Never thought I'd see the day when someone would create a liberal paper b/c the Technician had become "too conservative" and "out of touch"...

http://www.technicianonline.com/story.php?id=012323

Quote :

"Student plans alternative newspaper Posted: 10.03.2005 Mark Daniel Dealing with rejection can be a hard thing to do. However, one student has provided other students with a perfect example of how to turn rejection into a brand new opportunity. About a month and a half ago, Mike Massey, a senior in English, was attempting to gain a spot as a viewpoint columnist at Technician. After submitting his initial column, a piece about the Wolfline bus system, Massey said he received word from the Viewpoint editor that the views he presented in the column were too liberal to appeal to a mass audience at NCSU. Rather than betraying his views by changing them for his columns, Massey chose to take matters into his own hands and create a new alternative newspaper for the campus. "I want this newspaper to be geared more towards student issues. I don't particularly feel that my views are liberal, but I feel that Technician may have grown out of touch with student issues," Massey said. The newspaper, which Massey plans to call Splat!, held its first interest meeting on Friday in the Caldwell lounge. Massey spoke to potential writers and designers about his vision for the newspaper. While most of the people who attended the meeting were members of the College of Design or the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey said he hopes that eventually the people who work for the paper will represent a more diverse cross-section of campus. "I hope that the people who work for the paper will be as diverse as possible," Massey said. "We hope to have diversity among majors as well as race, because we hope to give every student on campus a voice." Massey said that the paper will be owned by a limited liability corporation that will have no ties to the University. The paper plans to secure funding through private donations and advertisements. This financial independence, Massey said, will be important to keeping the paper free of influence from the University. "The paper will have no association with the University, so we will probably be able to move into more controversial territories. I want the paper to have a sex column, and I also want the paper to be able to say anything about the University administration, even if it's negative." Massey said that the paper will most likely be published on a weekly basis, and distributed through boxes and kiosks on campus. He plans to start publication as soon as possible, which he estimates will be in about a month and a half. The people who attended the meeting represented a wide range of journalistic experience, but they all shared a mutual excitement about the new endeavor. "Plenty of people have been complaining about Technician. I think other types of people need representation, so I hope that this new paper will be able to provide that." The diversity Massey hopes to portray is leading him to seek out displaced members of another campus publication. "I really hope that we can provide a place for the The Nubian Message to publish columns in our paper while they are trying to resume their own publication. I feel that the Message is important to this campus, so I want to give it a voice while it is struggling." The people who attended the meeting thought said the paper would be a new force that could only improve the campus. "Technician's view is pretty limited some of the time," Ariana Farquharson, a freshman in graphic design, said. "Everybody on this campus needs to be represented, now matter how small of a group they are, because the more we know about others, the more we know about ourselves." [Editor’s note: The exact correspondence between our viewpoint editor and Massey could not be confirmed.]"

At least he's taking lessons from Broadside Magazine



[Edited on October 3, 2005 at 10:51 AM. Reason : ---]

10/3/2005 10:38:27 AM

i like how they quote a freshman who has seen the paper for a little over a month....

10/3/2005 11:20:08 AM

heres another one of those conservative articles that the technician keeps pouring out

http://www.technicianonline.com/story.php?id=012313

10/3/2005 1:26:33 PM

i thought this was gonna be a gay/lesbian newspaper when i read the headline.

10/3/2005 1:28:01 PM

I'd like to know what views he had that were too "liberal" for the Technician to run as a viewpoint...I mean one of their columnists called sorority girls prostitutes.

10/3/2005 1:30:02 PM

The "too liberal" comment is coming from Massey himself, so I'd suspect he's just trying to pump himself up (or use it as a hook to generate interest in the paper).

Technician's got some far-far-lefties on Viewpoint already, I doubt Massey could have moved the bar much lower...

10/3/2005 1:49:00 PM

What "far-far-left" opinions are expressed in Technician, exactly?

10/3/2005 1:58:39 PM

^ I think there was one about women voters the other week.

10/3/2005 2:15:27 PM

lol

10/3/2005 2:24:01 PM

do they have Nubians at NC State?

10/3/2005 2:24:33 PM

Quote :

"spookyjon: What "far-far-left" opinions are expressed in Technician, exactly?"

