A good editorial uses facts to back up opinions.

Sadly, the recent editorial about Partnership Press and the Daily (“David vs. Goliath”) was heavy on opinion and light on fact. The editorial stated the Daily’s being crunched by Partnership Press’ “mighty fistful of dollars.” It also stated the Daily is not a part of the university and is a separate corporation.

Here are the facts:

On March 21 of this year, a judge ruled the Daily is a government body. That means it is being supported by a $584 million university. No matter how many times you say it’s not so, the case has already been decided by a judge.

If the judge’s ruling is not enough.,here are some more facts. Between 1992 and 1995, the Daily’s cash and investments grew substantially, from $294,636 to $411,352.

The Daily’s subsidies (which it would not get if it were not indeed part of the university) include free office space in Hamilton Hall, subsidized use of campus mail, generous university fringe benefits for the non-student managers, $89,000 in student fees every year for the past several years and use of ISU classrooms and students for everything from development of advertising campaigns to development of story ideas.

That’s tax dollars — the entire state of Iowa — supporting the Daily. That’s fine, so long as the paper does not use those public subsidies to compete with a privately-owned newspaper. But under General Manager Janette Antisdel, that’s just what the Daily did. That’s why Partnership Press started taking action; its ad base was being eroded by the tax-supported student paper.

If you want to talk greedy, consider that from 1993 to 1995, Antisdel’s salary jumped from $30,000 to $41,300. That’s almost a 40 percent increase in two years. She is one of nine professionals working full time in what we believe should be student positions at the Daily. (Actually, we prefer calling Antisdel and her cronies non-student commercial managers rather than professionals.)

There are a number of college papers with far fewer such professionals. Students make the important decisions — as well as the money —at these papers, and we believe that’s the way it should be.

That’s the real story. It has nothing to do with the students who sell ads and write for the Daily. We respect the students and know they are learning a lot. In fact, eight of the 20 people The Tribune newsroom alone are former Iowa State Daily staff members.

It has everything to do with Antisdel, a disgruntled former employee of The Tribune, breaking the law and using “student paper” rhetoric to feather her nest.

Let the facts speak for themselves.

Alice Lukens

The Campus Reader