Dear Mr. Joshua W. Newman,
I am appalled and extremely disappointed with your article “Overreacting to a Kind Care Package” that ran in the Opinion Section of The Miami Hurricane on Oct. 30, 2008. Your poor attempt at sarcasm was not only misleading, but also insulting and immature. As a member of the editorial staff, you have significant power and responsibility and, as Opinion Editor, you should have more knowledge than the average, non-Communications student contributor. You are held to a higher standard and your work should be better than this.
This article is borderline defamatory. It is a pathetic excuse for satire that, unfortunately, could be misinterpreted as an actual theory for what happened outside the Hillel building on Oct. 26. The libelous implications made are unforgivable and illustrate the effects of ignorance in journalistic ethics.
If your argument had simply been that the actions taken were overly cautious and irrational, even phobic, then that’s what you should have said. By launching a personal attack on a specific individual, however, your opinion just becomes a hyperbolic fictionalization written in bad taste.
Your hypothetical drug addict is a real person in a student leadership position. I believe he acted responsibly, choosing to behave on the side of caution. He placed the call in order to protect us, the students of this university. Had this situation occurred elsewhere, say, in an international airport, calling the police and bomb squad would have been expected – in fact, required. My biggest fear is that because of your condescending response to such a serious situation, other individuals will feel awkward or reluctant to call the police should similar circumstances ever occur.
When such poorly written articles fill the pages of our student newspaper, I feel embarrassed to say that I am a senior contributor to the Miami Hurricane. Publishing a story laden with precarious legal implications that is, more importantly, just abysmal content looks terrible for the university. I hope that future articles will be written with more intelligence, research, and finesse.
-Hilary Saunders
Junior