We can start with this one, and that's just with a 2-second Google search...

http://www.technicianonline.com/story.php?id=012022

[Edited on October 3, 2005 at 2:25 PM. Reason : to spookyjon]

10/3/2005 2:25:17 PM

this is broadside all over again (and to some extent, it sounds like the early days of "americana")

i wish the guy luck

he might wanna try once a month first, before going weekly

classwork tends to interfere with things like this...and if not for him, for his staff

$ is gonna be the hardest part...i thought that the raleigh altpress "lather" was pretty good, but that didn't last long

[Edited on October 3, 2005 at 2:33 PM. Reason : .]

10/3/2005 2:30:00 PM

So let me get this straight: a paper with a stupid name, founded on spite, with no clear financial backing, and no physical base of operations?

I'll honestly be a little surprised if they get one issue out. If they get five, I'll be completely blown away.

10/3/2005 2:41:53 PM

Quote :

"We can start with this one, and that's just with a 2-second Google search... http://www.technicianonline.com/story.php?id=012022"

If this is your idea of "far-far-left", you have a lot to learn.

10/3/2005 2:55:06 PM

Quote :

"The "too liberal" comment is coming from Massey himself, so I'd suspect he's just trying to pump himself up (or use it as a hook to generate interest in the paper)."

Technician tries to keep a balance between opposing points of view. This means they try to clump everyone into groups of either liberals or conservatives (which is problematic imo). It's actually pretty likely that when Massey began writing that they weren't looking for any new liberal writers and told him his column was too liberal, not meaning that they didn't want any liberal writing, but that they didn't want any additional liberal writing. Of course it's easy to take that the wrong way (which is why technician might not want to admit to it). It's also a stupid idea, the only standard should be that the writing is compelling and well presented. Trying to balance "the left" and "the right" is a pointless game because it assumes everyone fits neatly into one of those categories, which they don't.

10/3/2005 3:10:00 PM

I haven't seen this balance of which you speak.

10/3/2005 4:03:14 PM

Oh, really? Ask the Viewpoint staff how many think of themselves as "liberal" or "apathetic." I've done it, lots of fun.

10/3/2005 4:18:11 PM

splat will also deal more with music, entertainment, and issues in the community around the university. since it is not school-funded, it can also afford to be more critical of the university.

you know, when one of your most prominent op-ed writers (guess who) constantly pumps out generic "liberals are scum" articles (and whether you agreed with it or not (as i did), the sorority article was dispariging to a large number of females, in and out of the greek system) and all that ad-nauseum on creative design last year, you cant help but think of a lack of balance on certain issues.

id also say the journalistic aptitude of the Tech has crashed this year. example:
http://www.technicianonline.com/story.php?id=012245
thats a piss poor example of a staff editorial.

not to mention the non-marko comics are worse than if someone just took a shit on the paper.

yes, i will be working with this paper, in what capacity im not sure. im not in it b/c i generally hate the tech, more because it gives me more freedom to write what i want about university issues. i also might try my hand at editorials, not necessarily from a "liberal" view (i hate that word), i would say moreso from a "progressive" view. im a progressive, ill write about why and how society should make progress in certain areas. there are people who will read this, i just hope the funding is solid. i cant say i know mark very well, but i hope things turn out alright. i actually told him i wont start till jan. b/c of prior obligations, but i hope things go well.

from what i've gathered, it will be more like a university-centered version of the Independent.

10/3/2005 4:28:55 PM

^ well just don't be as narrow-minded politically as the Indy

10/3/2005 5:18:59 PM

im not writing any "blood for oil" articles.

but i plan on being pretty damn critical of everything i choose to write about.

first up is China.

10/3/2005 5:21:02 PM

Quote :

"spookyjon: If this is your idea of "far-far-left", you have a lot to learn."

I don't doubt it, I usually just pull up the latest on DemocraticUnderground.com and cross-check. Learning the ins and outs of teh far-far-L3ft isn't really my thing...

---

Quote :

"marko: this is broadside all over again (and to some extent, it sounds like the early days of "americana")"

sad thing is you're one of the few people here long enough to have understood the reference

[Edited on October 3, 2005 at 6:27 PM. Reason : ---]

10/3/2005 6:26:02 PM

the broadside -- more like the copy-and-paste-from-cato.org.

10/3/2005 7:12:15 PM

^gg.

