write an article devoid of opinions and stick strictly to the facts. We’re taught in our English classes how to write an argument, but it’s a lot more difficult to bottle those arguments when writing an unbiased article.

There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with the contents of the paper or with thoughts expressed in the editorial section. I don’t even agree with many of the things the newspaper states or covers. However, insulting people who are trying to learn their trade and giving their best effort is unfair.

The public shouldn’t expect interesting stories every day either. Let’s face it: Ames and ISU are boring places where not much happens on a given day. We still have to come up with story ideas, though. The story subjects might not be Woodward and Bernstein material, but it’s the best we can do.

There are still going to be those small-minded people out there who write in and slam the Daily continuously. For those people I have a suggestion: if you think you can do a better job, then get off your butt and work for us for a while.

You’ll see it’s not as easy as you might think. Otherwise, quit your bitching and moaning and leave this job to people who aren’t afraid of the public eye.

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Robert Zeis is a senior in finance from Des Moines.