Our Response

As of Wednesday, The Daily Gamecock became much talked about news around campus. I've heard people whispering about it in all of my classes, in hallways and on our Web site. It seems we opened a can of worms, to be cliché. Maybe I'm just paranoid that the kids in my classes would realize who I am and attack me like they have our reporter. It wasn't until I got into the office today that it really hit me what was going on around here.
As I scanned through the 100 or so total comments on all of the controversial stories, I got angrier. I don't mind when people make comments about the newspaper. That doesn't bother me too much, even though to make this I work until I'm sick. No, it's when people start talking crap about my writers that I get mad. That's uncalled for, juvenile and completely out of place. Our writers are assigned stories by section editors. They do their reporting and then send them in through e-mail. After that the stories are fact checked and edited by the section editors, copy editors, copy desk chief and myself. Never should these writers be accosted like our writers have been this week.
What's next? Are people going to start egging cars and dorm rooms when they don't like a news story? Maybe there's something in the water, but whoever thought that saying someone was a fat cow as an insult to their writing should have kept their ignorant thoughts to themselves.
It's a time like this that we felt it was necessary to stand up not only for our paper but for our writers, and let readers know this sort of comments are not welcome topics on our forum.

-- Liz White
Editor in chief