According to a recent poll, opinion writers can rest assured that a vast majority of University students appreciate their individual insights about the world around them.
The poll results reflect positive feedback on the website, including such comments as “Your opinion is good and you should feel good,” and letters to the editor about strong feelings of agreement with columns.
As opinion editor, I would like to issue a call for true criticism. As a section, we all feel we are authorities on various subjects, and nothing would help us gain perspective more than a couple commentaries knocking us off our thrones.
“I just wish they would tell me what I’m doing wrong,” said columnist Jana King. “I feel like I’m getting too much praise.”
King is a particular favorite of critics, with her traditional columns pointing out the positives of a lack of sex education, aligned with the Louisiana public school system.
Much of the section is obsessed with pointing out the positive side to Louisiana’s abysmal scores on many country-wide lists — public education included — so much so that liberals say they’re underrepresented.
Conservatives support this view, saying they feel their viewpoints take up an unfair majority of the section. Popular University Facebook group “Sons of Liberty-LSU” has lobbied for more liberal columns to balance out their advantage.
Columnist Ryan McGehee has stood up to his own political faction, insisting upon writing about international issues with a well-rounded perspective.
McGehee, still flying under the radar for his subtle critique of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette last semester, said he believes President Barack Obama is doing a wonderful job with international policy and wishes Obama could run for another four years.
On the other side of most issues is the easiest-to-read columns by Joshua Hajiakbarifini. He focuses on local issues, and many readers laud him for his simple wording and ability to break down difficult issues.
One staffer who feels occasional heat is Anne Lipscomb, the cartoonist who receives the most comments about her skills.
Complaints focus on how much students wish she would stop drawing so they could see more generic photos of politicians speaking instead of her original creations.
There’s only one other critique readers have for the opinion section, and I wish there was a way to address it across the top of the opinion page.
It has been mentioned that none of our columns are rooted in fact.
We’ve come under fire time and again for our lack of fact-based work. Reveille advisers have called in writers for their failure to check figures and their inability to back up their hate-filled emotional responses to campus happenings.
One adviser mentioned buying us a dictionary to make sure we know what words really mean, and as editor, I’ve considered implementing a mandated Learn To Research Session, in which we would explore reputable sources like The Onion, Stephen Colbert’s Twitter account and Fox News broadcasts.
We do appreciate your acknowledgement that the best writers to represent the University’s student body are mostly white men.
As a section, we represent you all as well as Student Government does, and we want to keep that going. It doesn’t matter that more women than men attend school here. It’s just that white men write better than everyone else.
In interviews at the beginning of the semester, most potential columnists state they could bring “a unique background” to the table, and it shows. They do a great job providing differing opinions from one another.
I’m so happy all of you are proud to call us your school’s opinion staff, and we look forward to writing glowing reports of all campus happenings in the future.
Megan Dunbar is a uniquely opinionated jerk.