It is profoundly disappointing
that David J. Raymond (Opinion Editor Emeritus) could get so
far educationally and have so little to show for it when writing
his opinion columns. Perhaps it is symptomatic of his generation
that they depend on the Internet for ideas rather than engaging
in critical thinking. The Sept.29 article “And the Devil
went down to Alabama,” could have been lifted directly
from the Democratic National Committee Web site, moveon.org,
thenation.com, or any other left-wing Web site available to
computer-savvy, high school students.
Raymond’s litany of G.W. Bush’s sins are listed as “givens” with
no attempt to justify his claims. For example, Raymond derides “increased
commercial logging as the solution to summer wildfires” without
attempting to prove why judicious logging and cutting of undergrowth
would not reduce the incidence and seriousness of wildfires.
In the rest of the article, he uses the Alabama Ten Commandments
controversy to “prove” that Christian “fundamentalism” is
as dangerous as Islamic “fundamentalism,” citing
the Oklahoma federal building bombing. Someone who depends
on myths rampant on leftist Web sites would not, of course,
be aware
that McVeigh and Nichols were politically, not religiously
motivated.
If we need more proof of an unfortunate dependence on the Internet
for resource material, Raymond’s byline appears on the
humor article, Having Cows, which is directly lifted from an
Internet source: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_have_two_cows. Raymond
merely rearranged some titles and added a few words. Yet there
was no credit given to Wikipedia (or to the other sites where
this piece appeared). This raises a serious question about journalistic
ethics. Kalamalama’s opinion editor should have caught
this as it has been widely circulated via e-mail and various
humor sites.
A newspaper representing Hawai‘i Pacific University must
encourage good critical writing and discourage writers from
rehashing material from the Internet.
Carol White is an HPU Audio Visual librarian working in the
Learning Assistance Center at 1188 Fort St. Suite 139. She
can be reached
at 544-0852, cwhite@hpu.edu. |
