Mr. Editor, I am deeply disappointed at the June 30 edition of the UP. It lacks, to be honest, anything that might count as journalistic integrity. There is no reporting, no interviewing, no insight or analysis. Quite frankly it was the worst issue I had seen the UP ever produce; it’s an embarrassment. Such an embarrassment that it overshadows all the embarrassing issues that were produced when I was Opinions Editor at the UP – and there certainly were too many to count.
To begin with, there is no sports section. Although, to be fair, online there is no sport section except for a slight collage of a few football players that once played at FAU and a headline saying: “A look at FAU’s football players that have gone pro.” That’s great! Where are they playing at now? What position do they play? What are their chances of staying pro considering the average football player’s career is less than three years? But all the reader, or in this case viewer, gets are three names and the owl mascot as the dominant art.
The opinion section was sadly a let down of the highest proportions. First off, the cartoon is illegible online. Second, it was clearly an opinion, although a sadly random and pointless one. Apparently Pumphrey, full from eating so many hotdogs in front of the library, ventured to do a story the old Marc Litt [previous Opinions Editor] way – rambling on about how stupid people are or how hot some chick is. Somehow, I just did not need to know about edible tattoos or whatever other clearly overt sexual thing he was clumsily shouting about.
To continue, the story which had him do a great deal of investigative journalism, what with asking friend’s girlfriends and recalling some time at a bar, and then even making up a sadly redundant situation about some eagle tattoo and a knife was lacking in every aspect that he complained the tattoos missed. As he says in the close of his column, the only coherent and useful part of it I might add: “I keep running into people with nothing good to give me when they explain their branding. If you have to make it up, then do so. If you have to change it from time to time, then do so. But have a story behind your lifetime tat that can give inspiration, deep thought, or even justified fear to whomever you tell it to.”
Yes, well since Pumphrey is so enamored by misused clichí©s, I’ll offer him one of my own: practice what you complain about. If your so upset that the tattoos of women (apparently no men ever have tattoos in South Florida) that lack meaning, why don’t you just report it and make your story about their stupidity by showing it rather than barking at us about it.
Or, better yet, why not write relevant and meaningful pieces that people will actually care to read and that aren’t filled with some sort of nostalgic period in your life. This is not a personal attack; I’ve never even met you, but what you’re publishing is just awful and brings down the quality of the paper so much so that it might as well go back to writing pieces about how to masturbate.
This brings me to the fluffy little cover story. It seems as if someone found the little monkey so amusing they just had to write a nothing piece without a story or event about it. If there was a focus rather than a laundry list of services that Health and Wellness Center was offering than, this might have been salvaged. It’s not as if the writing wasn’t there because it was. It was written very well; except that it forgot one thing: the story! There’s nothing there for the reader to get interested in even with all the scenery and the allusions. But, if there is a saving grace to this issue, it’s the news section. I very much enjoyed the genocide piece; I thought it was everything the aforementioned pieces were not: It was well reported, thought out, and insightful. It had taste and was handled well; although more information about the IAGC (website, contact info) would have been nice.
I don’t mean to be so harsh, but quite frankly this is the middle of the summer and if this is the best paper the UP can produce it has a lot of work to do. You at the UP should be thankful that this was a summer production for if it had been in August or October it not only would have been embarrassing to you who are around when more people read it but to the school in general. This is simply a bad issue; you’ve produced better, but not this time.
Dan RestrepoFAU Alumnus and former UP Opinion Editor
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