To The Editor:
I am writing to register my disappointment with The Spectrum's consistent habit of passing off stories written by others as their own. In your March 22 issue, a story appeared about peace efforts in the Middle East ("Envoy's Task, Despite Promise, Still Difficult"). At no point in the article did you mention how much, or whether at all, The Spectrum contributed to the piece. Sure, I see the byline "Miranda Stoeke," but how much does that really tell me about who wrote the article? As far as I know, The Spectrum has correspondents in Jerusalem and Gaza City. In my opinion, it's pretty easy to mistake "The Spectrum" for "Washington Post."
Are your readers expected to believe these stories are provided by some magic service you "subscribe" with what's available to every newspaper in the country? How plausible is the tale that you "pay" this service, who in turn "pay" the writers to file reports from Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles and dozens of other cities across the nation and around the globe? Are you connected to this mythical "wire" service through the so-called "Internet?" Why should we accept the logic that wire services allow newspapers the luxury of informing their readers of major news stories from outside their locality while allowing them to preserve precious capital resources to devote to better coverage of news in their hometown? That's lunacy, I say.
The Spectrum editors should be ashamed of their attempt to pass off the work of others as their own. We know the university provides a weekly stipend in excess of hundreds of dollars per editor to produce the paper. Because part of our tuition goes towards your paychecks, the students are entitled to oversee the content of The Spectrum. We have a right to determine if your paper, supported by our money, violates journalistic ethics. Consequently, I urge President Greiner to set up an oversight board to monitor The Spectrum's activities. We tell the editors what they can and cannot publish, thereby preserving journalistic integrity and ensuring we know who is providing us with the news. Freedom of the press is too important to entrust to a band of unelected, unaccountable, faceless individuals.
