In case anyone hadn't noticed (and maybe I'm more in the loop since I read the Herald online because it's the only newspaper in town), UND alumnus Corey Mock is running for Secretary of State for North Dakota. I hadn't been following anything about the political "race" (a "race" where no athleticism is involved) until, on Sunday, the Herald rolled out three anti-Mock letters concerned about his views on religion and student voting. Considering the accusations, I ran to the DS website to view his past columns, only to find that his column on student voting is a satire actually encouraging students to vote (something I have tried, and failed, to do in the past), and that his column on religion, while offensive to some, is probably one of the most thoughtful pieces to ever come out of the Dakota Student.
Michael Thomas, former (although it seemed like he had been there forever, but I never knew what he actually looked like) editor of the Dakota Student, has a good letter in the Herald today about these topics. His conclusion about Mock's motives is probably correct, although it may be that some people will equate the plan "to ignite a vibrant and positive discussion among the students at UND" with any "shock" jockey out there.
GRAND FORKS — On Sunday, the Herald carried three letters chastising secretary of state candidate Corey Mock for two opinion columns he wrote in 2007 for UND’s Dakota Student newspaper.
At first, and as a former editor of the Dakota Student, I took pride in knowing that these three writers took it upon themselves to research the back issues of our newspaper and enjoy its content.
But with a little more consideration, I realized what these individuals actually had done. They hadn’t absorbed and enjoyed the journalistic work of our Dakota Student employees. Instead, they’d bypassed the headlines and jumped straight to the “Search” function, typed in Mock’s name and looked for whatever damning articles they could find to derail what had been an otherwise positive campaign.
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