Monday, February 21, 2005
MadObserver misconceptions
(from el guante's angryblog)
So there seems to be some confusion about what the Madison Observer (www.madisonobserver.org) is. Here are a few common misconceptions:
1. We're a bunch of radical socialists who hate white people and want to overthrow the government. (The slower liberals and conservatives alike tend to think this, and whenever i hear it i KNOW that the person saying it has never really read the paper, at least not in any depth. We support some radical stuff, but our writers tend to have more nuanced positions on most issues. We actually receive criticism from actual radicals.)
2. We're party-line spewing Democrats. (Hell no. Conservatives tend to think this, but they have a nasty habit to lump liberals, Democrats, radicals and everyone who isn't them together in a neat little box. We've had articles supporting Democrats, but we've had MORE articles talking about how they sure as hell aren't going to save us from anything we're facing right now. Personally, i'm not a fan, in case you couldn't tell.)
3. We're the mouthpiece of the Multicultural Student Coalition. (They've not funded us since summer, and even when we WERE attached to the MCSC we had complete autonomy in terms of printing content. We've probably criticized them as much as we've praised them... maybe more.)
4. We don't exist. ("What's the Madison Observer?")
5. We're joyless and preachy. (Again, when i hear this i know that people aren't really reading the paper; they're taking their stereotypes of alt. media and projecting them on to us. We've had a few preachy articles, sure, but as far as being joyless goes, that's just insane. 1/4 to 1/3 of the paper is arts and culture stuff that has little to no political weight-- it's just there because we support the arts and believe that they're important to a functioning society. We have music reviews, film/theatre reviews, a food column, a sex column, interviews with all kinds of artists, a puzzle, features dealing with lots of different cultural issues and much more.)
I hope that clears some stuff up. If you consider yourself a progressive, a liberal, a radical, a moderate or even just apathetic, you'll still be able to find something interesting or entertaining in the Madison Observer. Hell, if you're a conservative who happens to like hip hop, read the paper for our hip hop reviews.
Just stop labeling us as something we are definitely not. Set your preconceived notions to the side and actually use some critical thinking skills when reading our paper. Read with an open mind... and that goes out to EVEYRONE.
So there seems to be some confusion about what the Madison Observer (www.madisonobserver.org) is. Here are a few common misconceptions:
1. We're a bunch of radical socialists who hate white people and want to overthrow the government. (The slower liberals and conservatives alike tend to think this, and whenever i hear it i KNOW that the person saying it has never really read the paper, at least not in any depth. We support some radical stuff, but our writers tend to have more nuanced positions on most issues. We actually receive criticism from actual radicals.)
2. We're party-line spewing Democrats. (Hell no. Conservatives tend to think this, but they have a nasty habit to lump liberals, Democrats, radicals and everyone who isn't them together in a neat little box. We've had articles supporting Democrats, but we've had MORE articles talking about how they sure as hell aren't going to save us from anything we're facing right now. Personally, i'm not a fan, in case you couldn't tell.)
3. We're the mouthpiece of the Multicultural Student Coalition. (They've not funded us since summer, and even when we WERE attached to the MCSC we had complete autonomy in terms of printing content. We've probably criticized them as much as we've praised them... maybe more.)
4. We don't exist. ("What's the Madison Observer?")
5. We're joyless and preachy. (Again, when i hear this i know that people aren't really reading the paper; they're taking their stereotypes of alt. media and projecting them on to us. We've had a few preachy articles, sure, but as far as being joyless goes, that's just insane. 1/4 to 1/3 of the paper is arts and culture stuff that has little to no political weight-- it's just there because we support the arts and believe that they're important to a functioning society. We have music reviews, film/theatre reviews, a food column, a sex column, interviews with all kinds of artists, a puzzle, features dealing with lots of different cultural issues and much more.)
I hope that clears some stuff up. If you consider yourself a progressive, a liberal, a radical, a moderate or even just apathetic, you'll still be able to find something interesting or entertaining in the Madison Observer. Hell, if you're a conservative who happens to like hip hop, read the paper for our hip hop reviews.
Just stop labeling us as something we are definitely not. Set your preconceived notions to the side and actually use some critical thinking skills when reading our paper. Read with an open mind... and that goes out to EVEYRONE.
// posted by Guante @ 12:28 PM 
