Monday, January 12, 2009

Poly Post: Another Bad College Newspaper (venting)


The Poly Post is our University's newspaper. And I have same major issues with it.

There are a handful of new columns. "Dan in Real Life," "Sex Ed," "Fashionistas," and "Foul Play"
Dan of "Dan in Real Life" recently made a stereotype of the Jew saying "bring out your inner Jew," his version of an apology was something along the lines of saying (this is not a direct quote) "I'm a Jew so it's ok for me to perpetuate a stereotype of Jews" That's a pretty weak argument and it's also very narrow minded.
Then there's Ed of "Sex Ed" what bothers me is that this column is in the "News" section and not the "Opinion" section because that is exactly what it is. This is an editorial about a Christian who is a virgin and wants to wait until marriage for sex. His views are also narrow minded perpetuating stereotypes that people who have sex before marriage consider that to be the only part of a relationship. He gives his reasons for staying away from sex before marriage, but actually he doesn't, he just says what makes a relationship, which, is NO different then for people who do have sex and have a meaningful relationship. He implies in his writing that sex and meaningful relationships are mutually exclusive. It mostly bothers me that this is considered "NEWS" it belongs in the opinions section. and considering how conservative leaning our university already is, it does not offer alternative views.
These are editorials, I understand that. But they are opinion and they belong in the opinion section. News should really be balanced and fair and these editorials are not.
Not only that but the editorials do not push any new ideas. And in many aspects do not discuss issues that matter. Will Ed ever discuss gay marriage(he may have to understand that gay people exist first)? Will Dan in Real Life (who by the way ripped off his title from a movie about a guy named Dan with an editorial) ever swallow his pride admit to perpetuating a negative stereotype and maybe one day discuss issues that really matter? Will he say something that's more than obvious? (be frugal in this economy, duh?)

Why isn't there an environmental editorial? What about a political column? Local politics? economics?

And WHY THE HELL doesn't the Poly Post get outside of its Cal Poly bubble that it's so happy in and go out into the CITY of POMONA and discuss what's going on THERE!? Do they even KNOW what's going on with Chief Romero? Do they CARE about city blight? Is one article on Downtown's nightlife enough? Without a City newspaper the Poly Post has this GREAT opportunity to pick up some of the slack, but for some reason they're more interested in their own personal agendas! that's upsetting to me! I want to be proud of my school!

I know I sound whiny, but I've been holding my tongue about the quality of the paper and with the slew of new, low quality editorials, I just can't help it anymore
(vent over)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These concerns you have are the same I have had for a couple years now, which is why I both tried to write for the Poly Post and started my own satirical journal that lasted a couple months.

In the end, I discovered that the whole thing is a waste of time and that the Poly Post is mostly inconsequential our daily and school lives, and that there are many other things that are worth worrying about.

Andrew said...

Justin you are right, But I have high hopes that one day the school newspaper will begin reporting on relevant issues. But I'm afraid it will be a long while before that happens.