Stay classy, Waco! -or- A Freaking Elephant, Man!
The preliminary requirements for reading this post are that you must read this short article first:
http://www.baylor.edu/lariat/news.php?action=story&story=39352
Now that you have read, you may continue on...
As you might imagine, I have many issues with this article.
1) The journalistic integrity of the Baylor Lariat. This is the most news worthy thing we can print in order to educate the Baylor student populace? There is a bubble, my friends, and The Lariat is doing its best to keep it filled with almost error-free (usually error-prone), trivial crap. I can't wait to read the article about how awesome SING! is, or the masterful editorials detailing the grueling life of a student attending Baylor on only the sums of their parents ample pocketbooks, with no minimum GPA to set their sights on!
2) Who's attacking who here? I really don't feel like we can fault thesee elephants at all. Have you been to the Cameron Park Zoo? Do you know how hard it would be to get close enough to the elephants to touch them? I think according to our judicial system, this elephant had every right to kick this person's ass upon entrence into the elephant's home. And wait. This isn't even really the elephant's chosen home is it? It's like rolling up and slapping a foreign exchange student at their exchange-parents home! Messed up!
3) Some excerpts worth citing:
On what to expect in a quote from a typical Baylor girl- "My boyfriend (Dallas senior Brian Williams) ran to get help," Lilley said.
Read "Dallas senior" as "KOT/Highland Park Grad/Business Major/Collar Popped/Front Tucked/Birkenstocks" (actually, this is just a guess, I do not know the guy at all).
On the syntactical prowess of the Lariat- "Fleshman said they would be back."
That just sounds creepy.
On the commonly misheld belief that you are communicating with your pet, your pet can communicate with you, animals talk, or we know what animals think and feel.- Fleshman said the elephants were "shaken up" and that they were taken off display "of their own accord."
C'mon Mr. Fleshman... give it up... you know the elephants don't talk to you... and neither did any of those girls when they found out you wanted to direct a zoo. That's like telling a girl you want to be a clown for a career or sell cotton candy. Nice move, Fleshman.
posted by Singleton @ 2:57 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
It's quoted as saying she wanted to "play with the elephants." R U Flippin' serious I was going to say the F word but this is your blog and I'm not sure what sorta kids read it so I decided to keep it Baylor safe... HEH. But yeah, so lets say you're going to play with the elephant, HOW DO U ACCOMPLISH THIS!? Fetch ? Frisbee? Freeze Tag? Marco Polo? Seriously, its a freakin elephant!
-s
Hmm. Well, it might seem silly to you, but you read it, didn't you? Your eye (and probably hundreds around Waco) went right to that story. It's unusual and quirky and it's news. I think the Lariat was perfectly legit in printing that story.
But I also work for a newspaper, so I suppose I'm a little biased.
I'm going to take the opportunity to tell you that your entry pissed me off, Matthew.
Lariat reporters, more often than not, are taking their semester in advanced reporting to meet the requirements of their degree program.
They have two days, from 1pm to 4pm, to make contact with their sources -- assuming they understand how to properly execute making contacts without the help of the professor, who is entirely responsible for teaching 40 or more students how to be 'professional' in 30 minutes or less.
They rarely, if ever, invest more time than that to doing a good job. They do what it takes to get the grade for their assignments. Virtually every story you read is a class assignment, so you're essentially reading someone's homework.
If the student is fortunate enough to track down, interview and double check information with a source by 3, he or she gets one hour to write a story.
The student's quality of writing - which can't accurately be judged by literary standards because it requires a different technique (it serves a different purpose) - entirely depends on how much they paid attention in beginning reporting the year before and how much they actually care about what they're doing, as well as how easily they pick up the style.
Now you've got two or three student editors who also are still learning the ropes, trying to produce between 4 and twelve pages of information that appeals to their audience (Baylor).
Granted, they're likely about 10 times better at editing than a reporter but still there are divisions in the newsroom so one editor edits over another, and errors get put back in.
Or some other issue with graphics, photos, late stories and computer crashes puts them so far behind they've got no choice but to edit for grammar and (hopefully) accuracy, and not for writing style.
Add this to the fact that the Lariat is a lab paper, not a true independently functioning, professionally produced newspaper, and discerning readers such as yourself get bent out of shaping expecting something that just won't ever be offered.
As for the elephants and their feelings, several decades of research and my own experience working with Zoe and Tembo confirms that yes, they are intelligent creatures with the capability to be "shaken".
They function emotionally at the level of a small child, which means they have their likes and dislikes.
The girls move between their barn and the day yard at their volition, and I've spent a few hours in the summer sun waiting for them to come back out into the yard so I could record their behavior.
The girls choose who can work with them, because if they don't like a keeper, they will hurt that keeper. Only 4 or 5 keepers currently bathe, feed, treat and enrich the girls.
Tembo is the older one; she was captured in Africa in the 50s or 60s, back when it was deemed acceptable to do so. She was in the old Waco zoo by the airport, in a small cage with a concrete floor attached to a very short chain.
No natural habitat, no enrichment, no interaction.
As a result, she only enters and exits trailers in a certain way and is a submissive female.
Zoe is younger, and if I recall was born in captivity.
She's the more temperamental one; loud children irritate her. She loves grapes, and likes to paint.
She doesn't like having her feet worked on.
Both elephants know where they live, and who is allowed in their habitat.
If something foreign enters the habitat, they will recognize it and act defensively. Fleshman knows what he's talking about.
I understand you may be trying to be pithy and lighthearted, but it's comments like yours that make zoo education and captive animal enrichment difficult to sell to the people who could have the greatest impact on wildlife conservation.
That girl who went into the habitat was an idiot, and she deserved to get smacked. But it wasn't a blind reaction by the elephant (probably Zoe).
As for your Lariat comments, as a former Lariat editor myself, I make no bones about the fact that those kids are treated with disrespect by the entire campus and it's uncalled for.
I wouldn't make attempts to explain away perceived blunders in literary circles because I'm not a member of any.
If you really want to understand how something works or why it comes out the way it does, just ask. You know what they say when you assume.
P.S. BTW, I happen to wear Birkenstocks, and I think I'm a fairly tolerable individual.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hey guys, thanks for your comments. I might have been a little misunderstood here. I've tried to clarify what I'm saying in another post. Those of you that know me know that my humor is a little sarcastic and abrasive sometimes. Sorry if this bothered anyone! Love you guys and thanks for putting up with my now internet-ready crap!
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