To Whom It May Concern,
I read the current edition of “The Loquitur” (Oct. 2, 2008) and was surprised at the lack of information pertaining to the current financial crisis, the government bailout package and the first presidential debate. I find it disheartening that these stories had only one paragraph each written about them, and then were categorized underneath the title “Candidates clash in debate on economy and foreign policy.” These paragraphs do not belong under this title. This article does not speak about the debate held between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, says the one paragraph immediately following the title. The other four paragraphs should not be listed underneath this title because they were not mentioned during the debate.It is misleading and incorrectly informs readers.
My second grievance with this current edition is the fact that these three stories do not have larger articles written about them. I understand that a paper has a base layout for the placement and topics of stories, but these issues are extremely important, and our audience needs to be informed on them.
Our country is electing a new leader in one month. I cannot see the reasoning why this is not one of the top stories. Similarly, articles written about the current financial crisis and the $700 billion bailout deserve more than just one paragraph. There is a vast number of Cabrini students that do not understand the severity of the crisis and what the bailout would do.
Honestly, when there is a student that raises his hand in class and asks, “What’s the worst that could happen? Some people lose money in their retirement funds,” something is drastically wrong. I am not making this up; this question was asked in one of my classes. By having articles that give these topics the proper attention and focus they require, many of our students will become more educated about these issues. Having one video documentary about students’ opinions on the crisis and a paragraph here and there about these topics are simply not enough.
I feel that there is a disproportionate amount of foreign affairs stories and stories domestic issues. I am not saying that there should be no articles on these topics because there should; people also need to be educated on foreign affairs and other countries’ situations. But our country is in uncharted territory right now. We have never seen these kinds of problems before in our economy. The one paragraph on the crisis and the bailout mentioned how we have just experienced the largest one-day drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This is front page news, not a paragraph on the fifth page. I just cannot see why when other newspapers and media outlets are focusing so heavily on these issues, “The Loquitur” chooses to focus on other topics.
