Bulletin: Remove your rose-colored glasses

Please stop running editorialized news as Bulletin cover stories.

I know it can be tough to avoid filtering information through your own value system or perspective when writing, and sometimes you don't even realize that your preconceptions are affecting the way you gather information or what information you choose to include in a piece.

This is not meant to be a personal attack on Alice Rhoades' "Protesters gather in peace"  or Joseph Suttner's "Groundbreaking start" (April 21, 2011). In fact, Suttner's article was fairly impartial, though it stroked President McCulloh's ego more than I was comfortable with.

I say this because in Journalism 110 and Mass Media Law, maybe even before that, we learn that one of the primary roles of media is to serve as a watchdog to the government. I'm aware that it may work a little differently at a private institution such as Gonzaga, but the Bulletin should be advocating for the student body, its primary audience, as an impartial source of information. Call me idealistic, but that is the standard in the professional realm.

Labeling President McCulloh's first year a "Groundbreaking start" is a judgment call. Yes, he is the first lay president of our fair university. Unprecedented, definitely. But what other ground did he break? The article pointed to the "Vagina Monologues" as evidence, but the success of the weeklong dialogue series is certainly debatable. It's not that I dislike the guy; I simply do not understand why it is necessary to laud the president for completing his first year on the job.

In the other article I take issue with, Rhoades' bias was fairly clear, and I'll tell you why. We'll start with the headline: "Protesters gather in peace." Uhhh, no. They gather in protest. Nonviolent protest, but protest all the same. "Protest" means they are in opposition to something, whether it is an idea, a policy or a practice. Essentially, they are waging an ideological war on abortion. Peace and nonviolence are not the same thing.

The story should have led with the most compelling fact, which was buried in the second-to-last paragraph, a fact that even ties in with the campaign name, "40 Days of Life," and with the cover picture. I'm sitting reading this, the whole time wondering "Why 40 Days?" Finally, we learn they will be outside Planned Parenthood, fasting and praying for 40 days. Oh, lovely.

Instead of providing this tidbit that would explain why students of that neighborhood will see a crowd of people (larger than the occasional picketers we see) hanging out outside Planned Parenthood, the first part of the piece seems to validate their aim. Meanwhile, a total of two paragraphs (out of a 12-paragraph article) were dedicated to providing information on the other major character of this story, Planned Parenthood. The first of these two paragraphs also failed to mention the fact that Planned Parenthood provides services for sexual safety AND health care, including pregnancy testing, counseling, STD testing, testing and treatment of urinary tract infections, physical examinations, pap testing, breast exams and even smoking cessation.

Another detail the article failed to look into was the fact that 123 E. Indiana is one of four Planned Parenthood establishments in the Spokane area. One is located at 1925 E. Francis, one down Trent in Spokane Valley, and one at 301 Second Ave. in Cheney. Why not protest at any of these other locations? It appears to me that 40 Days of Life picked a spot proximate to pro-life students and where media attention was more likely. And look: It worked. They made front page of the Bulletin.

Unfortunately, its propinquity to GU also means that it's probably

where area students go for the multifarious services they offer. And no, I don't think including an article about the Sexual Awareness Committee balances out the bias. News articles should be balanced within themselves. So please, proceed with more caution when assigning headlines and keep the Opinion section off the front page.

Thanks for reading my rant; I hope my criticism is taken constructively.