Praise the creation of TSC! This new school paper is truly a breakthrough. A few days before the distribution of the third issue of TSC, I had heard many comments about it which were both positive and negative (although the negatives were the majority). However, as soon as I read the article "Respectable Journalism", which condemned TSC as a way for "several" students to slam the school in the name of free speech, I was dismayed at how the President reacted to the paper's creation.
First, the President himself was slamming the newspaper with the argument that the TSC was supposed to represent the thoughts and opinion of the student body and that it was rather the work of sour individuals. The third issue of the TSC had many changes as a response from the barrage of attacks on it. In the third issue, I saw a variety of topics being brought up by many students for a change. As a reader, I personally enjoy the slamming. Some of the slamming brought up by the students of Menlo may actually bring up important topics often put aside by the image-based Menlo campus. The slamming may be offensive to some individuals; however, it is a necessary evil to some extent. Because of the sad fact that some readers do go too far with their arguments, it would be helpful if the editors of the TSC could set a boundary for the language used in the TSC.
The toleration of anonymous articles is a definite plus of TSC. That is one of the main reasons I read it. Who cares who wrote it? The important thing is the article itself, which might contain sensitive topics normally avoided by the student body. If the reader doesn't agree with an article from the first paragraph he reads, then there is no reason to read on and get angry over the topic. I can also understand why writers of certain articles would choose to remain anonymous. In the Menlo "community", a school with a small number of students enrolled (despite the recent increase), so small that students can immediately recognize who the writer is, image is such a big part of the students' lives such that even the writer fears for his own popularity if he is revealed as the author of a particularly controversial paper. By staying anonymous, the students of Menlo can feel safe to write about the issues they feel strongly about without jeopardizing their popularity.
Anonymous