A Second Clarification: Why I'm Hating on the Lariat
This post is in reference to my previous post entitled, "Stay Classy, Waco! -or- A Freaking Elephant, Man!" as well as the comments and general amounts of knowledge dropped afterwards. I appreciate the enthusiasm with which all of you wonderful peeps have responded to my various ramblings, and wanted to stop, collaborate and listen... or just clarify why it seems I have taken long slow drinks of Haterade™ toward the Baylor Lariat. Before I go on, I would like to point out that this should be expected of me, and I have placed a barely-visible disclaimer to this blog in the subtitle under the "Bigger, Louder, Everywhere" title that reads "an irresponsible blog at best." I will say this-- I would have never picked this topic for blogging if I would have known that my readership included the rare zoologist/journalist hybrid! Rule number one of good writing is knowing your audience (well it's one of the rules at least) and I failed miserably at that! Sorry if I ruffled some feathers! Let me explain:
Just to clear things up, I want to point out that my main motivation in that post was to be humorous. If you know me well, you know my brand of humor is scathing, sarcastic, and sometimes downright mad-hater-ish (not Mad Hatterish). I also was trying more to point out a subtle perpetuation of "the Baylor Bubble" at work by the Lariat rather than simply scolding their journalistic integrity. Aside from the comical purpose of that post, I stand beside my comments and critique of the Baylor Lariat.
I appreciate that some of you guys, in defense of the Lariat, were willing to question my knowledgability of the field of Journalism and of the process of creating a "non-professional" student publication. But I also wanted to give myself some ground to stand on by pointing out that I am not speaking on these things out of ignorance.
I have a very colored and sordid past, as some of you know, which has afforded me to have some excuse to speak about everything from food to football and jail to journalism. The reasons I feel totally justified in being critical of the Baylor Lariat are many. The most efficient way to prove this is for me just to list them... so here it goes:
1) My own flesh-n-blood, the Matriarch, my mother was a member of the Baylor Lariat staff back in the day.
2) This same woman teaches high school journalism and sponsors yearbook, newpaper, and other publications, which I grew up around my whole life.
3) I was an editor of such publications in high school and have written news articles and features and editorials.
4) I have researched and conducted interviews for such things.
5) I have been invited to and attended journalism confrences at the University of Texas and Columbia University where I even (get this!) received awards for my journalistic abilities!
6) I have worked as an intern for WOAI news radio in San Antonio for two and a half years where I specifically worked in coverage of the Spurs (I was there during the short-season first championship answering phones and getting highlights! It was pandemonium!)
7) The staff and publications I worked on were no dumb-bum crack-pot pieces! They were award-winning on the national level, and have been written about in education and journalism journals (which I think is a little redundant).
8) As I head toward graduate school next semester, my cognate area within the School of Education will be Journalism/Mass Communications.
9) I have been under and met tight deadlines for such publications and still never reported on irrelevant, goofy crap as serious news.
10) I have been a part of events that have happened in which the Baylor Lariat has misquoted, misinformed, and downright mis-sed-up articles about. (See the most recent issue of March 9th, front page, "Violence stalls WISD, Baylor collaboration... the first sentence is just false. Not true. The program was never "temporarily ended.")
So I feel like I have some space to talk (though maybe not as much space as I've taken, I'll give you that). I know the Lariat is a student publication, and not professional (although I think they do get some cash-money in work study), but I don't think that is a valid excuse for creating such a mediocre publication! The Lariat could be MUCH better. For that matter, MOST media outlets could be MUCH better. I refuse to give praise to a publication that rips most of its best articles straight off of the AP, and whose other articles are littered with inaccuracies, hearsay, and articles about elephant encoutners at the zoo instead of newsworthy items both within the local and global settings which pull students out of the bubble they live in rather than perpetuating it.
I am not impressed with the Lariat. There are some great journalists and articles that make up the Lariat, but they are far outshadowed by bad journalists and bad articles. Most of the time, I am embarassed by the Lariat as a Baylor student. I also don't think that every person who wears Birkenstocks or pops their collar is a bad person, I only think most of them are! See! Not so bad! (obviously I am being sarcastic here).
