I felt compelled to note an amusing line in this staff editorial:
“Further, whether or not Experience’s presidential candidate George Krebs took more credit than he should have for the completion of the off-campus Flex project, he has not adequately rebutted the suggestion that he did.”
If I understand this statement correctly, Krebs may or may not have made an unsubstantiated claim, but he has failed to properly address the claim that his claim was unsubstantiated. So, the editorial took a little joyride into the world of spin. It’s trivial silliness, but it reminded me of the not-so-trivial silliness inflicted on the national consciousness over another dubious (or not-so-dubious) political claim—that Al Gore took credit for inventing the Internet. I took the liberty of replacing a few nouns, and came up with this:
“Further, whether or not Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore took more credit than he should have for the creation of the internet , he has not adequately rebutted the suggestion that he did.”
Focus on the facts. If a candidate lacks integrity, criticize him for lacking integrity. Don’t criticize him for his failure to defend his integrity against attacks. That serves no purpose.
Thankfully, CCSC elections do not have the potential to plunge us into an endless quagmire of partisan hackery, corruption, and criminal incompetence. But still, let’s leave the spin to politicians, not journalists.