The villainy of Tyler Graf clearly knows no bounds. After years of dissing on the Daily Emerald’s Commentary section, former Commentator Editor, and freelance intoxication consultant Tyler Graf is officially on the Emerald Masthead as ‘Ol Dirty’s new Commentary Editor. While we congratulate our old friend and colleague for his success (and expect him to buy a round once in a while with his fat editors paycheck), We cannot help but be concerned for his future.

Graf has inherited a troubled Commentary section from outgoing editor and current columnist Lucas Pollock. Fall term saw mediocrity building to downright racism in the work of columnist Ty Schwoeffermann, hacky talking points from College Democrat Supreme Leader Ben Lenet, supplemented by solid contributions from Graf and fellow former Commentator, Bryan Roberts. That ‘Ol Dirty at no point this year has had a full compliment of five active columnists is a challenge unto itself, that fully half of those columnists (and the good half, at that) are former Commentator staffers is a downright embarrassment. Clearly Graf has his work cut out for him, and given that most of the ink spilled from his mighty pen over the years has gone towards belittling the half-baked opinions of the ODE Editorial board, he must have some good ideas…

A glance at Graf’s first page three as editor reveals plenty of work left to do. A Editorial Board paean to Governor Kulongoski’s proposed 12.5% higher education budget increase dominates the page, revealing unexpected sympathies for a long-time libertarian such as Graf. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a no-brainer for a college newspaper to support increases in funding, and may in fact be good policy to boot. It does, however, send the message to fans of Graf’s more controversial positions that the Editorial Board will change him, rather than vice-versa. Reinforcing these worries is Graf’s column, a toothless puff-piece on “Ashley the ‘Pillow Angel,’” which is about as controversial as a pb & j sandwich.

To be fair, two new columnists are listed on the Masthead, opening at least the possibility of improvements in the quality of Commentary, especially if Graf had a hand in the hiring process. Needless to say, knives are being sharpened in the Commentator office in the likely event that our initial optimism about the newcomers will be horribly dashed in typical ODE fashion. If all this seems a bit bitchy, remember that we really do like Graf, and that he’s done more for the Commentator than anyone currently attending the U of O. It would be a shame to see his legacy hijacked by the easy money and intellectual sloppiness he so dyspeptically rumbled against in his Commentator days.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 13:18 by Niedermeyer and is filed under Ol' Dirty Emerald. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.