Magazine content contains more than opinion columns
Ky Lewis, Michelle Devereaux and Kathleen Thurber
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Read more:
Morgan Blunk's column from Image magazine
Morgan Blunk: Image column intended to be satire, not serious commentary
JoHannah Hamilton: Finding spouse not sole purpose of getting college education
Letter to the editor: Column pushes outdated generalizations of women
In response to the negative feedback of Morgan Blunk's most recent column, "Nothing wrong with racing to the altar," we, the editors of Image Magazine, would like to clarify a few things to our readers.
The last page of Image is dedicated to opinion columns. The writers are given a topic on which to give their personal stance. The topic chosen for this issue was what the writers thought about students getting engaged before graduation. We are not made aware of the writers' opinions before the topic is chosen, and we do not feel it is our place to censor their writing if it is not in line with our own personal views, as this column was not. Blunk's column was meant to be a satirical and humorous take on a specific stereotype of TCU women. The column should have been labeled as such, and for that, we apologize. But for running it, we do not.
Although we understand many of our readers were offended by the column, that in itself is not the right motive to censor someone's opinion. Even if the column were not intended to be satirical, though it was, we still stand behind our writer. We asked her to express her opinion, and she did just that. We are saddened by the personal attacks that have been made on Blunk, and we would appreciate it if the discussion were handled in a civil and mature manner. A major complaint of readers is that Blunk's column was disrespectful to women, and yet, these attacks are disrespectful at best.
For those who agree with Blake Robertson's column that appeared in Thursday's Skiff that Image can no longer be regarded as a "legitimate work of journalism," we would hope that you base this belief on the numerous thoroughly reported stories throughout the magazine, rather than on the opinion columns alone. If you still have our magazine, we ask that you would take the time to read the other articles. You may be surprised at what you find.
In this issue alone, we have three hard news stories dealing with issues we hoped you would find informative and thought-provoking - things that might affect you more than the opinion of one woman in the journalism department. We appreciate TCU's interaction with us, and we hope, in the future, that other topics will generate this much discussion.
We, the editors, value strong, independent women and men. It would be a contradiction for us to say otherwise as two-thirds of our editorial staff are women - one of whom is married, working and taking 18 hours of classes; the other of whom is about to take a reporting job in another city, without a husband in tow.
Image Magazine Editor-in-chief Ky Lewis and Image managing editors Michelle Devereaux and Kathleen Thurber.
Morgan Blunk's column from Image magazine
Morgan Blunk: Image column intended to be satire, not serious commentary
JoHannah Hamilton: Finding spouse not sole purpose of getting college education
Letter to the editor: Column pushes outdated generalizations of women
In response to the negative feedback of Morgan Blunk's most recent column, "Nothing wrong with racing to the altar," we, the editors of Image Magazine, would like to clarify a few things to our readers.
The last page of Image is dedicated to opinion columns. The writers are given a topic on which to give their personal stance. The topic chosen for this issue was what the writers thought about students getting engaged before graduation. We are not made aware of the writers' opinions before the topic is chosen, and we do not feel it is our place to censor their writing if it is not in line with our own personal views, as this column was not. Blunk's column was meant to be a satirical and humorous take on a specific stereotype of TCU women. The column should have been labeled as such, and for that, we apologize. But for running it, we do not.
Although we understand many of our readers were offended by the column, that in itself is not the right motive to censor someone's opinion. Even if the column were not intended to be satirical, though it was, we still stand behind our writer. We asked her to express her opinion, and she did just that. We are saddened by the personal attacks that have been made on Blunk, and we would appreciate it if the discussion were handled in a civil and mature manner. A major complaint of readers is that Blunk's column was disrespectful to women, and yet, these attacks are disrespectful at best.
For those who agree with Blake Robertson's column that appeared in Thursday's Skiff that Image can no longer be regarded as a "legitimate work of journalism," we would hope that you base this belief on the numerous thoroughly reported stories throughout the magazine, rather than on the opinion columns alone. If you still have our magazine, we ask that you would take the time to read the other articles. You may be surprised at what you find.
In this issue alone, we have three hard news stories dealing with issues we hoped you would find informative and thought-provoking - things that might affect you more than the opinion of one woman in the journalism department. We appreciate TCU's interaction with us, and we hope, in the future, that other topics will generate this much discussion.
We, the editors, value strong, independent women and men. It would be a contradiction for us to say otherwise as two-thirds of our editorial staff are women - one of whom is married, working and taking 18 hours of classes; the other of whom is about to take a reporting job in another city, without a husband in tow.
Image Magazine Editor-in-chief Ky Lewis and Image managing editors Michelle Devereaux and Kathleen Thurber.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
passerby no. 1
posted 12/03/07 @ 4:37 AM CST
Of course Blunk's reply wasn't "personal attacks"!
"Are y'all kidding me? Because maybe you didn't know that I was kidding in my Image Magazine HUMOR column. (Continued…)
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