Letter to the Editor
I commend you all for making the decision last week to endorse a presidential candidate in the upcoming national election. You revealed your collective opinions, independent of the University’s, whichever it may be, on a topic that affects your readers — the student body.
I first saw the editorial on your Facebook page. Not surprisingly, the comment section quickly became a volatile area of people arguing politics and religion, as so many do. But what was more troubling to me were the angry people writing that your newspaper broke some kind of University rule by endorsing who you chose to.
As a former Editor-in-Chief of this very paper and someone who now works in journalism professionally, I was blown away by those type of complaints. One even called for the University to stop printing the publication.
Days later, I noticed that some were so enraged over the editorial (which, news flash, by definition is a biased, opinion piece, so there’s no need to get angry over not agreeing with someone) that a Change.org petition was made to “pull” the article and make sure The Setonian refrain from supporting presidential candidates in the future.
This petition, which naturally was written by someone connected to the angry Facebook comments, was the final straw for me.
The sheer ignorance of a petition to call for such things proves that some of your readers, whether they are angry alumni or upset students, simply do not understand the ethics of journalism.
The language used in the petition shows it was written by someone who fits that description. For instance, the creator wrote “The Setonian by publishing this article is saying the school as a whole supports...” but then later claims “The views and opinions of Ashley Turner and those on the editorial board should not represent the whole of Seton Hall.”
I’m well aware the editorial board doesn’t represent the entire University.
This editorial board is full of free-thinking, hard-working student journalists who have the right to share their opinions.
Nicholas Parco
SHU Class of 2012
The Setonian welcomes letters to the editor. All submissions must include the author’s first and last name and a phone number where the author can be reached. Submissions should be no more than 375 words. The Setonian reserves the right to edit submissions for style. Deadline for submission is noon on the Tuesday preceding publication. Letters can be e-mailed to Gary Phillips, Editor-in-Chief, at thesetonian2016@gmail.com.
