Even after multiple published and public apologies, people are still refusing to forgive the Union Weekly. More than 1,000 people signed a petition last week to have Editor-in-Chief Kevin O’Brien removed from office.
The petition was created in response to Noah Kelly’s much talked about review of the annual Native American Pow Wow, and last year’s controversial “How to Get Laid” feature. The petition was supported by the American Indian Student Council and was submitted to the Student Media Board for verification on Friday.
This entire controversy has been blown completely out of proportion. The Union has publicly disowned the Pow Wow article and has admitted that it was in bad taste. The AISC should no longer have any problem with O’Brien or the rest of the Union staff because the issue has been dealt with. If the Union continued to publish articles that specifically mentioned Native American culture, I would understand, but they won’t. The Union knows that it was a bad article, and they won’t make the mistake again, especially after all of the media attention that they have received.
Noah Kelly was admittedly ignorant to Native American culture when he wrote the article, but it is obvious to me that he didn’t mean to insult the culture when he was writing it. He simply meant to review a public event that he personally didn’t understand. It would be like someone who had never read or heard of a comic book writing a review of Comic Con in which he criticized people for wearing silly superhero costumes. Yes, he should have done research, and he maybe should have taken a much gentler tone, but I think he was trying to stick with the heavily sarcastic style that the Union Weekly often has.
In my opinion, the only problem with the Union is their slogan “The Student’s Newspaper.” Using the word “newspaper” implies that the Union is reporting on news, when they are usually not even attempting to do so. The Union is more of an alternative humor magazine these days, and it should be read as such. Many of the people who heard about the controversy surrounding the Pow Wow story have probably never read the Union before, so the swearing and sarcasm would have seemed more shocking than was intended.
The “How to Get Laid” article was written sarcastically as well. In fact, the article blatantly warns students that taking all the dating tips in the article seriously would be ill advised. Anybody who read the article and didn’t see that it was intended for humor really needs to lighten up. Also, three girls wrote the article, so I doubt their intention was to be offensive to women.
If you signed the petition to get Kevin O’Brien fired, I would like you to do something for me: Go to your local supermarket and browse the tabloid section. You are bound to find articles that call Pres. Obama an alien, accuse Hilary Clinton of doing drugs and other untrue garbage. These “newspapers” are much worse than the Union, but they have been published for decades because they have a constitutional right to do so.
If you have a problem with something that was said in the Union, don’t start a petition. Instead, write a response and turn it in to the Union yourself. They will most likely print it because you have just as much of a right to publish your opinion as anybody else does. If you are one of the people who are criticizing the Union without understanding what it’s about, you need to realize that you are doing exactly what started this whole problem in the first place.
Matt Grippi is a junior journalism major and contributing writer for the Daily 49er.
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