10/3/2005 10:04:28 PM

Quote :

"I don't doubt it, I usually just pull up the latest on DemocraticUnderground.com and cross-check. Learning the ins and outs of teh far-far-L3ft isn't really my thing..."

You're acting like being the slightest bit anti-war is a part of some fringe movement.

10/4/2005 12:58:37 AM

Quote :

"not to mention the non-marko comics are worse than if someone just took a shit on the paper."

i'll agree to that, but it's not because all these brilliant artists are being censored.

10/4/2005 1:32:13 AM

HAHAHA

what a joke

the liberal media is producing more liberal media, even at the college level!

oh, of course theres no talk of a conservative paper, then someone might get upset b/c their ideas about abortion and evolution might be changed

10/4/2005 2:59:45 AM

^
On an unrelated note, there actually is talk of creating a conservative paper, promoted primarily by functionaries of the NCGOP / Pope Center / Civitas Institute. It would be based out of UNC-CH and cover all the campuses.

But w/ Technician repping for teh R1ght, it seems kind of fruitless for NCSU... (esp given Broadside's demise)


[Edited on October 4, 2005 at 3:12 AM. Reason : ---]

10/4/2005 3:11:35 AM

If one were to compare the number of "liberal" columns over the past year with the number of "conservative" columns, I can absolutely guarantee you that the conservative columns would be in the minority. And, like GrumpyGOP said, most Technician columnists are left of center. The Techncian's conservative bias is a myth created to make liberals feel better about themselves.

The problem liberals have is that the Technician presents both sides. Whenever sober-minded logical arguments are juxtaposed with hyped-up hippy nonsense, the former will #$%@-ing dominate. What's their solution? Make a "liberals only" newspaper where they can sit around and scratch each other's back instead of engage in actual debate.

Hey, give "Splat!" a chance. It will most likely collapse just like Air America. But if not, then more power to them!

10/4/2005 8:28:07 PM

10/4/2005 9:14:35 PM

^^all the columns that stand out in my mind are those really badly written "liberals are scum" ones by daniel underwood, that girl, and that other guy whose picture always got on my nerves b/c it looks like he was getting ready to say something really dumb. he wrote about intelligent design alot.

marko wins this thread again.

10/4/2005 9:18:17 PM

The Broadside isn't being printed anymore? sad day for ncsu... that was always good for a few laughs - almost like a little gary you could take into class with you

10/4/2005 10:40:40 PM

Quote :

"almost like a little gary you could take into class with you"

hahahahaha

10/5/2005 12:29:17 AM

Quote :

"i like how they quote a freshman who has seen the paper for a little over a month...."

TOTALLY.

although, to be fair, I thought underwood had a good column recently. i remember finishing reading it and thinking "who was that? he sounds almost... awww, shit, underwood!"

the only thing better is when I pick up the paper and start reading and I'm like "wtf is this? did someone cut and paste from the DNC talki... JOHNSIE!!!" or however you spell it.

btw, I remember the broadside. never read it though. twas a bit too... how do I say... to the right... for me

[Edited on October 5, 2005 at 1:17 AM. Reason : ]

10/5/2005 1:13:23 AM

Now that Mr. Underwood has broken the "talk about the paper from within the paper" ice, I guess I'll join in.

Mind you, I haven't written a piece yet that qualified as anything but shitty, and I understand that. I apologize for it. That's not the point.

I have been to the meetings. At the last one, the writers were polled informally for their political view. I was the only one there who said "conservative," out of about a dozen, although admittedly Underwood wasn't there. I still have trouble believing that the liberals on the staff spontaneously got together to show up and the conservatives all coincidentally stay home. Even if everyone had shown up, I know for a fact that at least half the staff was there, just as I know for a fact that one of the people missing is a hardcore liberal.

That said, I don't think the Technician is a particularly liberal paper. But to act as though it's a mouthpiece for the right is even stupider than most of the shit said in here.

10/5/2005 2:02:37 AM

Quote :

"That said, I don't think the Technician is a particularly liberal paper. But to act as though it's a mouthpiece for the right is even stupider than most of the shit said in here."

Yeah, calling the Technician flamboyantly conservative is like calling Christopher Lowell flamboyantly straight.

