If there is one thing I have learned this year, it is that The Chronicle has three kinds of readers.
One would think that given the number of students at the U, thousands upon thousands of people from different backgrounds, drawing on a diverse range of experiences would read The Chrony, but nope, there’s just three. (Part of this is due to the fact that I don’t want to write a column pontificating on every single cultural and political ideology held by members of the U community. That would make this column a bit too long for the space I’ve been allotted.)
Anyway, these three types of readers can be categorized quite easily. So here it goes, and if I say something that strikes a little too close to home, so be it.
The first category is made up of readers who believe The Daily Utah Chronicle is little more than leftist propaganda. I get a lot of e-mail from the “members” of this group. I have to call them members because they call themselves members. I’m a member too, but many of these members think I’m an anti-member because I really have a hard time believing that The Chronicle is really the liberal cage-liner they insist it is.
The second group of readers agree with the first group on only one point: They agree that The Chrony is little more than a cage-liner.
The catch is, their reasons are directly opposite of the reasons espoused by the first group. They would have me believe that our student paper is nothing more than a sounding board for the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Again, I get a lot of e-mail complaining about this. I am reminded that if I really wanted to be a good journalist, I would do more to make sure that the paper didn’t shove conservative values in the face of so many enlightened people. Separation of church and state is important, right?
These two groups have some pretty compelling arguments they use as evidence to support their version of the biased-Chronicle conundrum. So compelling, in fact, that I just might believe them if I didn’t work here.
If all the things that have been said about The Chronicle this year were true, I would have to describe the staff here as award- winning Molly-anti-Mormons who are pro-Israel-anti-semitic- straight-homosexual-female- misogynists and have no idea how to do their jobs, even though the paper comes out every day to line the bottom of that cage I was talking about before.
We care about your bird, man.
One guy suggested we change the paper’s name to “The Daily Jew Hater,” while another promised to make my life a living hell because he was so sick of the way that The Chronicle was always going out of its way to support terrorism.
Well, my life hasn’t exactly been pleasant this year, but I think it has little to do with my ties to al Qaeda. It has more to do with my classes. I had to do a service-learning project this semester that seriously kicked my ass. Not that I have anything against service or learning, but put the two together and one gets a whole lot of homework.
Basically, if the staff of The Chrony has any bias, it isn’t because we stand too far to the left or the right. Our only bias may be that we are proud of the work we do. If half of you out there think we’re too liberal while the other half thinks we’re too conservative, maybe we are just where we should be. Both sides certainly can’t be right, and I would wager that neither side is wrong either. So maybe The Chrony sits happily somewhere in the middle.
That’s because we’re just telling you what you’re already telling yourselves. We cover the same issues that you talk about with your friends at the bar, or at the ward. For some of you, we cover the same issues that you talk about with your friends at both the bar and the ward.
Anyway, that basically sums up the first two types of people who read The Chrony.
Earlier I mentioned a third group of readers. I like to call these readers the Administrative Branch. They have big long titles and big offices in a big building on that big circle across the street from Big Ed’s.
I get e-mail from them on occasion, too. Usually, I only hear from them when somebody wants to shut down The Chrony because we’re so liberal/conservative or when they hear from a “friend of the University” (that’s somebody who has donated a lot of money to build something that takes up parking space).
I haven’t heard from them in a while. The members of the Administrative Branch are usually big fans of The Chrony, especially when nobody is threatening to sue us.
So that’s it. There you have my description of the three types of people who read The Chrony. It’s been a pleasure serving you as the editor of the University of Utah’s independent student voice. I look forward to any comments any of you may feel inclined to send me-especially the ones that say I’m a liberal anti-Mormon. I may even share those ones with my bishop. He’s a pretty funny guy, and I’m sure he’ll get a kick out of them.