Friday, February 13, 2009

A Suggestion For "Taco"

Frequent Podium commenter "taco" writes:
This is my community newspaper. As a UI student, the Daily Iowan is a hub of information and source of conversation that links my world with a broad spectrum of my peers on campus, from the inveterate bloggers to the ignorant troglodytes.

This is why I criticize. I want the Daily Iowan to be the best publication it can be so that when I talk news with any given fellow student, we're discussing good information and can productively advancing the discussion of important issues as the educated class of America.

My response:
Hey, taco, I have a better suggestion for you. Apply for a job at the DI. Then you can do your best to fix the problems you see with it.

5 comments:

Nate said...

Christopher, why get a job with the paper when you can remain anonymous and not deal with consequences, spouting off unaccountable nonsense when discussing it?

taco said...

Hey, if you guys didn't like all of the secrecy and passive-aggression of the Bush Administration, why didn't you run for office and change things like Obama did? Is it because running for office you wouldn't be able to spout off nonsense every day without discussing it?

I'm getting tired of hearing "join the paper", too. There's so much ignorance inherent in it. You're both bloggers. You understand better than anyone why the blogosphere exists, why all those people didn't just join their local mainstream media outlet, and the impact they have on the media-politico equation regardless.

I'm not in Journalism & Mass Communication anymore. I'm also a full-time student with a full-time job, and even if I applied to the paper unless you're currently seeking a Goskomizdat, I couldn't do anything more about other writer's badly sourced information than I do already.

You may not be convinced, but I am confident that much like Publius 220 years ago, I am others like me are using the most ideal channels to question the dubious assumptions of media outlets in this shifting journalistic environment.

Rev. Christopher J. Patton said...

Excuses, excuses. Just about everyone who works at the paper is extremely busy. If you were really as deeply concerned about the UI community's newspaper as you claim, you'd at least give it a try. And, given the high turnover of student writers, you know fully well that giving a go at contributing to the DI is not the equivalent of an Iowa City resident quitting his job and going to work for the Gazette.

Alternatively, you could submit a guest opinion whenever you found the time. However, that would require you to use your real name, which you seem exceedingly reticent to do. So feel free to keep on anonymously cursing the darkness--actually lighting a candle would obviously take too much effort.

taco said...

Little do you realize that I have submitted several guest opinions and had one printed that I am aware of. You don't know what it was because I didn't link my pename with my real name.

Your disdain for anonymity doesn't matter to me, and I believe, frankly, is misplaced and pointless. Working for the firm I work for, I am not at liberty to speak my mind with full freedom when I can be identified in the media. That's all there is to it. If you want our discussions to be honest and to know what I really think, you need to accept me as a pseudonym and move on.

As for the rest of it, I'm sorry you can't seem to accept the fact that we can't all somehow magically find time to work in some form of media. I'm sure you are busy. I am extremely busy juggling 65-70 hour weeks at the moment between classes and projects for work at the moment. I have wanted to set up a blog for myself for the longest time - I've even narrowed my choices down to a pair of possible witty names for it besuiting my pseudonym - but I simply can't find time to register the account and get everything set up the way I want it. For now I have to content myself with my daily buffet of reading and commenting. Sorry for not living up to your totally selfless expectations.

Rev. Christopher J. Patton said...

I don't disdain anonymity in the abstract, but your case is unusual. You comment here all the time and expect me to take you seriously even though you regularly make unfounded assumptions about my views and act as though my expertise in the legal field is irrelevant to the articles and posts I write about legal issues. It's just ridiculous and I'm done wasting my time responding.