LETTER: Headline was uncalled-for

Editor,

The theater arts department cannot allow the heading for Matt Wright’s review of “Anton in Show Business” to pass without comment. We hasten to make clear that our complaint raises a point of editorial ethics only and has nothing to do with the content of the article. We are not defending the production – a sophisticated, deconstructed satire of contemporary regional theater and many other things – from his views. Mr. Wright is perfectly entitled to his opinion, even though we do regret that he didn’t seem to “get it.”

However, imagine a similar lead-in to a losing football game report which said, “USU Aggies’ Play Stinks! Fans have no business attending USU football games.” Such an article would raise a lot more than a few eyebrows, wouldn’t you think?

We find the explicit, imperative message in the header – “Don’t attend” – more suited to a Sunday pulpit than to an institution that strives to foster autonomous intellectual engagement and independent thinking. Since when does responsible campus journalism serve in loco parentis, telling its constituency what it may and may not attend, view, or consume?

We hope, to the contrary, that The Statesman would serve the students as a positive instrument for intellectual awakening and self-discovery. It is still possible within a negative article to suggest that they sample the diversity and richness of the intellectual, artistic, and social smorgasbord available to them at USU and be encouraged to make judgments for themselves. We certainly invite them to do so, especially as USU students are granted free admission to performances.

In short, The Statesman’s judgment in denying students the privilege of forming their own opinions was, we believe, not merely “awful,” but unethical, unconscionable, and absolutely reprehensible at a time when we are experiencing the erosion of so many other freedoms.

Colin Johnson