OV vs. OC
So the Oregon Voice (the magazine I publish) has filed a grievance against the Oregon Commentator (another campus publication), for violation of electronic privacy. You can read all about it in the Oregon Daily Emerald today. Front page. I didn't want to say anything until it made news, I'm already tired enough of all the flak as it is. You can read what happened in the story but I'll give you my version of the events.

The Voice hosts its content on the editor's gladstone site in folders that are obviously intended for staff use. The Commentator went into the site and accessed the content for our UPCOMING issue and "spoofed" in in their Monday issue. While I don't mind them spoofing us; the fact that they're mocking stories that haven't been published yet and were ripped from our website is unsettling to me. Despite being publicly accesible, we did not give permission for them to use those stories. Though they didn't plagiarize our work, they used original titles and altered the stories to contain offensive content. I don't really CARE about the offensive content. I'm one of those people who finds South Park funny... it's just that they laid it on US. And no, no one would have gotten the joke or cared, really. The grievance was filed for the sake of the staff who put hard work into their stories only to have them ripped before they were even published.

So I support the principles of the grievance. I can just see (and dread) this getting bigger than I even want to deal with. So far the editor of the OC has been personable, and I've made it known that I in no way support juvenile retribution on the part of the OC or the Voice. I don't want "work" getting any more into my personal life than it already is. I have enough stuff to worry about that I don't feel like exacerbating with a "cold war" between the Voice and the Commentator. We're not even a political publication, for god's sake! We're just here to give students the opportunity to write and to have a good time!

I'm sure some people would love a little tit-for-tat. But I'm not one of them. I hope we've made known to the Commentator that the methods of their "joke" are unacceptable, but that's the limit to which I wish to take this. I don't want to spend the rest of my career at the Voice editing out people's stupid jabs at the Commentator or looking through their pages to find my name or my publication under some headline. I can tarnish my reputation enough on my own, thanks.

I just don't understand why these people in positions of authority find it so hard to behave like professionals... or even like adults. It really gets my fucking goat. I'm mad that the OC found it neccesary to fuck with the Voice, but I'm also upset at the proportions to which our "response" has grown. I'm sure you'll be seeing more in the papers later. I'll post it here when it comes out. Otherwise, I deign not to talk about it, for my own sake, on this publicly accessible forum.

And no, I don't hate the Commentator. In fact, I read them and sometimes enjoy well-written commentary. It's only when they write offensive and juvenile literature that I'm put off. Like I said, I enjoy South Park, but only because there, everyone's a victim. With the Commentator, they always seem to think their ethics are right and everyone else is wrong. While I'm glad for their freedom of speech as much as I'm glad of my own, it seems reasonable that they should expect someone to respond to being trashed.

I just don't want to get in over my head. People in large groups can do stupid, stupid things. Especially people in the "media." That's not for me. I'd rather be on the sidelines talking diplomacy, thanks.