Opinions

Wespeaks:
Amper Attack Unfair

I hate to criticize people without giving them a fair chance, but Tuesday’s Ampersand has forced me to respond to the attacks made against me. I cannot sit back and watch as I am humiliated by ruthless character attacks in the Argus, a publication read throughout the Wesleyan community.

I will spare the writers of the Ampersand the embarrassment of pointing out the flaws in their idea of good journalism and of "humor." And I will refrain from being similarly vindictive. I must however point out that they were incorrect to blame me for the grammatical problems of their page.

It is considered poor journalism to print opinionated articles that have not been researched, and have little to no factual basis, even if it is written for in the name of "comedy." I found this to be the case when the Ampersand contained a personal attack on my skills as a copy editor and referred to me as a "lazy" individual.

I have not copy edited an edition of the Argus for almost three weeks now. This is due to the fact that the Argus has been going to print late in the morning, and in order to meet deadlines no time has been allotted for copyediting. 

It is important to note that my job as copy editor does not entail copyediting the Ampersand. One would think that three people working on a page (two writers and a personal layout editor) would be able to fix simple copy errors. I think the Ampersand should reconsider whom theycall lazy. On my first day of copyediting I picked up the printed Ampersand page and was told by Katherine Sungarian, whom you yourselves lauded, not to copy edit the Ampersand. The Ampersand due to its typically humorous content is artistically autonomous. Any editing choices that might be perceived by a copyeditor as mistakes, are potentially artistic choices made by the authors. I would not be capable of copyediting the Ampersand, as I do not understand the brand of humor which they are employing this year. I would not know which "mistakes" were made on purpose and which were truly mistakes. For example, had I fixed all the typos in Tuesday’s Ampersand the article would have lost its potential "humor."

I understand that the Ampersand is a humor page, and that the authors have traditionally taken journalistic liberties in order to improve the quality of the comedy. The aforementioned issue however, was not funny, and was instead an unfounded personal attack. Thus I ask that my peers do not judge me on the basis of unconfirmed speculation, and that the writers of the Ampersand spend more time writing jokes and less time making up slanderous accusations.

Duschaneck is a member of the class of 2003 and a copy editor of the Argus,