Damn the LSU man; read Tiger Weekly

[9 Comment(s)]

By Madeline Brown

I’d like to expand upon something my editor-in-chief Stephen Phillips wrote in his blog “Stephen Says.” On Tuesday, March 4, in the entry titled “Again?” he wrote:

“Yet again have I heard another story about a journalism teacher – a so-called professional – who made a slanderous, baseless claim about Tiger Weekly. Is it odd that I’m actually surprised?

“This comment, I’m told, was regarding plagiarism – ‘Tiger Weekly will plagiarize anything.’”

(Let the record show that I credited the original author of the statement before I put his words in my work.)

I’m the one who squealed on my own teacher. Yes, me.

It was media law class. My teacher gave a hypothetical scenario involving The Daily Reveille (the class pet) that reported a story on a sex scandal. She asked the class to name a few other local media outlets that might pick up on the story. Someone suggested Tiger TV. Another student suggested KLSU, I think. And then someone suggested Tiger Weekly.

That’s when my teacher said with a scoff and a wide grin that our paper would plagiarize anything.

Let me just say that Emily Erickson is a great teacher. She’s funny, she’s cool and we are all learning a great deal about media law. But she messed up big time, and in teaching the class about defamation, she made a defamatory comment. She made a claim about Tiger Weekly in front of 25 or so possible readers that potentially damaged our reputation.

Let me also say I have nothing against my fellow mass comm. students working their butts off at The Reveille, the preferred paper amongst LSU faculty. I’m used to the subtle bias in class. I’m used to seeing Reveille writers rub elbows with the teachers, and seeing them get pats on the back for their hard work. That’s great to give The Reveille staff credit. They deserve it. I will simply look for my gold stars elsewhere.

They can’t necessarily pat Tiger Weekly writers on the back, because I don’t think they read our paper. Obviously, my media law teacher doesn’t. If she did, she would see that we aren’t as unethical as she seems to believe. We most certainly do not plagiarize.

To say that Tiger Weekly will plagiarize anything, I feel like she inadvertently told my class that I would plagiarize anything. I’m trying to learn here, not be defamed!

I guess I’ve just been waiting for this moment, for a teacher to slip up and tell the class what the department really feels about our weekly. And I guess I should not be surprised that the backhanded comment would be completely false.

Why is it so hard for the faculty in the Manship School to wrap their brains around the fact that some of their students would rather write for something other than The Reveille? Several Manship students have passed through the “devil’s mouth” of our alternative press offices. Hell, even the general manager of Tiger Weekly majored in mass communication.

How could she forget that she might have a few of Manship’s finest black sheep in the classroom?

I’m proud of the fact that I write for Tiger Weekly. I’m also proud that LSU provides its students, faculty and staff with copies of both local publications. Students, faculty and staff are better served when they have two papers providing information for them. Diversity of media is a great thing. It’s healthy for democracy. I think I learned that in a mass communication class.

I chose to write for Tiger Weekly because it is much more in touch with Baton Rouge culture than other publications, and the average Tiger Weekly reader will say so as well.

As far as news goes, take a look at the positive comments we get on some cover stories. Our large reader base appreciates the coverage we provide.

It’s my right to write where I want while I’m under the Manship faculty’s wing at LSU, and I’m not going to sit there and let them make me feel bad about it. I’m not going to let them accuse me and my colleagues of breaking the most important rule in journalism. I work my ass off too hard to be discredited in front of my fellow students. The whole staff has been working hard to improve the paper every week, and I see the faculty not only refuses to recognize that, but they also spread lies on the contrary.

Of course there is always room for improvement, and we’re certainly not perfect. But Dr. Erickson, I would appreciate it if you would pick up MY paper once in a while and actually read our diverse coverage and original stories.

See where you’re wrong about us. Don’t just listen to what the rest of the faculty tells you. Question their false claims of plagiarism, poor quality or anything else negative they say about Tiger Weekly. Most importantly, remember we are out there. We’re in your classroom, trying to apply what you teach us to publications other than The Daily Reveille.

Send your comments to editor@tigerweekly.com

Originally Published: Issue 600 - March 12, 2008

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