Friday, March 11, 2011

Cover Your Head! Here Comes The Flyer!!!

GULLSHIT ALERT!! Our school newspaper, The Liar, woops- The Flyer, has published false information. Katie Franklin, in her article on City Council Elections (p. 1), writes "there will not be a chance to change voter registration before the general election on April 5." Unfortunately, Ms. Franklin was misinformed. IT IS NOT TOO LATE to register to vote in the GENERAL ELECTION ON APRIL 5TH. You must be registered by the 15th of March if you want to partake in the festivities. In addition, The Flyer claims that you have proof of permanent residency in order to register to vote in the city. We've got news. If you have a one year lease with your landlord then that serves as a permanent residence MAKING YOU ELIGIBLE TO VOTE on April 5th given that you REGISTER BEFORE TUESDAY!

23 comments:

Kelly Mundle, Copy Editor at THE FLYER said...

If you have a problem with a recognized news publication then do something constructive about it... bitching on a shitty blog that no one looks at doesn't do shit. Ever made a mistake? guess not. I'm proud of the work we do. You could come work on the staff or write a letter to the editor. So you can actually be heard.

You want to hear about a good experience I've had in Salisbury? (Your mission statement says you do, in case you forgot)One of the best experiences I've had here at Salisbury University is working for The Flyer. The staff is full of wonderful, hardworking people that are doing their best to balance school, jobs, and The Flyer at the same time. Everyone makes mistakes. I think it is disgusting that you can trash talk something that represents your school.

Oh and your music choice is horrible. And unprofessional.

Holierthanthou said...

Ok Kelly Mundle. If you are going to preach about professionalism then as the copy editor at The Flyer I should think that you would have a better vocabulary than what you've exhibited. To refer to our blog as shitty is not i would consider "professional." Furthermore, The Flyer's influence on the student body is far too substantial for us to ignore something such as this. Countless students may have decided not to vote in this election as a result of that false information. As for who should be held accountable for this mistake, we are conflicted. The writer was wrong but the editor should've checked all facts before sending the issue to press.

We are glad that you enjoy working for The Flyer. I have no problem with The Flyer representing our school so long as it provides accurate information. By the way, our blog has been online for 3 days. In those three days we've gotten over 600 hits. I've added a pageviews counter to the left if you don't believe me.

A.Adams said...

In working out the kinks of this blog, we decided that generally only one administrator would respond to each questionable comment at a time. However, as someone who has been a journalism major myself I gotta tell you Kelly, I agree with everything that Holierthanthou has said and I too am extremely disappointed in your response. Instead of writing into our "shitty" blog to condemn us for passing judgement on one of your writers, you should consider a) thanking us for teaching her a valuable lesson and b) not signing your name to any statement as blatantly unprofessional as that one. Journalism 101- check your sources. Journalism 102- don't hate on a blog that encourages freedom of speech when you want to be a journalist. Really, you should feel honored that we are holding The Flyer as accountable as we would hold any other reputable news source. Take it as a complement, one you can learn from. After all, if she did this in the real world, she'd have been fired and her career would have been destroyed. We did her an enormous favor. You are welcome Katie. Kelly, we look forward to hearing more comments from you in the future. Student participation (albeit hopefully more civil than the comment above) is what this blog is all about. Thanks for posting and have a wonderful night!

RuffledFeathers said...

The Flyer messed up, however Kelly Mundle, Copy Editor at THE FLYER proved to make matters worse by her unprofessionlism and lanaguage. I am sure that she was embarassed that not only did her writer make a mistake, but the she as the COPY EDITOR screwed up. This is an important matter and it is a good thing that someone was able to provide the correct information.

Mike Gibb said...

Hello;

I'm an editorial writer for The Flyer myself, and I must say kudos on the troll (even if it wasn't an intended troll). It seems you made a few Flyer members rage pretty hard. At first I was considering a DoS to equal out the luls, but I found the content on this site to be of an upper caliber. Such information needs to be easily accessible to the student body in my opinion. I think your mistake, however, was to view a paper written and published by undergraduates as you would a Reuters publication, and to critique it accordingly. While the editors and contributors do exert effort, they aren't salaried, and many of them are juggling 40 hour workweeks and 16-20 credits of 300+ level courses. Hell, one of my articles I wrote after being up for thirty hours and working eighteen of them, and the PLO came out as the "Palestinian Liberal Organization" in my article. Gave me a good laugh. I'd be willing to say that if Katie was in the real world as a journalist, she'd be putting at least 3x the amount of effort/research into her articles, or her editor would have much more time to devote to verifying facts, as opposed to mostly grammar/spelling/AP style checks. The defacing seems a bit excessive when you consider the circumstances and the fact that many of these writers are using The Flyer as a means to develop their skill, as opposed to demonstrate it.

As I mentioned previous, The Flyer raging did provide me with a good chuckle, so kudos for
that. Just wish I had more than three readers for my middle-eastern history/politics series, for I'd love to see some public defacing my way =P. If you guys ever do plan on adding Middle-Eastern analysis and could use someone who has a little Palestinian blood in him, the email is MoralityisFlawed@gmail.com.

Anonymous said...

This all makes for a good laugh.

1. I think putting the Flyer in its place is a good thing.
2. readership of the flyer is far from the 8000 students they claim, i'd say around 200-300 a week.
3. Why does the so called paid "editor" of the flyer come on a third party blog site and write "shit' and "shitty" doesn't really help her cause and makes them look twice as bad and even more unprofessional than they already are.
4. I've done a small stint for the flyer and have been discredited for my work on two different occasions.
5. Don't say course load is an issue. I produce videos for my company, take 18 credits, and manage a webpage, all the while keeping a 3.0 and above.

