At the recent Board of Trustees meeting, a brazen Ohio University administrator chided The Post and urged support for President Roderick McDavis.
Then, this week a different university administrator walked into another meeting and questioned the accuracy of an editorial The Post wrote last week, I was informed.
If we're doing so much wrong, why are you so silent?
Instead of sending an e-mail, calling or even stopping by the office you bad mouth the paper without providing evidence of wrongdoing. And you do so with relative anonymity and little impunity. There is no risk in criticizing privately.
If we print something wrong, demand a correction. If we're unfair, demand an explanation. Take a cue from a critical university administrator who I recently spoke with.
She didn't cower in her office, she spoke up as she has previously done. We certainly don't agree on everything, but she had the guile to contact me.
When The Post has incorrectly reported something about The Russ College of Engineering, their spokeswoman, Colleen Girton, has called or sent e-mails before the time The Post editors even wake up.
Yet officials in the impenetrable fortress of Cutler are curiously silent. They defer all phone calls to university flacks, refuse to address reporters' inquiries and drag their feet on requests for public records.
And then in private meetings with other officials they whine about supposed inaccuracies and mischaracterizations. Still, they do nothing to remedy it.
When you ignore a story that is wrong, readers and I assume that the story is accurate. Quit hiding and speak out if, in fact, we are wrong.
' Sean M. Gaffney is the Editor In Chief of The Summer Post. He can be reached at sg245204@ohiou.edu or 740-593-9867
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