Ryan ChartrandEvery week I read the Wednesday liberal and conservative columns in the Mustang Daily, but this week more than usual I found myself wondering why. Both the liberal and conservative columns are rarely well-written, usually full of contradictions and many times composed completely of petty and childish insults aimed at the other side of the aisle.
It’s not that I am against freedom of speech – it’s everyone’s right to call Republicans warmongering ditto-heads or Democrats weak, unproductive girly men – but I guess what is surprising is that the Mustang Daily continues to print this substandard excuse for journalism. Anyone can fling a bunch of pseudo-intellectual, back-handed insults and call it a political column, but that doesn’t mean I, or any other Mustang Daily reader, should have to read it.
Now not everyone is endowed with the gift of immaculate composition, and I don’t expect Pulitzer Prize-winning articles that majestically tackle hard-hitting issues. All I want is to not have to see rabblerousing smut wasting paper every week. I do understand that it is nice to have political columns weekly, but as my mother says, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, you might as well not say anything at all.”
I propose the Mustang Daily do one of two things: First, open up the political columns to any writer wishing to eloquently express his or her opinions on an issue (survival of the fittest article) or secondly, if the writers of the Blueprint or the Right Way can’t produce mature and reader-worthy columns, simply leave their articles out and save a bit of paper.
Luckily the political articles are conveniently buried in the middle section of the paper where they can’t be of too much embarrassment, but maybe with a little healthy competition for the space, the Blueprint and Right Way could produce some front page-quality writing.