The Daily Emerald’s publisher, Kellee Weinhold, has resigned, according to a press release the newspaper’s board sent out Friday.
The publisher is the one who runs the business side of the paper. For the background on the creation of this position, probably the best place to go is the blog that the Emerald’s staff, when I was a part of it, kept up while it was on strike two years ago. Here’s the article I wrote last summer when Weinhold was hired.
The press release says she has gone on to a new job at LivingSocial, which you may know from its somewhat grating Facebook aps (redundant?).
I feel the obligation to, as someone who might be expected to have a perspective on such things, say a few words about her tenure. I also feel the obligation, as probably the only person who will end up reporting on this, to keep my opinions out of it. Here’s a middle-of-the-road option:
In the bluntest terms, the position of publisher exists to stop the Emerald from bleeding money, which (it is no secret) is what it and just about every other advertising-funded print newspaper in the country have been doing. In that regard, Kellee’s record is mixed.
Not having anticipated that I would be writing this post three months later, I didn’t take note of the exact parameters of the Emerald’s financial situation at the last Emerald Board meeting I attended, on my last day as a staffer. However, what I do remember is that the Emerald is still losing money. Weinhold did make changes that curtailed some of that: the Emerald sold more ads, cut back its office space, and (this is something about which my feelings are colored by my own personal relationships) she reduced payroll, with all the unpleasantness that suggests. I recall thinking that less money was lost than in the preceding year.
Whether enough money was saved to recoup Weinhold’s salary, I am unable to deduce, but I think one speaking from my perspective cannot conclusively say whether she failed or succeeded in that regard.
Who knows what will happen next with the business side of the Emerald. Weinhold ran the advertising office, so someone’s going to have to start doing that. Fortunately for the Emerald (I am obliged by posting on the Commentator site to say, ‘and the rest of campus’), there will not be another paper published until the beginning of fall term, which leaves them as much time as possible to find a replacement.
Yesterday was Earth Day, this was celebrated on campus with a strong tabling effort in the EMU memorial quad. The Ol’Dirty decided to cover it with a front page picture of the events. Ironically the paper also includes a sixteen page housing guide, take that Mother Earth! Also yesterdays paper, which was distributed on Earth Day included the Scene section, a eight page insert in itself, which included such “Scene” worthy gems like “Each Picture’s Worth 1,000 hipsters.”
It didn’t seem like it could get any worse until I glanced at today’s Ol’Dirty featuring a front page article on KFC’s infamous Double Down Sandwich. Yes, the sandwich that substitutes fried or grilled chicken for buns is worthy of front page coverage in the ODE. The article even included a quote from Jay Shaver, a manager at a Springfield KFC, calling sales “off the chain.” The article did not give a full review of the sandwich and chose to discuss the fat content of the sandwich. I am almost sure that the author of the news article did not even eat the Double Down. So here is a an actual review of the Double Down AKA Clogged Artery.
Some KFC executives had to have a meeting about this sandwich.
Last Thursday after a long morning of classes and homework I decided to go out with a friend and grab some lunch. After one quick joke of getting the Double Down we had already decided we were going to indulge in our carnivorous desires and try a bacon sandwich with fried chicken for buns. I ordered a Double Down meal and was soon enjoying the all mighty power of the sandwich. It was fried heaven. The buns were not exactly matched up right but I could have cared less as I took a bite after bite of pure cholesterol. The sandwich was a amazing pure and simple. The Double Down held the kind of beauty that makes me wish William Wordsworth was still alive to write a sonnet about it.
But then It was over and the food started fighting back. After consuming the meal I was immediately put into a food coma so strong I could barely get out of the car that drove me to KFC. While devouring the meat sandwich I forgot that I had an intramural soccer game in an hour. After a bitter struggle to get off the couch I got ready to play and headed out to the soccer fields. I felt fine for about 30 seconds into the game, then the Double Down started to gnarl at my insides. I do not think that KFC had in mind that some people would do strenuous physical activity after eating a sandwich with 540 calories.
Ten minutes later I was substituting myself out of the game in an effort to not pass out on the field. I spent the last minutes of the half trying to catch my breath and ease my stomach. By half time I could not take it anymore and lightly jogged to the water fountain for some refreshment . Before I could even get a sip of water the Double Down was coming up. I projectile vomited the contents of my lunch behind some bushes next to the tennis courts. This caused the two women playing tennis right next to me to move over several courts.
The Double Down should honestly have a warning from the Surgeons General on the packaging. It is the frenemy of sandwiches. If there is anything I learned from my KFC experience is that peoples should eat this sandwich at their own risk and that I need to chew more when I eat.
In the past two weeks, we’ve seen some pretty horrific things printed in the Emerald. It’s not that we weren’t aware of them–far from it. We were just too busy trying to get our papers finished, what with being students and all.