I'm not just being negative for negativity's sake. I promise. I am being honest, and my honest analysis of the Baylor Lariat is that most of the time it isn't a good newspaper. Not a good student newspaper. Not a good lab newspaper. I'm making this statement as a student and as someone who has been involved in publications and journalism. Besides, I don't think I'm the only guy out there saying that the Lariat isn't good (i.e. my roomate Paul just said it was bad...see!). Maybe it's not that everyone dogs on the Lariat for no reason, maybe it really isn't very good and these claims are legit.
My name is Matt Singleton, and I approve this message. (Translate: I can be an unapologetic a-hole sometimes... give me time... I come around).
posted by Singleton @ 2:15 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
The Baylor Lariat is one of the worst publication I have ever read. The defining expericence of Lariat failure was during the week of the US invasion of Iraq. I remember two front-page headliners particularly -- one about Baylor girls dying their hair and the other about tanning. I believe these were on the day after the invasion and the day after that, but I may be wrong on the dates. The bottom line is that big things were happening in the world that would potentially change it forever, and perhaps define our generation. And the lariat chose to write about some of the more frivilous activities of the notorious Baylor girls. Congratulations, Lariat, history happened around you and you missed it. The only relevant articles I have ever read in the Lariat are AP articles. If you want to be proud of the University Newspaper -- or anything on campus -- hold it to a higher standard. Don't make excuses for it, admit its faults so they can be remedied and we can improve. As it stands today I feel that the campus would be better served if the Lariat were replaced with the likes of the Waco Tribune Herald... of coures there's always up-to-the-minute news online if we could just teach those Baylor girls how to "work the internet." If this is the best that Baylor journalism can offer, I think that we could use the funding elsewhere...
So, you're entering the delightful world of journalism education. Looking for a master's project?
FIX THE LARIAT. Tell them how; you seem to know. Perhaps they'll listen to YOU.
Doug_Ferdon@baylor.edu
Sarah_Stone@baylor.edu
Cassy_Key@baylor.edu
Brad_Owens@baylor.edu
Amanda_Sturgill@baylor.edu
Julie_Freeman@baylor.edu
Stephanie_MacVeigh@baylor.edu
So, you're entering the delightful world of journalism education. Looking for a master's project?
FIX THE LARIAT. Tell them how; you seem to know. Perhaps they'll listen to YOU.
Doug_Ferdon@baylor.edu
Sarah_Stone@baylor.edu
Cassy_Key@baylor.edu
Brad_Owens@baylor.edu
Amanda_Sturgill@baylor.edu
Julie_Freeman@baylor.edu
Stephanie_MacVeigh@baylor.edu
I think it's ironic that the Lariat pulls some of its stories off the AP wire, and yet it still seems students are unaware. Also, the key word in the AP is "associated". We all contribute to it. The Trib's stories are often picked up by the AP bureaus covering various subjects (Bush, Crawford and Baylor, in particular). Everybody's involved, and I kinda like that. Gives newspapers a way to bring state, national and international news to their readers without ever leaving the community...which also allows them to do a better job covering their communities (right down to the elephant stories...and BTW, I still hold that the elephant stories are newsworthy...anyone who's taken a beginning level newswriting class should know that...the unusual qualifies as news...).
Something else: I always wish that stories about Uganda or small arms proliferation in Sri Lanka made the front pages of our newspapers here in the States. I wish very much that the average reader would buy the newspaper if those things were on the front page. I wish everyone would develop a sense of international compassion. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen overnight, and the newspapers still have to make money. I feel like any small things we can do, any stories we can write locally about people with a global perspective (read: the Trib's coverage of the UBC Africa benefit concert) can help shed light on those issues and do well to encourage the average reader to search out those stories and read them (likely on the inside pages of the newspaper rather than the front page). I guess I'm realizing more every day how important local newspapers are. They're the only ones who can really cover local news effectively. I mean, local journalists are there anyway, so why not? Right?
That's all I feel like adding. Happy Friday.
P.S. I don't at all mind your comment about Birkenstocks. I thought it was funny. I made the same sorts of comments in college about Chacos and Nalgene bottles. Yeah, everyone at my school was granola or a climber or homeschooled or a missionary kid. Girls who wore makeup and smelled nice got the shaft and were considered high maintenance. Which is why I resent people who purposefully stink or don't comb their hair or have contests to see who can go the longest without shaving...and I'm talking about the girls. Gross.
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