I have to say I was skeptical of this site but after reading some of the articles I do see where all of you are coming from. I don't know what your going for, but right now this is like the TMZ of Salisbury.

A.Adams said...

Thank you for your comment Mike! We loved what you had to say and will definitely keep you (and your column) in mind as this blog expands :)

A.Adams said...

And Anon 11:39 thank you for the support :D

Kelly said...

The only reason you're getting page views is because you illegally placed things inside our paper. That is also the only reason I came to the site. By the way, thanks for complimenting us by mentioning our readership.

Also, I wasn't aware that as a Copy Editor (and why is it so called? I have the title, I do the work, and I get paid...) I was not allowed to write in a casual manner on a blog. You only upped your language when I wrote. Everything else on the blog is considerably more relaxed.

As a copy editor at this point my main job is looking for grammar, style, AP formatting, and fluidity. Things along those lines. So I had nothing to do with the mistake. And just to be clear, registration did close but is reopening. So the writer wasn't completely wrong. We corrected the mistake in the upcoming issue, on our blog, our facebook, and our twitter account.

I'm not hating on the blog, do what you want, but I think you all are way too full of yourselves and resorted to bashing us in order to get your opinion out there. A letter to the editor is more productive and constructive to help.

And Mike Gibb. If you are going to bash The Flyer as well, you don't need to write for us. If you have problems, you need to speak to us- specifically Vanessa. If you had explained what PLO meant (not everyone is as politically versed as you, did you know you're supposed to write for someone with a middle school reading level?) then the mistake would not have been made. I spend half the time I'm reading your articles looking up what you're talking about, which a reader should never have to do.

My bottom line for all involved with this site is to look for better ways to get your voices heard. If you're so strong about your opinions, then stop being anonymous and actually take credit for the slander you're putting out there.

A.Adams said...

Kelly, at this point you are just making yourself look terrible. We suggest you take yourself back to The Flyer and put all your energy into improving it. It needs your help. Not us. Fly away and be free.

A.Adams said...

Also, Mike Gibb- we will be emailing you shortly about a permanent writing position with us, and will be happy to take you out for a beer this week! Cheers :)

Anonymous said...

Hey everyone,

I sent an e-mail out about a blog that was bashing us Friday. I didn't do this so people would bash them back, I did it so everyone would be aware. Some replies have already been made but I do not want anybody else to comment on this blog, especially using The Flyer's name. We have closed things off for now and I don't want to beat this to death or promote the popularity of this site.

Any corrections I can make for our error have been done online and I will print a written correction in Tuesday's issue. After that, the mistake will be behind us and the best thing we can do now is to make sure that all our content is of the highest quality and error-free.

I know it is frustrating to see their site and what they have written about us, but we should put it behind us and be the "bigger person." We should also ignore them on Facebook, Twitter or any other forms of social networking.

We put a lot of work into The Flyer, check our facts and care about the quality of the work we publish. Keep up the good work!

Vanessa

"ahhhh cheers to the hypocrites..."

At least Vanessa is professional, someone give her a raise and a promotion. Also Mike Gibb, your a realist, it's good to see that around the campus. There are to many dreamers and not enough people that see the whole picture.

A.Adams said...

An anonymous individual sent us the above email which we assume was sent to all members of The Flyer. Flyer, on behalf of all of us here at The Other Salisbury News, we would like to sincerely thank you for "being the bigger person." Its nice to know that the insults we've dealt with the past few days will now take place behind your very professional closed doors. We advise you to keep taking the high road in the weeks to come, although we dearly hope that after the next issue, you won't have to. Cheers.

Anonymous said...

i'm confused by the hypocrites comment

Anonymous said...

who are you guys so that we can buy you a drink?

Anonymous said...

I love the drama of the new rivalry! Keep it up!

Anonymous said...

Wow..To be frank, I honestly don't understand how Kelly Mundle received the position of anything with "Editor" at the end of it. Even while blogging Ms. Mundle, you are still a representative of the Flyer, and all you're displaying is your lack of potential to present a proper counter argument to this blog's allegations. Your unprofessional and unnecessary rants show nothing more than your ability to use vulgar language at the drop of a hat, and I must say you have done quite a bang up job of throwing the well accredited name of this paper into the dirt. Which begs the question: Instead of spending an unnecessary amount of time, and a considerable amount of resources into uncovering the identities of the creators of this blog, maybe board members and student officials should look into your position in it's entirety, and possibly your resignation.
Ending Note: You are a serious troll, my dear.

Anonymous said...

Guys: You should recognize your differences and unite forces instead of fight. It is definitely true that the Flyer needs to step it up and stop being a tool for the City and or SU Administrations and or the SGA. This controversy is the Flyer's wake up call. Now that your are awake, Flyer, get serious and improve. As for you, the Othersbynews, you did your job. Now, you are in a position to be gracious to the Flyer staff. You should be both competitors and allies. Mend your fences.

Holierthanthou said...

8:41,

You're right. I was our intention to inform students. Not to destroy The Flyer. Thanks for your input and we look forward to hearing more from you.

Anonymous said...

To Kelly Mundle-- I hear the Sun Paper is hiring; they prefer unprofessional, and declase writers who don't do their research either! Also they encourage only representing one side too!

To BlackSheba and Holierthanthou-- good job on refraining from personal attacks and sticking to your commitment to bring the other side of the story to light. Unlike Ms. Mundle suggests, most of the readers of the Flyer have a reading level above eighth grade, and therefore, deserve the full story!

Keep on with your crusade!

Anonymous said...

i dont think kelly came up with the idea that the paper is supposed to be at an 8th grade reading level. even the NY Times is supposed to be that low.

Anonymous said...

Any of you ever check INN? It's also a new news site that came out. www.inn.site11.com. They do an awesome job for freshman. Give them a look.

A.Adams said...

Will do, thanks :)