Of course, what we’re talking about here is the two gems printed on Mar. 2nd and Mar. 8th, respectively. Tyree Harris’ “Western perspective is not culture” was an article that did not have a high enough word count to fully address the issues concerned. Trying to make the plea that “white, western culture” was something that disconnected people of color, Harris inevitably made the mistake of being racist, “Caucasians can go their whole lives being ignorant of minority struggles and live happily ever after.” This was responded to in a letter by UO student David Delmar on Mar.5th:
“What is a “Caucasian perspective?” Is the author truly asserting that by virtue of a shared skin color, the University student born and raised in Oregon shares a common, inherent “perspective” with the University student born and raised in South Chicago? Is this not a racist assertion?”
Indeed, Delmar pointed out the logical fallacy in Harris’ argument–that he was himself grouping the experience of individuals by race. Oops.
Mohamed Jemmali’s guest commentary “Food, water should be free for all” was patently absurd, with Jemmali lending us insight into the world of farming, “With hydroponic technology, we can now grow anything with just water and electricity, and we do!”
Obviously privy to some kind of wizardry unknown to the general populace, Jemmali went on to explain that, “Like air, water, food and electricity can now be free.” The very next day, concerned citizen Nick Stachelrodt sent an e-mail to the Commentator (as did another graduate student) with the fitting subject line “Unicorns, sunshine and rainbows and shit” in response to Jemmali’s commentary.
“Now I’ve only done hundreds of hours of organic farming and I’m not terribly acquainted with hydroponic farming but I’m pretty sure it takes a little more than water and electricity (fuck it plants don’t need nutrients).
Also concerning his “every vegetable and fruit would become equally available everywhere” hypothesis, I’m pretty sure that there are these things called climates and these things called seasons which might require Mohamed to have to consult the great gaia and captain planet in order to fix.
He goes on to explain how water will be free via desalination (which is of course is a completely inexpensive uncomplicated process) and how electricity will be free (because those windmills maintain themselves).
So in short he is absolutely bat shit crazy which is fine in its own right, but the fact the the Emerald actually published this garbage is asinine.”
On Mar. 15th, UO Political Science undergraduate Ben Rudin took an economics-based approach to tearing down Jemmali’s commentary.
“If we force people to produce and serve food for nothing, have we made the cost of food any lower? No, we’ve merely shifted the buyers’ current share of the cost to the suppliers.
…
The very technology Jemmali refers to (desalination and hydroponic technology) was not developed due to generosity; it was developed due to the profit motive.”
Not only was Jemmali’s grasp of the science behind hydroponics at fault, so too was his basic understanding of its role in the free market economy (as a side note, it sounds like Mr. Rudin should turn in a staff application. I’ll be expecting it.)
My advice to the Emerald editorial staff? Say “no” a little more often.
Now that D’Andrea is a student again, can someone please save that place? Tomcat is only one man.
Stumbled across this totally great interview between Oregon head coach Chip Kelly and the Oregonian’s John Canzano. The conversation is ridiculous, mostly because I can’t tell if Canzano is an idiot or if he’s just trying to squeeze some information out of Kelly that he doesn’t want to give out.
Around minute 1:15 Canzano raises a concern to Kelly about whether or not LaMichael James is receiving “star treatment” referencing Kiki Alonso’s year-long suspension after getting a DUII recently. Canzano points out that LaMichael was in jail for 2 days and he hasn’t received an equal amount of discipline.
Kelly responded to Canzano that “I believe my player” leading me to think that at some point, both Alonso and James have had conversations with Kelly. The result of those conversations, or so it seems by Kelly’s responses, is that Alonso may have admitted to Kelly that yes, he was at fault, and that James has told Kelly that he is innocent. Of course, this is merely speculation, as Canzano asked Kelly directly whether or not Kelly was implying that James was innocent. “I’m not commenting on a specific situation,” said Kelly.
Kelly got pissed at Canzano saying, “When this whole thing shakes out, when all the facts are out, you put me on the air again. And you apologize [to me].” The rest of the conversation is totally hilarious, with Kelly arguing semantics of his quotes with Canzano, and Canzano pushing Kelly to ban LaMichael James, “On my program!”
The situation is rapidly becoming more and more ridiculous. Of course, the question is and always will be, why are our football players — seemingly all at once — deciding to get themselves into trouble? Since the parties are innocent until proven guilty, I won’t make overly broad statements, but it should be pointed out that if you are in a situation where you are accused of something like DUII or putting your hands on a woman (or really, anyone), you need to seriously reconsider your direction in life. At the least, there should be some kind of serious oversight by the Athletic Department and our Administration.
There was a letter to the editor in Monday’s Emerald signed by members of the Climate Justice League (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Heart!) denouncing the ACFC’s recent decision not to fund OSPIRG. In part, the letter said:
“Although OSPIRG provided all of the materials and information the committee asked for, ACFC never clearly articulated a reason to not fund OSPIRG, except a vague sense of uncertainty.”
