Oracle Online

I should have known better. I should have known that even though we sent e-mails, left phone messages, and talked to the editor in chief personally, our esteemed newspaper wouldn’t get around to printing anything.

Last year we were told the Oracle would not print any press materials because it broke “journalistic integrity.” Never mind the fact that every other newspaper we contacted had no problem printing our requests (or that the last time an article about a play was in the Oracle, I wrote it, and I was an actor in that play! Not much “journalistic integrity” there).

Let’s pretend for a minute that my staff had not contacted the Oracle repeatedly. The Oracle still has meetings to debate the contents of the upcoming issue, correct? By the time you went to layout on that week’s issue, three campus-wide e-mails had gone out advertising the show. Furthermore, posters were all over the campus and local community, the play was listed in your daily planners, it appeared in the campus events e-mails, and it was listed in “This week at Hamline.”

There were three former page editors in the production. The cast and crew numbered in the dozens. Someone had to hear something.

I don’t think I’d be as upset if you had neglected us in favor of covering that weekend’s student music concerts in Sundin, but somehow, you missed that too.

The news pages focus on Hamline news. The sports pages focus on Hamline sports. Why do the entertainment pages focus on whatever interests the page editors? This is not new to these two editors; this has been an oddity for years.

I was a page editor last year. I understand the pressure of the deadline, the begging for writers, and especially the underappreciation. However, this is not an excuse to so blatantly ignore a major campus event. The Oracle is by the students for the students. So I have to ask Oracle, and especially the
Entertainment section: Where were you?

Ryan Mayer
CLA Student