Hello,
I saw this posting, today, from Big Jolly Politics: Houston Community College System’s Official Newspaper Attacks King Street Patriots
And I wanted to state that even though you wrote the post 2 years ago, it is still relevant to today–all of which you said is very true! I’m trying to start a petition to add more diversity and add more contributing writers, real journalism students too, to the HCC student-run newspaper “The Egalitarian.”
I, for one, believe that The Egalitarian isn’t a proper outlet for HCC students and I think most of the HCC students don’t care, since many don’t read it. The newspaper is run by, editor-in-chief and Liberal Arts major, Amanda Hart (who also is a writer for Free Press Houston), along with faculty adviser, Tony Diaz. Hart’s vulgar language is incessant; I don’t believe that she can write a proper article without cursing, which is such a shame because it really means her vocabulary is limited if she can’t seem to write without substantial vulgarity. There are only two contributing writers (both of which are members of the HCC Student Government Association) and there is supposedly a “copy editor,” however the few times that I have read The Egalitarian, there are many punctuation and grammatical errors, so I’m not quite sure what the copy editor is really doing. It’s seriously a tragedy! It’s even more of a tragedy because HCC’s English dept offers a wonderful professor who proofreads and does tutoring for students, if need be. I have gone to the HCC Central campus to get my articles proofread many times, as I’m a bit of a perfectionist.
I, personally, wanted to help The Egalitarian in order to better itself and for the good of the HCC student population. Yet, I feel my sincere need to help came off as “arrogant” and “criticizing.” I had contributed a proper article for the HCC student-run newspaper. The basis of the article came from what I had posted on my blog: Mainstream Media’s Disease
I’ve attached the written article of what I initially intended to write for The Egalitarian: Mainstream Media’s Disease. I also went out of my way to take images of students from HCC’s Central campus to showcase the diversity within the school as well… only to find out that my article didn’t get published and they never told me as to why either. In fact, getting in touch with The Egalitarian staff is terribly difficult, in itself.
I feel that with the prejudices and politics, which The Egalitarian is carrying, they aren’t giving a proper outlet to what HCC students want to read and I believe they should have a voice too! Plus, there are many errors, from punctuation to grammar and spelling… hence, many actual journalism students are deterred from even contributing–especially since if they do try to contribute, the staff of The Egalitarian is far more about “personal liaisons” and “politics” rather than proper journalistic integrity and intelligent work!
I am not about politics and personal liaisons; I feel that if someone does a great job, they deserve to be doing work–regardless of how I may feel of them personally. A person’s work and ethics should speak for themselves! Maybe I’m just an idealistic dreamer, wishing for a better world, but I feel justice must be served!
Here is the petition that I started: Education Petition: Houston Community College’s The Egalitarian: DEMAND journalistic integrity, accuracy, and diversity.
Please sign it and bring awareness to it as well!
I just believe in journalistic integrity and ethics, not in politics. In fact, I didn’t know taxpayer money goes into funding HCC’s The Egalitarian, until I read your blog. I thought the students who run the newspaper had a passion for journalism and causes, but now I’m starting to feel like they only care about their funding/money.
Sincerely,
Elvia Francis
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Note: If you would like to send a letter to the editor, send it to Letter to Editor.