Of course, those who have read anything about the ACFC’s decision understand that the ACFC clearly outlined why they decided not to fund OSPIRG. Even more surprising is that many of the signers of the letter — including Sen. Jeremy Blanchard — attended the meeting and heard the ACFC’s reasons in person. A response was printed yesterday, signed by ASUO Senate President Nick Gower and Sen. Demic Tipitino (in addition to many others, including myself) that said:
“The problems with OSPIRG were clearly articulated, and they have been for years. OSPIRG sends student money off campus to pay non-students to lobby for issues that have little relation to the University of Oregon campus. Additionally, OSPIRG’s system is structured in a manner that partial funding would make the organization ineffective and an even greater waste of student dollars.”
Do the Planeteers need this outlined again? Let’s go “bulletpoints” on this one, shall we?
I found this gem in the office of another student program earlier this week. Such hostility, I’ll never understand. Jocular goading at best, in my case.
This morning I opened the pages of the Daily Emerald opinion section to find something so rare, something so seldom captured by the human eye that it must be commented on. Yes, the Daily Emerald actually ran an editorial. This is a rare finding, seeing as how the space is usually occupied by cartoons with incorrect spelling and “thumbs up, thumbs down” enlightenment.
The editorial masquerades as a warning to those considering involvement in the ASUO next year, citing coming registration for this Spring’s ASUO elections.
“Filing for the elections starts next week. If you are interested in taking on this process, learn about it. Talk to people holding office in the ASUO, read the Green Tape Notebook (which includes the rules for being an ASUO senator), attend the pre-campaign meetings and be prepared to work hard.
…
Taking on this process requires no less than an absolute commitment: Be very aware of what you are getting into.”
While I have to agree that this year’s rash of ASUO resignations is rather odd and frankly, disheartening, the Emerald‘s editorial offers blanket statements of disappointment towards all that have resigned.
“An ASUO Senate position is a lot of work. You have a hand in controlling a $12-million-dollar budget and will be leading 20,000 of your peers during their education. It should be no surprise that this requires time, energy and dedication. In spite of this, resignations have become typical.”
The editorial essentially complainins about the abdicated spots in the ASUO as “letting down the students”. This from an organization that has fired two news editors, an opinion editor and had another news writer quit because of the firings. And those are the people I know about.
Those lovable scamps down at our campus newspaper, the Daily Emerald, decided to offer up a little Valentine’s Day gift to students by giving out free personal ads to celebrate the holiday. Wanting to fully take advantage of such an offer, the Oregon Commentator decided to run a personal ad of our own, which ran in today’s edition of the Emerald. The image is above, but the text reads:
Let’s meet for a drink
You: Fair skin, temperament to match. Hair and eyebrows like midnight. Powerful. Me: Golden complexion, rotund, a little white on top. Smoking enthusiast. Let’s stop playing games. Be my Valentine.
Anyone want to take a stab at who “You” and “Me” is?
There was a particularly ridiculous letter to the editor in last Wednesday’s Emerald, one in which the author of the letter, Curtis Taylor, made the claim that, “[Obama has] signed into law more repeals of good gun policies than President George W. Bush” whatever that means.
As November 2008 came near, many on the conservative side of things expressed great fear that Obama would pass some kind of sweeping legislation against guns, effectively changing gun ownership in America forever, and for the worst. Many on the left (as I assume Taylor is, given his opinion) felt this a compelling force behind myriad reasons why they voted for Obama. Yet not much has come in the way of mass gun control from Obama. Indeed, Taylor expressed his frustration that Obama has, “showed no signs of leadership on the issue.” Leadership, of course, being the backhanded term being used there for not “doing what I want.”
This swastika was spray painted on the carpet of the LGBTQA on Sunday
There has been a candlelight vigil. There has been a march. As DPS continues to investigate the spray painting of a swastika in the office of the LGBTQA, we still have yet to find any answers. And, looking at the happenings going on in the Daily Emeraldcolumns and their comments section, many people are jumping to rather rash conclusions.
Members of the LGBTQA have already tied the swastika directly to the Pacifica Forum, as seen in today’sEmerald, “LGBTQA Co-Director Alex Esparza linked the Forum’s rhetoric to the incident and criticized the ASUO’s decision. ‘I would like to see a student government that takes a stand against acts of hate like this,’ he said as EMU staff were removing the pieces of carpet upon which the symbol was painted.”
This is a slippery slope, legally speaking, as the organizers of the Forum exercise no control over what speakers say. So even if a speaker got up and incited the crowd to immediately go break into the LGBTQA with spray paint only the speaker would be guilty of incitement.
