An Open Letter to the Editors of The Breeze

Last week, aliasmitch and I participated in (what I thought was) a very fun, successful forum on women’s issues hosted by the JMU College Democrats. I was thrilled at the opportunity to represent the feminists on campus, and to show all the haters that we are intelligent, respectful, and, most importantly, that we actually do know what the hell we’re talking about. Based on the feedback I received from members of the audience, we were very successful.

Naturally, I was absolutely thrilled that there was going to be an article in today’s Breeze summarizing the debate and featuring some quotes from an interview the author did with aliasmitch. So this morning, as soon as I woke up, I rolled over, opened up my laptop, and was immediately crushed by this article. Not only did it fail to accurately describe the forum (it was in no way heated, I found it very calm), but it also completely left out anything aliasmitch and I said. So in response, I have this to say to the editors at The Breeze:

Dear Editors,

Look, I get it. You only have so much space in the paper. One article can’t take up 5 pages. Fine. But The Breeze is our student paper. You have a responsibility to represent all of us at JMU. And in this article, you failed big time. You have silenced an entire minor, this entire blog, and a lot of other people. By not including our views, our words, and an entire interview, despite having room for inaccurate vitriol about the Catholic church, you have made it abundantly clear where your priorities lie.

So what’s your excuse? Clearly your tape recorder was working, because you managed to quote every one else’s quips from the debate. I know for a fact we had some excellent ones. But you couldn’t find a single thing worth printing, other than mentioning that ShoutOut participated?

And the worst part is, this isn’t even the first time you’ve pulled this. Last spring, you published this delightful piece of flaming poop that was not only incendiary, but incredibly inaccurate and poorly researched. And when the feminists at JMU pulled together a response, you chose not to publish it. When Shelby Knox visited JMU and gave an amazing lecture on the power young feminists can wield, you relegated her article to the Life section, while Kate Obenshain’s rant about the “failures” of feminism was front page News.  So what’s the deal, editors? Are you anti-feminists, or just anti-good reporting?

Okay, maybe that last part was mean. Forgive me for lashing out, but I’m hurt. This forum was like my feminist coming-out party, and you showed up in the same dress. So in the future, I hope you’ll realize that what we say here at ShoutOut, and what the feminists on this campus have to say matters. Aliasmitch and I worked our butts off to prepare for this. Hell, this is the kind of thing we prepare for 24/7. As feminists, we have to constantly be ready to answer questions, provide witty retorts, and prove our worth and intelligence. We are worth reporting. So the next time there’s a forum, I hope you can find someone with journalistic integrity to write the article and include everyone, rather than pointedly excluding the only feminist group to participate in a women’s issues forum.

Sincerely,

femistorian