News reports 'deprived' of facts, AS says

By Ryan Groshong

Student government officials harshly criticized newspaper accounts of a recent election and a cartoon, calling both the coverage and drawing a misrepresentation of reality.

The April 14 issue of The Santa Clara contained stories about voter turnout and the challenges ahead after the recent Associated Students constitutional election, as well as an editorial criticizing online voting for the election. A separate cartoon lampooned discretionary money given to those clubs.

The cartoon depicted a student approaching the AS desk in Benson Memorial Center and asking about such funding. In the cartoon, one AS member nervously runs off and another dodges the question with, "Hey look, this table plays music!"

AS President Anne Selak said that because cultural clubs receive 30 percent of Senate funding, the cartoon was particularly misleading.

Cartoonist Landis Lau was both praised and criticized this week in his online "blog" site.

Selak told a Senate meeting last Thursday that "there were some really good opinions expressed; however, there were a lot of facts that were twisted or blatantly false."

She went on to describe specific errors in the articles, including information about AS committees, job descriptions, appointments of jobs and personnel issues.

Another point of concern for student government was the newspaper's editorial, claiming that the service used, SurveyMonkey.com, was cheaper than other Web sites that were more geared toward elections.

"I was very concerned at the lack of research. I feel that there is a need for dialogue about issues - but the dialogue needs to be grounded in facts, and I feel the student body was deprived of the correct facts," Selak said on Monday.

Jack Gillum, the newspaper's editor and author of one of the articles in question, said that the concerns were being evaluated.

"We can't comment on specific errors, but we will review concerns and, if appropriate, run corrections. The Santa Clara, however, stands by its overall reporting, editorials and cartooning regarding the results and failures of the recent student government election," he said.

Gillum cited the First Amendment to explain the newspaper's decision to run the opinion cartoon.

"The paper supports the free-speech rights of cartoonists and ̢۬commentators. Those who disagree are always welcome to write a letter ̢۬to the editor," he said.

Selak met with Gillum and News Editor Liz Weeker to discuss these concerns Monday. Selak felt that the meeting went well.

"I respected and am very appreciative that they would have the discussion with AS about any types of wrongdoings or inaccurate statements in the last paper," Selak said.

"But, I'm also very aware that while there are certain things that I think are misrepresented the newspaper has the right to print, and that's why letters to the editor are important."

* Contact Ryan Groshong at (408) 554-4546 or at rgroshong@scu.edu.