Letter: Pro-sweatshop stance

By The Daily Illini

Students against Sweatshops put on a 30-minute event that could be fairly described as boring and that mainly attracted the party faithful. The Orange & Blue Observer, responding at the last minute to an obscene flier posted in our cubicle, put together a group of five people, showed up and passed out funny fliers to everyone who came in. We also backed up our pro-sweatshop stance with hard facts about what happens to children when activists close down their sweatshop jobs.

Afterwards, a civil debate broke out between the five members of the Observer and 10 or more members of Students Against Sweatshops. The DI, instead of reporting this amusing controversy in their Wednesday, Nov. 10 story, gave a flat rendition of SAS’s party line. The dissenting opinion was completely excluded, save for one quote at the end of the article. They also concealed the number of Observer members who attended and the reason behind their arrival.

Tanika Ely might have written an amusing, newsworthy piece that would have drawn attention to both organizations’ opinions. Who wouldn’t want to read about a student group crazy enough to support sweatshops? Instead, she regurgitated boring propaganda. The DI is a worthless, biased newspaper.

Leo Buchignani

junior in communications

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editor, The Orange and Blue Observer