Temple News polarizes students with article that misses the point

Leah Blewett’s article with the headline “Filmmaker Michael Moore polarizes students with ‘Slacker Uprising’” reads like a partisan article in favor of Republican activists. I was at the Slacker Uprising event on Thursday and saw

Leah Blewett’s article with the headline “Filmmaker Michael Moore polarizes students with ‘Slacker Uprising'” reads like a partisan article in favor of Republican activists.

I was at the Slacker Uprising event on Thursday and saw similar numbers of Republican and Democrat protestors outside of the Liacouras Center. Inside the Liacouras Center, I only saw one male holding a Bush-Cheney sign; the rest of the audience seemed to be overwhelmingly in support of Moore and his guest speakers.

Did Leah Blewett even attend the Slacker Uprising event? Characterizing the event as a “forum for forum not only for the major political parties but for groups as varied as the ‘Free Mumia’ movement and ‘ACT,’ a voter registration group” is blatantly inaccurate. Moore thanked ACT for their voter registration efforts at the end of the event. When Moore was interrupted by Free Mumia chants, he said he thought everyone there probably agreed that Mumia should have a re-trial, but requested that the activists show some respect for the real reaon Moore was at the Liacouras Center–to listen to the stories of two Iraq war veterans (including one from Bethlehem, PA) and a mother and father (from Wilkes-Barre, PA) who lost their son, a former member of the WMD Search Team in Iraq.

I think that Blewett and Temple News have polarized students due to missing the point. Don’t blame Moore for “polarizing students” if you’re going to mischaracterize the event and not even cover anything Moore or his guests of honor said to the audience. Clearly Temple News made the editorial choice to mislead and sensationalize rather than actually report on the Slacker Uprising event. Shame on you, Leah Blewett! Sounds like you’ve got a bright future ahead of you at Fox News.

Imogen Wirth-Granlund
B.A. ’04 GUS/ACMA

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