Ignorance on Facebook
As a former sports beat reporter for the Texan, I often found myself struggling to maintain a balance between my personal life and my job as a reporter representing the University and fellow journalists. I remain a Longhorn and Cowboys fan always, but when I put on my Daily Texan cap, these things no longer matter. I owe it to myself and whatever media organization I represent to keep my personal opinions personal in order to keep my job (and my editor's sanity intact).
I say this to point out a Daily Texan staff member who crossed the line and caused quite a frenzy with his Facebook profile picture depicting Barack Obama in blackface with chicken and watermelon. While I understand the need to respect others' freedom of speech, as journalists, we have to respect the profession and realize that our right to express ourselves may infringe upon our ability to function as quality reporters and may affect the newspaper or TV station as a whole. One posted picture or racial statement reflects upon the organization as a whole, and may cause readers to doubt the journalist's ability to objectively report, especially when handling sensitive issues. I have no idea how to handle the situation, but The Daily Texan would do well to use this situation as an opportunity to teach budding journalists the importance of keeping their noses clean, even on social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. Because someone's always watching or reading, even after the newscast is over and the newspaper has been distributed.
Courtney Cox Broadcast journalism senior
Ignorance on Facebook II
I couldn't help but be infuriated by what I saw on Facebook Monday morning. I was met with a very offensive caricature of Sen.Barack Obama, which is currently the profile picture of a person who writes for The Daily Texan. I don't know what kind of protocol you have your staff members follow, but I found it extremely inappropriate, insensitive and blatantly ignorant. I am a firm believer in freedom of speech and expression, but not when it infringes upon others. Within hours, several students felt the same way that I felt after seeing the picture(s) illustrating Sen. Obama as a sambo (an offensive and derogatory image of a black person), complete with watermelon, fried chicken and darkened skin. During the last few years, I have seen this type of thing on Facebook far too many times, and I think it has gotten ridiculous. When it comes to offensive pictures, words, dress, parties, etc., people should be cognizant of what they are presenting to others. If it is your aim to offend people or garner attention, have the courage to stop hiding behind your computer screen. I wasn't even the young man's friend on Facebook, and I was able to figure out that he works for the Texan. I hope people realize that employers can point and click just as easily as I can. Also, is this the kind of representation that the Texan wants from its staff?
Andrew H. Lilly Sport management senior
Ignorance on Facebook III
Statistics say that about 85 percent of the students at UT are on Facebook. This, of course, is a large amount of people, so we should not be surprised if a few rotten apples use Facebook as a medium to make an ass out of themselves in a desperate cry for attention. Usually, I am of the opinion that if you refuse to give these people attention, they will crawl back into their little corner of the Internet and disappear. However, when I was made aware that a contributor of this very newspaper had Facebook pictures depicting Barack Obama in blackface, complete with chicken and watermelon, a change in my policy seemed appropriate.
The image(s) I was met with when venturing to his corner of Facebook were the most offensive and disturbing images I have ever seen. To be fair, I will tell you that this man is reportedly a liberal, and even more ludicrous, an Obama supporter. If he thinks his vote makes it OK to mock Sen. Obama for being a black man, and thus degrade an entire population as a whole, he is sadly mistaken. Racism has many faces, and this happens to be one of its worst. The ignorance of one person really means nothing to me, but the fact that this person writes for the newspaper that I read every morning is absurd and ridiculous. The Daily Texan should take action immediately, or allow people to falsely make a connection between his twisted views and their publication.
TJ Finley Government and sport management senior
Risky health care
As a future actuary, I feel the need to clarify some issues surrounding Sen. Clinton's health insurance policy ("Let's talk universally," Mar. 3). We should first discuss the fairness of premiums principle, namely, that it is unfair, and not a smart insurance practice, to make low-risk insureds carry any significant portion of the costs associated with high-risk insureds. More succinctly, you pay for your own risk and no one else's. This over-simplifies the associated math, but works as the basis of my argument. To those who view this as unfair, let us look at an example. Imagine that as you go to work every day you see this same person and that more often than not there is something medically wrong with them. Were that random unknown person to ask you to help pay their medical bills, even the most charitable among us would soon be at the end of your charitableness. Take this to a large scale and you have the fairness of premium principle.
This principle is what often makes health insurance unaffordable to most people. It is also the problem with Clinton's mandate for health care. Even if we unrealistically assume that the growth in a company's covered risks would not cause premiums to grow, it would still take massive subsidies to cover every man, woman and child. Add in that the increased risk would increase costs and thus premiums and even more subsidies are required to push premiums back into the affordable range.
Further low-risk insureds are also hurt because while they are, typically, middle-class or above they would bear the brunt of the necessary taxes to cover the new subsidies. Further as low-risk individuals they already have relatively lower premiums so they receive essentially no benefit from the subsidies. Lastly, as insurers would be carrying more high-risk individuals there will be more companies going bust when their luck runs out and they get the health insurance equivalent of a hurricane strike in Florida and thus at best causing the companies former low-risk insureds to have to find a new insurer.
Jason Michael Actuarial science senior
Get serious, UT
The Austin American-Statesman announced Monday the UT System Board of Regents will be conducting interviews on March 26 for development of the 345-acre Brackenridge Tract. It is hard to consider UT a high-quality university system when what the professors teach has no recognition at the higher level of their own institution. The concept of preservation/conservation is taught at all levels of University education but it is not a concept enacted or recognized by UT in its own community? Why does no one at the top recognize this disconnect? Harvard has a 265-acre preserve with 4,500 different plant species from around the world. Established in 1872, this is the oldest public arboretum in North America. One might think by 2008 other university systems would have jumped on the bandwagon. How can UT be taken seriously when they spend millions of dollars on a football stadium but no consideration is put into development along the city's only major river?
UT needs to think about the residents of Austin and their future students before selling a major piece of property for short-term economic gain. I would like to see the University look into how they can slow commercial and residential development throughout Barton Creek Greenbelt and along the Colorado River rather than encourage it.
I respect UT, but with every decision it seems the university regents are corporate, uneducated and disconnected (from both its students and the greater Austin community) developers prospecting for their next venture.
Jakob Grothe Geography planning senior Texas State University
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