Rio Hondo's very own Red Square
Salomon Baeza
Issue date: 5/15/09 Section: Opinion
Recently, after running an opinion piece by co-Editor-In-Chief, J. Daniel Fernandez, about the workings of the Associated Student Body and their actions. As a result, the El Paisano newspaper and its staff, came under fire from the student organization.
So much so, that the student government chose to begin a playground spat with the paper.
Going so far as to create a motion questioning our validity and to 'take a stand against El Paisano.'
The irony of the situation is that these 'future leaders of America' have experienced their first taste of journalistic criticism, taken it out of context, and now challenged it with the intent of silencing a First Amendment paper rather than supporting their fellow students as they are elected to.
For those unaware of what the First Amendment is, it was placed into effect as a way to ensure that all people of the United States would be granted freedom of speech and that we be allowed freedom of press.
Ethically, newspapers and El Paisano by extension, choose to ignore rumor in favor of facts, especially when writing news stories which are to be objective and simply state the truth as it's meant to be reported. Which delves further to the point that President Zumaya and his student based administration is unaware of the difference between types of newspaper articles.
Opinion articles are not to be seen as news stories that are fact because they are the express opinion of any writer and for this reason as valid as the next person's opinion. While anyone can question an opinion, deeming it invalid is ludicrous to say the least. The beauty of a free and democratic nation is that we are allowed to live our lives our own way, with our own opinions and not live in fear of government enforced silence and oppression.
J. Daniel's opinion was based on what he saw and what all other students see as ASB and their actions, he drew his own conclusions and then formed an opinion.
If the ASB disagreed then that's fine, but to go so far as to claim that El Paisano wrote this opinion or is somehow wrong for allowing criticism of the ASB is moronic, juvenile and fascist.
Every El Paisano writer is given a handbook whose first page is the El Paisano creed which clearly states that we, the paper and its writers, are a public trust.
As such we are to serve the public in all its facets with the information they need and to censor it because of another's juvenile fascist behavior is a betrayal of this trust. Rather than respect this duty and our creed or at the very least the First Amendment, Zumaya and his regime have chosen to fall to juvenile levels of pettiness and fascist actions by attempting to silence us and by questioning our ethics.
It seems rather than behaving like a noble and dignified leader, like our own President Obama who takes criticism with a grain of salt, he has taken a cue from George W. Bush, Stalin, Fidel Castro, Kim Jung Il and the Peoples Republic of China and decided on a course of action to silence the freedom of the people.
So to him I say Welcome to Politics, now grow up.
So much so, that the student government chose to begin a playground spat with the paper.
Going so far as to create a motion questioning our validity and to 'take a stand against El Paisano.'
The irony of the situation is that these 'future leaders of America' have experienced their first taste of journalistic criticism, taken it out of context, and now challenged it with the intent of silencing a First Amendment paper rather than supporting their fellow students as they are elected to.
For those unaware of what the First Amendment is, it was placed into effect as a way to ensure that all people of the United States would be granted freedom of speech and that we be allowed freedom of press.
Ethically, newspapers and El Paisano by extension, choose to ignore rumor in favor of facts, especially when writing news stories which are to be objective and simply state the truth as it's meant to be reported. Which delves further to the point that President Zumaya and his student based administration is unaware of the difference between types of newspaper articles.
Opinion articles are not to be seen as news stories that are fact because they are the express opinion of any writer and for this reason as valid as the next person's opinion. While anyone can question an opinion, deeming it invalid is ludicrous to say the least. The beauty of a free and democratic nation is that we are allowed to live our lives our own way, with our own opinions and not live in fear of government enforced silence and oppression.
J. Daniel's opinion was based on what he saw and what all other students see as ASB and their actions, he drew his own conclusions and then formed an opinion.
If the ASB disagreed then that's fine, but to go so far as to claim that El Paisano wrote this opinion or is somehow wrong for allowing criticism of the ASB is moronic, juvenile and fascist.
Every El Paisano writer is given a handbook whose first page is the El Paisano creed which clearly states that we, the paper and its writers, are a public trust.
As such we are to serve the public in all its facets with the information they need and to censor it because of another's juvenile fascist behavior is a betrayal of this trust. Rather than respect this duty and our creed or at the very least the First Amendment, Zumaya and his regime have chosen to fall to juvenile levels of pettiness and fascist actions by attempting to silence us and by questioning our ethics.
It seems rather than behaving like a noble and dignified leader, like our own President Obama who takes criticism with a grain of salt, he has taken a cue from George W. Bush, Stalin, Fidel Castro, Kim Jung Il and the Peoples Republic of China and decided on a course of action to silence the freedom of the people.
So to him I say Welcome to Politics, now grow up.
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