Over The Edge Page 4

EDITORIAL

April 1, 1998

From the Bureaucracy Files:

“Mucked-Up”

by Purred Alba
And now, a lesson in objectivi-

Objective: to the object; relat-
ing to that which is external to
the mind; unbiased; (Gram.)
denoting the ease of the
object. (Websters Dictionary)

Okay, now for a reality check.
For those of you who believe
what you read, grab onto
something.

Objective: forced effort to
relate events; intensely over-
rated; an impossibilty on par
with lightspeed travel in a Tin
Can; something expected by
readers so we try it, but can’t
ever get there, really. (Over
The Edge informal training
session)

Because news and newspa-
per articles are, by definition,
written by a human and not a
group of monkeys locked in a
room, there is a vast amount of
bias included in them. This is
not something that journalists
try to do, it is something that
we try our best to avoid. Over
The Edge has a policy to report
events as we see them, make
an attempt at suggesting
things for the future and mov-
ing on. In short, constructive
criticism has a place, direct

slander or libel is not cool at all.

Case in point. The Muckabout
article published in the last
issue of Over The Edge has
caused some controversy on
the UNBC “flames” newsgroup.

For those of you who don’t
know what it is, the Muckabout
is an annual feature put on by
the Outdoors Club and is basi-
cally an evening out dancing
with a band, getting along with
others and having a little bit of
alcoho! flowing around.

The first post on the news-
group is from a character who
calls himself “Sideshow Bill.”
His real name is William Floyd
and it is his posting that gets
this whole ball rolling with
“(Nicole Larson, the reporter
said] the DJ was shitty.” At this
| must turn to Ms. Larson’s arti-
cle which states, “A determined
group (of about 6) danced to
the musical styling of Ruby
Trout, the guest DJ.” There is
nothing in this which states that
the DJ was inadequate for his
position, merely that the partic-
ipation of the audience was
lower than might have been
expected.

“Sideshow” continues forward
in his rant to point out that Over

The Edge recieved “a whole
bunch of promo stuff and
offered them an interview with
the band “The Clumsy
Lovers’.“ To this, he also adds
that Over The Edge agreed to
this and was also going to
“advertise the dance in the
“paper”.”

Unfortunately, advertising
space is not free. It costs us a
fair amount to print the paper,
and we have no choice but to
charge for it. Advertising rev-
enue is one of the ways in
which we keep the cost of the
paper to students down.
Nobody gets paid at Over The
Edge, but the paper comes out
regularly every two weeks.
Something in that equation
says that we do a lot of work
and still get critized for it.

When Shannon Whissell, a
fourth year student seeking
election to the UNBC
Academic Senate, sought to
defend the newpaper against
those crying out for objectivity,
the ever omniscent “Sideshow
Bill” showed up stating that he
wanted “to have someone as
openminded and full of shit as
yourself representing the stu-
dents at this school” and

Bill was Some whot unclear

as to what “letting itall
han g out” was about.

expressed his desire that “the
350 students who attended the
dance still vote for you.”
Several of the messages
posted to the newsgroup called
for “objective reporting” and
reporting “about
the facts.” The basic fact of the
matter is, what are those facts
people? If the reporter goes,
and looks around and sees a
few people dancing to music
that they haven’t heard much
of, then the chances are that
their article will be less than
favourable. Over The Edge is

not here to provide the. stu-
dents with the ‘happy, shiny
viewpoint’, if you want that, go
to UNBC Communications.
They get paid by UNBC to
make you look good. Over The
Edge is here to provide multi-
ple viewpoints on various
issues. | have even published
the reponses of those who took
the time to come out and
respond intelligently to this
matter in this issue.

As far as the article goes, it's
history.

LETTERS

Much ado about the Muckabout

! am writing in regard to the
recent article by Nicole
Larson concerning the “Muck
About.” The article disgusted
me thoroughly, as in my opin-
ion the event was a complete
success.

The “Muck About’, as you
probably know, is an annual
fundraising event put on by
the Outdoors Club. To my
knowledge, the event has
received a very good reputa-
tion over the past four years.

To all the prospective painters I have loved before, Who’ve wandered

door.

Anyway, | did some inves-
tigative work on the painting
issue. My findings go some-
thing like this. In order to paint
one’s room or room area, one
must make a proposal to
President's Council in the
form of a memo. The memo is

| am sure you well know the
challenges a club faces at
this university. Student spirit
is not a strong point of this
school. To help with this cur-
rent shortcoming, many clubs
are forming to hopefully meet
the recreational needs of the
student body. To me it would
only make sense that the dif-
ferent clubs help each other
rather than bashing each
other.
The article reviewing the

to be addressed to the Pres.
Council and is to be submit-
ted to the secretary /office
manager Allison Truent. The
meetings for the above men-
tioned council occur once
every three weeks (approxi-
mately). The memo should be

event was unfair. | am truly
sorry to hear that the author
did not enjoy herself at the
event. However, the compari-
son to a “High School Dance”
is going overboard.
Personally, | have the time of
my life, and | can speak for
many of my friends (both
members and non-members
of the Outdoors Club) that the
evening was a blast. The DJ
and the band were chosen
due to their uniqueness. The

submitted at least one week
before the meeting, just to be
safe. One should attempt to
produce about one dozen
copies of the memo as every
member of the council will
need to see one. | guess they
do not like to share. To con-

event was not meant to con-
sist of the mainstream music
that can be encountered at
some of the local bars.

Dances such as this are sup-

posed to be a highlight of the
year for those attending. |
have the general impression
that this goal. was met.

| fully understand that every-
one is entitled to his or her
own opinion; and this opinion
can be expressed fully. It is
sad to see however, that a

tact Ms. Truent one should
call the local 5540 number.
Peace Y'all. Happy painting.
Oh, yes! There is also a nasty
union situation that may com-
plicate things further, | do not
know much about that. One
could be naughty and just do

public review of an event,
which successfully raised the
spirits of the attendees for the
evening, was so misrepre-
sented. It should be the goal
of the student paper to fairly
represent the student body’s
opinion, not the dislikes of
one individual.

Sincerely,
Carmen Holschuh

in and out my

it themselves and face the
consequences, but | would
never suggest such a thing.
One more thing. Try the
chicken, it’s delicious!

Yours fallaciously,
David A.T. Nagel