Ignorance run amok

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: November 13, 2009

If you are a member of the Auburn Family, or if you are a fan of any football team in the Southeastern Conference, you need to read “Southern Football’s Dating Game” in The Wall Street Journal.

Unfortunately, friends, I’ve seen my share of poor excuses for journalism. But this one is right up there with the worst I’ve ever seen. I don’t know whether the editors in charge of assigning and reading this article were out to lunch (or out of the country), but I surely hope this is an anomaly for the Journal.

Go ahead and read the story. I’ll wait.

***

Most of the time, when I read bad articles, I just shake my head and let them go.

Not this time.

My e-mail to Hannah Karp, the reporter, follows below.

Dear Ms. Karp,

I read, then re-read in stunned confusion, your article called “Southern Football’s Dating Game.“ Fraternity football seating? As a professional journalist, I must say, it is difficult to conceive of a less relevant topic for The Wall Street Journal to cover, even in Life & Style.

As a Southerner and a graduate of Auburn University, it is difficult to conceive how you could have written a more obnoxious story if you had made a concerted effort.

I do hope that you are just the latest in a long line of know-it-all, big-city reporters from the North who parachute into our area and try to impart your knowledge and culture to us poor, hapless Southerners. If not—if you actually live or have lived here and have any frame of reference for that of which you write—then your research and observation skills are among the poorest I’ve ever had the misfortune of encountering.

The tradition of Southern men and women dressing up for football games is neither new nor unique to Auburn University. Hence, the word “tradition.” I’m not sure why you chose to focus your story on Auburn, but I am confident that if you would have spent any time researching your subject, you would have found—from sources from visiting schools, no less—that Auburn is one of the classiest places in the country, let alone the South, to attend a football game. It is unfortunate that you chose to highlight one letter to the editor from one disaffected student upon which to hang your entire story.

I did a simple Google search and found the following here in about 60 seconds (emphasis mine):

“And I wonder why people from the South seem to have such a bad taste for these papers. Had they done their research they would know the Auburn honors college has block seats, AFROTC, and several other non fraternity groups. And furthermore no group is handed the seats, fraternities must compete with spirit points to get them. And if you have ever been competing for spirit points it is not easy nor fun. It is tons of community service and going to AU tennis, volleyball and soccer matches to get them. So they help out the school and community a lot.”

What? You mean, the entire premise of this article – that frat guys are handed seats as an entitlement, and they are taking girls to games to try to keep them – is dead wrong?

Researching stories properly is a time-consuming, meticulous process. And what you find out can get in the way of the story you’ve already got planned. Perhaps that’s why you didn’t bother doing it.

It is also unfortunate that you lump Auburn into the same category with the ongoing controversy at The University of Mississippi. There is nothing here that echoes what you mentioned there. Your comparison is completely baseless.

To read your story, one would think that there are no fraternity men who take sorority women to football games up North, and no college students ever get rowdy at football games up there. I hope you wouldn’t intentionally insinuate something so ridiculous.

From a broader perspective, I am personally extremely disappointed in the Journal. Your story, as is plainly seen in the comments you have drawn, has only contributed to the cultural divide in this country; worse, it has done so needlessly and on the basis of poorly reported and completely misunderstood notions that you treat as “facts.“ This story is a disgrace to anyone who calls herself a professional journalist, and carrying it is a disgrace for any media outlet that purports to be a legitimate source of news.

Because of this story and your newspaper’s reckless decision to publish it, The Wall Street Journal has suffered a significant—and potentially irreparable—hit to its credibility throughout a large portion of the country. I know it has among the hundreds of thousands of Southern football fans who don’t care for your attitude as you sit in judgment of their values.

In the future, if you happen to cover anything in the South, I implore you to make a better effort to educate yourself and limit your ignorance. Otherwise, at the very least, please make at least a minimal effort to conceal your contempt for things you do not, and choose not to, understand. We would appreciate it, and it will help you to not come off as such a self-important, condescending snob.

Thank you,

Jennifer Foster

P.S. I am copying this note to your editor in hopes that he or she can sit down with you and explain to you the difference between “maybe” and “may be” (e.g., “no matter where in the world they maybe” from your sidebar, “A Sampling of SEC Traditions”). If not, contact us in the South. We may love our football, but we know the difference, and we’ll be glad to talk you through it.

If you would like to send Ms. Karp an e-mail of your own, her address is hannah(dot)karp(at)dowjones.com.

War Eagle!!! We know why we say it, even if they don’t.