It’s a condition that has become an epidemic in the rapid growth of journalism’s web medium.
Keyboard confidence has spread like a plague, from the New York Times to ESPN.com, and yes, even the University of Idaho’s little old Argonaut.
The phenomenon is not surprising — media consumers licking their chops at every chance to bash a columnist, whose opinions had better coincide with their own, or else.
We read the comments. “How are they still employed at The Argonaut,” “Holy cow, I didn’t think The Argonaut could get worse,” or one of our personal favorites, “Find some new writers for God sake…”
The opinions of Argonaut columnists are their own, and do not reflect those of the newspaper as an entity. The opinions stated in every Our View are strictly those of the editorial board. Furthermore, relating the views of one columnist to the entire news organization is ignorant at worst and ridiculous at best.
The Argonaut’s opinion section serves as a free marketplace for ideas of all sizes, shapes and colors. With that said, we expect all of our columnists to support their opinions with logic, thorough background knowledge and facts and statistics — if necessary.
So, yes, as long as they are able to master the aforementioned standards, we will provide a die-hard liberal with equal column inches as we would a Reagan-era conservative.
We anticipate the work of our columnists to light a fire under those who flip to the opinion section every Tuesday and Friday. Columnists expect to receive harsh criticisms and impassioned responses about their articles, which is part of being a regular columnist. It takes a certain amount of courage to leave behind your keyboard confidence and instead turn those opinions into a published work via a credible organization.
May we suggest a few options for those spending excessive time attacking our columnists from the comfortable confines of their MacBook Pro.
The Argonaut would be delighted to publish your response to a given column in 300 words or less in the form of a letter to the editor.
Or even better, find us on the third floor of the Student Union Building and apply for a position. Heck, if you’re too hassled to do that, we’d be willing to hand deliver an application to you.
— TL