10/5/2005 9:00:47 AM

i guess that nobody's going to it...

it's the nature of the technician to swing from left to right year after year, it was leftist my first two years at state, had a lot of conservative columnists the next two years, and i didn't really pay attention after that...

i mean, with a revolving staff, it's really not that hard to give the Techie a slant one way or the other...

so if he's really offended by the "right" leaning stance of the techie, then why not just volunteer to write for them... he'd get better readership AND save a lot of money in the process...

10/5/2005 9:12:09 AM

he did volunteer, but the point was that there were already too many clones on the staff

so he's trying to build his own thing

he should have just applied for a writing position at Nubian or Americana...they offer some similar services

[Edited on October 5, 2005 at 9:26 AM. Reason : +]

10/5/2005 9:24:15 AM

he probably had too many grammar/writing skills to be accepted by nubian

10/5/2005 9:34:18 AM

Quote :

"heres another one of those conservative articles that the technician keeps pouring out http://www.technicianonline.com/story.php?id=012313"

College is the last chance conservatives have to express themselves before closeting themselves.

10/5/2005 9:42:42 AM

thats ok. they still vote


and liberals lose

10/5/2005 9:52:17 AM

Quote :

"That said, I don't think the Technician is a particularly liberal paper. But to act as though it's a mouthpiece for the right is even stupider than most of the shit said in here."

my problem with the technician isn't that it has too many "conservative" articles. It's that they publish poorly written articles. Underwood, for instance, is a shitty writer. His articles aren't compelling, they don't provide any real insight, and they just rely on stereotypes that piss people off (or make them smirk, depending on whether they hold the given stereotype) to attract readers. The majority of people who end up reading his articles do so because someone came up to them and either said "did you read that bullshit article in the paper" or "did you read that article attacking group x, who I've always hated."

A paper shouldn't have to piss people off to attract readers. And if that's the main way they have of attracting readers, then there needs to be a serious discussion about the journalistic standards of the paper.

I think the technician should have some sort of permanent faculty consultant who has actual experience with journalism. That way, the paper wouldn't be as subject to the whims of whatever group decides they want to subvert it.

10/5/2005 11:01:21 AM

*cough, cough* Hey, don't be so tough on that Underwood kid.

10/5/2005 11:54:23 AM

Nice batman shirt - you unemployable gaywad.

10/5/2005 12:05:50 PM

Quote :

"I think the technician should have some sort of permanent faculty consultant who has actual experience with journalism."

thats a DAMN good idea. maybe that might even help make the "Technician's View" both coherent, logical, and meaningful.

10/5/2005 12:09:34 PM

http://www.ncsu.edu/sma/staff/bradley.htm

10/5/2005 12:24:46 PM

I've never really understood the bitching about "OMF teh wr1ting sux0rs!!1 There's no new insights!"

The columns are no worse than what you get from the professionals writing for the News & Observer (Martinez, Sheehan, Saunders...basically everyone except Christensen), both in terms of grammar and "insight."

The only columnists offering "insight" are the syndicated columnists getting paid big bucks to pontificate all day...and even then, if you keep up with the news you've probably heard everything they write somewhere else already, which is in itself just a regurgitation of something someone else said years ago.

(btw anyone seen The Candidate w/ Robert Redford lately? Proof that political issues never change at all...)

10/5/2005 1:48:45 PM

Jeeze Louise, you can go see campus forums about parking problems from the 1940s.

It's always gonna be redundant. The four-year cycle breeds this sort of perpetual amnesia.

10/5/2005 1:55:44 PM

Have you taken the time to read the Technician's View recently? i have yet to see anything printed that would recieve even a D as a 7-th grade writing assignment. Its not so much that their is bad grammar here and there, or that the topic is hackneyed. Rather, its that the quality of writing, itself, is horrendous. It is entirely devoid of any logical structure or coherence. It is possible to write coherently on a hackneyed subject. Its even possible to do so and actually have something intellectual spring from it. But the Technican's View hasn't had any of that this year. Often I find that the most well written columns are in the middle of the page, by people who don't work for the newspaper...

10/5/2005 6:44:19 PM

^
Agreed (usually). I was talking primarily about the individual Viewpoint columnists though, after jugband's critique.

10/5/2005 6:52:54 PM

national and international issues are constantly evolving.

10/5/2005 8:08:03 PM