Another Face Off

I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that your “Mayoral candidates face off” article implies that there will be no other events (“In the first and only debate for mayoral candidates”) or the fact that the Daily Free Press refuses to write an article on the other upcoming face off. On Wednesday, October 12th at 4pm in Metcalf Hall there will be a mayoral issues forum sponsored by Boston Intercollegiate Government. Mayor Thomas Menino and City Councilor At-Large will both be grilled by Michael Dukakis, who will be using questions submitted by campus political science groups. The event is free with your student ID. This forum is unprecedented. College students have never done anything like this. The thing that disturbs me the most is the refusal of this newspaper to write an article on it until after the event. Your apparent belief that no newspapers write about events before they take place is idiotic and misguided. I guess you folks didn’t pay much attention in JO307 (Newswriting and Reporting) where we learned that big events should always be covered in advance (we already received one mention in the Herald and more is coming in both the Herald and the Globe as well as campus newspapers of other member schools). This is huge news for BU’s student run newspaper as this event is actually taking place on the BU Campus and BU students were actually key players in making this happen. The Student Union and Boston Intercollegiate Government ran very successful voting drives this year and are following that up by letting the students now who their candidates for Mayor and City Council are. Of course, I expect nothing less than ignorance of BU events after reading your series on Hurriance Katrina relief efforts. You completely ignored “HelpNow”, the BU student organization dedicated to Hurricane relief. They have a web site at people.bu.edu/helpnow and you can send them an e-mail at helpnow@bu.edu in case you are interested. C’mon guys, get on the ball. You’re supposed to be journalists. Develop a nose for news and start reporting on it. If you think I am wrong, talk to your journalism professors about this because you need help. Note: This letter does not apply to the entire staff of The Daily Free Press as there are some good reporters on staff and the sports staff is pretty good. This probably applies more so to some (or one) of the editors/people in charge of the paper. Jonah Goldberg Student Union Vice President Boston Intercollegiate Government Webmaster COM ’07 jonahg@bu.edu 516-659-1177