Editor,
Tuesday's very misleading front-page headline in the Daily Lobo did not come close to accurately representing the actual content of the article. "Hate crimes office gets thumbs down" conveys the inaccurate idea that UNM as a whole squarely rejected the tolerance education initiative. In fact, only the UNM Staff Council came out against the proposal; none of UNM's other constituent groups - students, faculty, administration - contributed to that opinion.
It would behoove the news editor to employ an active voice in his reporting (e.g.: Staff Council against Tolerance Office) to more accurately express the nuance of the situation. The passive voice masks protagonism, thereby diminishing the potential for accountability. Graver still, the headline connotes a sense of conclusiveness - as if the president had issued a final ruling against the tolerance office and the debate over the matter had finished.
It is the journalist's responsibility to accurately present the facts and objectively encourage civic discussion - not frame the issue in a way that shuts down dialogue prematurely. Dismissing the need for addressing intolerance in a week which revealed an epidemic of violence against South Asians seems not only insensitive, but imprudent with regard to UNM's future Carnegie Research I classification. If word got out into the wider world that South Asian students were not safe at UNM, then that talented population could shy away, and the University would lose access to a large pool of intelligent graduate assistants.
Of course, the Staff Council is entitled to its position. But the news editor should not transmit the fact of the report as representative of a far-reaching decision. Based on this misleading headline, in addition to last week's unfounded derogatory assumptions about homosexuals, it appears as if the news editor has promoted the opinion section to the front page.
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Max Fitzpatrick
UNM student
Editor's note: The news editor does not write headlines. Copy editors write headlines.
