Recently, my fellow Assistant News Director, Dan Keylin, was attacked on this blog by Eric Thibault - who worked for Xochitl's Sanchez's campaign - for injecting analysis into his coverage of the Student Association elections. Now, Dan's a big boy and he can take it, but not only did Mr. Thibault provide a completely fact-free assault on my fellow AND, he also called all of WRGW News as a whole "biased" (just look at the headline), which is appallingly inaccurate.
Now, he had to provide a media critique for his Internet and Politics class, and I don't blame him for choosing WRGW News to pick on: after all, he has been a staff writer for The Hatchet, and one can hardly expect him to critique his own employer. But let's delve into his claims and see if there is any truth there.
First, he criticizes Dan for calling Jason Lifton (who went on to win the election) the "overwhelming favorite," saying that he had nothing to back up this claim. Well, first off, we have done several interviews with SA insiders (you can find these interviews on our News In Depth page), all of whom agreed that the race was Lifton's to lose. Then there was the straw poll we did which, while not scientific, did have a large sample (yes, Eric, I took SMPA 51, too) and backed up Dan's claim. Oh, and then Lifton actually won the election. So was there evidence to support the fact that Lifton was the favorite? Retrospectively, yes. In fact, when Dan made that assertion, it would have been pretty difficult to say he wasn't the overwhelming favorite in the race, considering the fact that Lifton announced his candidacy two days before Sanchez, the only other candidate in the presidential race, announced hers. If Lifton wasn't the favorite at that point, I don't know who was. Maybe Steve Holt?
Eric next critizes Dan's assertion that Sanchez didn't let him into her Facebook group. But here's the first thing Sanchez's group says:
Per election rules, this group has to remain a closed group. However, if you would like to join my group I will not turn you away!***But she did turn Dan away. So, essentially, she lied on her campaign page. I would argue that this is something worth noting. As for Eric's respose...
Who the hell cares? That's not news, that's your egotistical commentary.Real mature, Eric.
From there, Eric goes on to rant about various other things regarding Dan's coverage of the SA. I'll respond in order:
