Let me vent one more time regarding the WSJ

I should have mentioned this incident with the Wisconsin State Journal. About a month ago I sent in an editorial on my time, on my personal e-mail account and computer to the Wisconsin State Journal. I sent it as a citizen of Wisconsin. I included the information they requested and only did that because their editorial policy said that they would only publish my name and city. The other information, I was told was to verify who I said I was. Many weeks later, I was telling my wife, "just once I would like to pick up the paper and not find a typo. Better yet, just once I would like to see an article or two that truly met the definition of investigative reporting." Instead the paper gets thinner and thinner with less substance. It's a sign of the times in reporting. But I digress.

I was horrified to find my letter finally published in the paper the next day. It included my name and city. However, it also included my title and employer. What? Of all the editorials, including another one from one of my neighbors, I was the only one to have this information included. I went back and read the policy that was written on-line and in the paper. I fired off an e-mail that morning asking WTF? I got a call back from the paper apologizing for their actions. The explanation I got was this: "On occasion, we include information about employment when we believe it adds credibility to the editorial". My response? If that is your practice, than you need to change the wording of your policy. Furthermore, how insulting is that? Shouldn't everyone's opinions be valued in the same way in the letter to the editor section of the paper? The last time I checked, the wording of the policy on the on-line version of the WSJ has not changed.

Needless to say, my administrators were none to happy because they know that we are living in a time when people are vindictive. Yea, I know. Who needs tenure? I didn't mind that people knew who I was. I was sharing my opinion as a resident of the state, not as an employee of the University. For me, it was just another indication of what has happened to the quality of reporting. I'm going to get my reporting from other sources for a while.