Mesa State Criterion

Last week for the first time in eight years, The Criterion endorsed a presidential candidate.  Doing so was not an easy task and was seen as risky even by some on our editorial board. We knew whomever we endorsed would not sit well with the all the students and faculty, and because of this feared that those angered or in disagreement with our decision might stop reading the paper altogether. We chose to take that risk.

Endorsing a candidate was necessary because it brought to light a current controversial issue and got people talking and thinking. That is the main responsibility of any newspaper, student or otherwise and that goal is achieved by writing news, sports, and feature stories, along with personal opinions and yes, editorials. By not taking a stand on this election, we would be dodging our responsibilities as journalists and that can never be done, especially if this newspaper is to earn and keep the respect of students and faculty at Mesa State College.

To say the decision to endorse a candidate was popular among the entire staff would be lying. We had many heated debates in editors’ meetings about the positives and negatives of doing so, and I as the Editor in-Chief, even talked to each section editor one-on-one to gauge how they felt.  While not everyone was for, and may still not be for the endorsement, there was no way to let the issue go by without providing our stance.

At a student newspaper, outside of the goals mentioned above, another major goal is to provide students with the best practical experience working in a newsroom so that if we become professionals, we will be as prepared as possible to do whatever is asked. Every newspaper takes controversial stances. Endorsing either McCain or Obama would be seen as such, and because it’s important to gain experience tackling tough issues, we had to do it.

Also, every newspaper endorses political candidates. It was important that we do the same because if we are to work at any newspaper, serving on an editorial board and voicing our opinions on political editorials is necessary.  Better we learn now early in our careers than wait until later.

If we write editorials as we have done this year, urging students to vote in ASG elections and get involved, shouldn’t we do the same thing for the presidential election? If we hadn’t taken a stand as an editorial board by writing an endorsement how could we tell others to? It was simply time to “practice what we preach.”

Despite the lack of response in letters to the editor, throughout the week, I’ve heard some really weird opinions about how we endorsed McCain or what having done so will mean for The Criterion.

Some say that the decision on who we endorsed was just made based on my personal preference. Not true.  Every section editor got a chance to have his or her say on the three different issues discussed last week and then we put it to a vote. The candidate who had the most votes on the basis of the three issues won our endorsement. McCain was the winner by a majority decision. Had Obama won, we would’ve endorsed him.

If anyone thinks this means our paper will be slanted one way or the other, that won’t be the case. Throughout the year, students have never been discouraged from providing their points of view, nor will they so long as what they write is not hateful or written in bad taste. We’ve covered everything we can as fairly as we can. We’ve covered Sarah Palin and Barack Obama’s visits fairly and adequately and while we have covered McCain this issue, if Joe Biden stops by the BookCliff café tomorrow we’ll be there.

The same goes with advertising. No one who wishes to advertise with our paper will be denied the opportunity. The Barack Obama ad on the back of our editorial last week was there because someone wanted to advertise it there. We did not sell out our beliefs, as more than one student suggested. We still believe McCain is the best choice for the presidency and had he, Ralph Nader, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fud, or anyone else wanted to advertise with us that day, it would have been done. Not allowing it wouldn’t have been fair or right.

Even if you disagree with whom we endorsed or why, we at least got the issue to the forefront of your minds, and therefore we were successful in doing what we hoped. If by endorsing McCain we got him one more vote, or got one student to research Obama and vote for him, we did our job. Along with that, hopefully we earned your respect for taking a stand; and assured you that we will not stop shining some light on events and issues that affect everyone at Mesa State no matter how controversial they are.