You know we’re serious — we don’t write a Staff Editorial unless there’s something that our staff as an entirety feels strongly about.
But after reading yesterday’s Tiger Weekly, we couldn’t help but respond.
This semester, much of the controversy surrounding The Reveille has been about sex.
Sex — it’s amazing how much controversy one little word can stir up in this community of ours.
As many of you know, The Reveille has a sex columnist who talks about real sexual issues affecting students, and we have been heavily criticized for running her column all semester. The media is often scrutinized — that’s our nature and we are used to it by now.
What we find funny is that some of those criticizing our publication have decided to have their own sex column in their publication, namely The Tiger Weekly.
They’ve attacked The Reveille before, from a frivolous lawsuit a few years ago to last month’s “Hey Reveille, got truth?” column, written by Wayne T. Lewis, TW’s publisher (who, incidentally, is not a student at LSU).
And we’ve never responded, that’s not our style. We let our journalistic integrity speak for itself.
In his “Got truth” column, Lewis criticized our sex column and our decision to print it.
Yet, yesterday, Lewis’ paper printed a similar sex column written from the male point of view.
We’re not criticizing Tiger Weekly for having a sex column. After all, we have one as well.
But to denounce another media outlet for running a sex column, just to turn around and start your own later is highly hypocritical.
Wednesday the “Sexpert” column debuted, a male parallel to our own “On Top,” and normally we would have left the situation alone — except this “sexpert” made it personal by barely talking about the issue of sex at all.
All the “Sexpert” did was once again criticize our column and our columnist — by saying things we feel were inappropriate.
The purpose of “On Top with Jessica Pivik” is to talk about issues that students talk about, supported by facts and research.
We will be the first to admit that some columns have been better than others but we are trying.
Written by an anonymous male, this column blatantly attacks our own columnist.
Pivik’s topics come from discussions she has with friends and classmates, along with e-mails she gets from her readers. She is giving students what they want to know, and because that is our audience, there is nothing wrong with that.
Instead of supporting his columns with research, the “Sexpert” will grace us with stories of his personal experiences with “skinnies, hotties and yes, even a few last-call fatties,” experiences which may or may not be true.
Pivik does not tell readers about her personal experiences — that is left for private conversations.
She, unlike the Tiger Weekly, develops her own ideas through discussions with students, health experts and other references.
Because even though she is a columnist, she still is a reporter.
At least Pivik has the nerve to print her name, e-mail address and picture with every column.
Journalists must be willing to stand by their work.
The “Sexpert” promises readers they “Won’t get any stupid quotes on sex from my roommates … no letters begging me for advice.”
In his column, this “Sexpert” just proved our point for us. The Reveille is the only official student newspaper on this campus, and the only one supported by students and their fees. The paper is completely student-written and produced. And we make it a point to find out what the students think.
Now that Lewis has done a complete 180 from his criticisms one month ago, there’s no telling what’s next for Tiger Weekly.
So Mr. Lewis, we guess the next things we’ll see are, as you said in your “Got truth” column, stories on drug use or “how to build a better bong. Or how about cheating?”