Very Rarely Do I Get Ticked Off Enough to Rant...

Cruising around the Chico State message boards on MySpace, I came across a board where a guy who I actually interviewed for a story in the paper three months (and, coincidentally, thanked me for doing a good job with the story a little later), had this to say about The Orion, putting up the copy of a letter he sent in to the editor:

The March 30th 2005 edition of The Orion opens with the headline, “Porno Stains Greek Image.”, when really it should say “Orion Stains Greek Image.” Every week The Orion has nothing positive to say towards the Greek Community and rarely runs any positive stories. In the same issue as the headline there are two other stories about the Greek Community, but are they positive? Do I want the front page of my school newspaper proudly displaying “Porno Found!” No! My parents read this paper and though the story is interesting is it front page worthy? It seems to me that in the past few weeks The Orion has turned into the Jerry Springer of newspapers slandering and digging up dirt on anyone. Must the news be so negative? Why cant The Orion cover the food drives or community services or any other positive attributes the Greek Community offers? This blatant disrespect and poor journalism makes me ashamed to call the Orion my own paper. It’s hard for anyone to view the Greeks in a positive light when only one side of the argument is shown, the negative. People forget that Greeks are Chico State students too and the paper alienate us from that fact. Let’s stop trashing the Greek system or anyone else and get some real news in this paper that’s interesting and relevant.

Well, about the only thing I could think of that could be put there besides "Porno Stains Greek Image" is "Greeks Stain Greek Image."

Let's see...what could have happened that might stain the Greek's image?

Oh yeah, a Sigma Chi pledge drinking himself into a coma.

Chi Tau killing a pledge by making him drink so much water his electorlytes diluted and he had an irregular heartbeat.

Phi Kappa Tau deciding to turn their house into the set for a porn film.

Go back to this fall, and you had a Zeta Beta Tau pledge get killed in a car crash, where the driver was his fraternity brother that had cocaine in his system.

Go back to last spring, and you had a Kappa Sigma Delta sorority member conceal a pregnancy, give birth to the baby in the sorority house--while a social was going on. Then, she strangled the baby and hid it in a coffee can.

But, evidentially, by The Orion actually saying this happened, we stained the Greek's image.

Nationally and internationally, this story made it's way into the Associated Press, Reuters, and AFP, the three major news wires of the world. Rush Limbaugh and Drudge were all over it, too. Not running on this story on the front would have been ridiculous.

Also, let's look at the other local media: The Enterprise-Record ran multiple stories on multiple days about the Phi Kappa Tau porn incident. Are they getting a letter sent to them, too? The Chico News & Review wrote about the Phi Kappa Tau porn incident. Are they getting a letter sent to them, too? The Synthesis pretty much mocked the Phi Kappa Tau porn incident with their entire front cover ("Chico is back." What the hell?) Are they getting a letter, too?

I really hate to break up the conspiracy theory party here, but The Orion isn't out to destroy the Greek system, or to run it's public relations campaign. We're neutral. I mean, by saying that, what kind of a position does that put all the staff members of The Orion who are Greeks, including editors? Yeah, check through the lists of fraternity and sorority members with The Orion staff list, there will be some familiar names. Name some sort of large group on campus, and there's going to be at least one person in that group that's on The Orion. All news-ed majors have to work at least one semester at The Orion to graduate. It's a laboratory class in the journalism department. Why would they be out to stain themselves?

There is a term called "newsworthiness" that determines whether something is in the paper or not. If this is a story being reported not just in Chico, but all over the world, give me one reason why The Orion shouldn't talk about it, and no, that it will make Greeks look bad isn't a good reason.

Don't blame the press for the Greek system's problems. I'm going to refer to Dave Westol here. he's the executive director of Theta Chi, who gave a speech at Chico State last week that Greeks were required to attend. Basically, what he said is that it's up to the Greek system itself to fix its problems. Don't point fingers. Figure out what it's going to take from you to solve the problems, then do it.