Of course, now from the other side (quoting here from the Emerald‘s comments section) there has been much discussion as to whether or not the LGBTQA, “may have painted it on their own office floor.” Again, this is a serious allegation, one of political violence as a means to an end.
This past Tuesday the Ol’ Dirty ran a story reporting that Duck’s QB Jeremiah Masoli and WR Garrett Embry were linked to a theft at the SAE fraternity house. Reportedly stolen was two laptops and a “valuable” guitar. I only added the quotes over “valuable” because every news station reporting this is also doing it. The scoop that the ODE received was from a SAE member late Sunday night, the Tuesday paper edition read as such.
“Hello” one of the messages said. “Wake up. It’s the story of a lifetime. Jeremiah Masoli and Garrett Embry just stole all my friends possessions. We need a story run on this. Do you understand?”
This is where the story gets good. What many did not read is something that was omitted from the original story, and it’s racist.
That is right, “fucking hoodrats.” While we are no journalism students here at the Commentator I would just like to say if we ever received a message from a frat boy at midnight on a Sunday describing the suspects as “fucking hoodrats” we would be a little hesitant to run the story. The theft allegations are lacking definitive clarity, Max Wolfard the SAE member who reported the story claimed he ran down Garret Embry after chasing him a few blocks. Hello Chip Kelly, hand this man a scholarship! Our defensive back core is getting weaker with TJ Ward leaving.
In an even more interesting twist, Oregonlive.com is reporting that Chuck Hare has video of Masoli at Taylor’s about the time that the theft was reported. How funny would it be if Taylor’s put to waste the frat’s allegations, unintentional comedy at it finest perhaps?
While we can not say what really happened for sure. KMTR is reporting the two football players are not considered suspects in the theft.
For anyone who is bored, we suggest reading the comment sections on the ODE‘s website and on Deadspin.
The original publisher of the Oregon Commentator, Dane Claussen, once said that the OC’s purpose was to print the news that, “the other publications are unable to tell you because of inexperience, incompetence or the narrow-mindedness of their staffs.” That was some 26 years ago and it seems the OC still has purpose. Not to continue to toot our own horn or anything but, as any regular reader of the blog knows (because we’ve been pimping it hard), the OC has recently published a 25th anniversary book edited by the current publisher Timothy Dane Carbaugh.
Call me crazy, but it seems to me students creating, printing and selling a 300-page hard bound history book completely on their own volition about a student organization that’s survived significant adversity for more than 25 years would be a newsworthy event. Which is why I am glad to finally announce that, now just about a month after the book was released, the Daily Emerald has gotten around to publishing a story.
You’d think that this would be the sort of thing that would hit the front page of any daily student newspaper, but here at the University of Oregon you’d be wrong. Instead, the story was buried deep in the “scene” insert. I would link to the article, but it is suspiciously absent from their online content. Luckily for them, we’ve published the article here.
I wonder if ol’ Mr. Claussen would chock this up to simple narrow-mindedness or gross incompetence? I can’t say, but you take a look at this editorial cartoon about Sarah Palin’s book recently published by the Emerald and you will probably agree that it is a real chicken shit outfit over there.
Do not ridicule someone’s “intellectual substance” if you are going to screw up the spelling of “rogue”.
It’s not often that I sit down and actually read the Emerald. I understand that statement makes me sound snobbish or just like an asshole, but it’s true. After last year’s absolutely dreadful run of print, it’s just not in my daily routine anymore. Sure, I grab a copy every-other-day or so, but I rarely open it up. Usually it just sits here on the Commentator couches until De Lancie or I do the monthly office cleaning.
Having said that, I did remark at the beginning of the year that I thought the Emerald was getting quite a bit better. I’d like to reiterate that sentiment now that our first term of this year is coming to a close. The news and opinion section has considerably better talent compared to last year, and the sports section, as always, is thorough and well-done.
For example, today’s opinion piece by Greg Dewar reminded me that the University of Oregon, as well as the Emerald, has many talented writers that are able to write about something, even video games, and make their arguments concise and fun to read.
I, for one, am glad to see that we have a campus paper that students can pick up and enjoy on a rather consistent basis. It’s what this campus needs, and I tip my hat to the Emerald.
To lift a line from Dewar, the paper is indeed “full of win”.
I’ve got a lot of ground to cover in this post, so I’m going to use the bulleted format that’s been so popular in the past. We had several rejections
Our top story (Things people who read the blog might actually care about edition): After discussions with ASUO President Emma Kallaway and her staffers, the Athletic Department has scrapped its ticketing system, replacing it with a “tiered” one in which students will log on to get tickets at different times based on their class standing, like the one for the 2008-09. At least for the Nov. 14 Arizona State game. They are still open for suggestions about how to do the Civil War on Dec. 3. If you have any ideas, send them along, because I’m pretty sure they’re desperate. (READ MORE BELOW THE FOLD!)
