Letter to the Editor

Hello,

I just would like to officially write to the Gazette voicing my opinion regarding your most recent issue and the lack of diversity in the reporting on the DSU election results. There was a lack of coverage of the individuals who ran a clean campaign and followed the clearly outlined election rules. As of right now, and at the time of the reporting of the “smear” campaign article, Sarah Bouchard had been named President and Richard Clark was named VP (external and academic). These two individuals ran a fair campaign, and, aside from a small note about them being awarded the position, they were not mentioned in the issue or on the website. Not even a quote from either of them was provided.

The proportional volume of attention you are giving to the disqualified candidates is not encouraging students to run clean and fair campaigns.

I simply would like to see an official apology from the Gazette to both Bouchard and Clark, and for you to give them the congratulations and recognition that they deserve for their hard work and dedication (within the outlined regulations) to their campaigns.

Thank you,

Andrea Ference

Dylan’s response: 

“When the Gazette‘s staff met at the beginning of the year to discuss our news priorities for the coming year, we decided to minimize our DSU election coverage in favour of bringing you stronger reporting. The DSU election turnout is minuscule and takes a large amount of resources for us to cover. This year, given the potential faculty strike developing at the same time, we decided to reallocate our resources to what we thought was a more important story to more students. The disqualifications are a major campus news story in that they are unusual and dramatic–as are the allegations of a smear campaign. We did liveblog the election results party to bring Dalhousie up-to-the-minute news of who won. Beyond that, we had to make coverage decisions based on news value, and on what most Dal students–and not just the DSU-aware ones–want to read.”