TO THE EDITOR:
It appears that The Daily Tar Heel reporters are not even reading their own newspaper. David Doochin’s coverage of the Graduate and Professional Student Federation lawsuit against the Board of Elections failed to provide even the most meager journalistic due diligence.
Instead of checking the veracity of the comments he received, Doochin relayed inaccurate information without factual contextualization.
In two separate instances, Doochin reported quotations saying that Student Congress failed to pass legislation allowing instant runoff for referenda. Had Doochin read the Feb. 17 issue of The Daily Tar Heel, he would have known that Student Congress did pass a bill allowing the voting method.
The suit filed by GPSF President Dylan Russell sought, in part, to overturn that legislation due to an administrative error. Doochin would have discovered this information had he read the lawsuit.
Some may accuse me of sour grapes for writing this letter, but I support GPSF’s use of appropriate legal mechanisms to serve their constituents. What I can’t support is journalism that shirks even the most basic investigatory practices. The Daily Tar Heel owes it to students and itself to be better than this.
John Anagnost
Graduate Student
City and regional planning
