To Mr. Peck (and thankfully I am barely restraining myself from making a Ghostbusters reference here)

‘ As usual with the Statesman, I find myself needing to make major corrections to what you have printed. First, let me make one thing very clear: we do not expect a pass from any publication on campus. We do, however, expect truth and quality journalism. Do not forget that the press is a powerful tool, but also requires an enormous amount of responsibility to wield it, and all too often the Statesman has eschewed that responsibility.

You assert the claim that USG has ‘all but boycotted the Press,’ but nothing could be further than the truth. I’ve not only made myself available Press USG reporters, I’ve offered to sit down for interviews with them. In my journalism classes I am in direct contact with many student journalists on campus and they all know I am available to talk about USG issues at any time. And your conspiracy theory regarding the Enduring Freedom Alliance is rather off-the-mark as well. I was the president of that organization, the publisher of the Patriot, but I’ve since left it (on bad terms) and now serve as a writer on the SB Independent staff. And anybody who knows me knows I am a firm defender of civil liberties, especially the right of the press and never have I ever made an assertion that they do not have the right or obligation to investigate their public officials. Now it seems it is you who are throwing out the wild accusations without evidence.

You also criticized me because I did not respond to your article under ‘the auspices of [my] USG positions,’ but I didn’t do that because I wasn’t offended as a USG officer. As a member of USG, I can take criticism. But as a journalism major, I was highly shocked by the low caliber of journalism your publication was engaged in. And if you published my letter to the editor on why I was disappointed, I think most people would agree with me. For transparency’s sake, I’ve attached my first letter to this message. –Nathan Shapiro Executive Vice President Re: SBVAC Cringes as USG Cuts Budget I write this response not as an official of the Undergraduate Student Government, but as a journalism major. The article ‘SBVAC Cringes as USG Cuts Budget’ represents, in my opinion, one of the shoddiest pieces of journalism I have ever read on campus. As a student of the journalism school I am embarrassed that the same university that has the premier journalism program in the SUNY system also hosts a paper so lacking in journalistic integrity.

One of the very first things I learned in my high school journalism class was that when you are reporting on something you must give the subjects of your article, at the very least, the opportunity to comment, and should include comments when the subject takes you up on the offer. You owe that to your readers, to the truth and to yourself as a basic tenet of journalism.

In this article, however, you decided that basic journalist precept wasn’t worth your effort. As a journalist, you are supposed investigate a topic thoroughly before you published, not uncover half the story and go to print. You did only half the work, but ran the article anyway. It was lazy and unprofessional. You have certainly lost this reader’s faith in the veracity of your future reports by undermining my respect for your methods.

Respectfully, Nathan Shapiro