A Critique of "Don't hate us 'cause we're beautiful"

This really has nothing to do with the column below, I just thought it was funny.

  




   Journalism is difficult. Ask anyone who worked on a student newspaper in high school. It can be beyond stressful and I found that out first hand after three years of writing for my school's paper. It is pretty easy to just create a blog and blab about anything (exactly what I do), but to be a true journalist a person has to have some serious standards. The writer must be clear in what he is trying to inform the public of while towing the line of bias constantly. It can be exhausting. 

   Enter Katherine Martin, an assistant news editor on the University of Alabama's "The Crimson White", who at first glance (at her writing of course) kind of made me vomit in my mouth. She wrote this opinion piece, titled "Don't hate us 'cause we're beautiful", which is pretty much a direct rip off from that one Keri Hilson song. 
   The column discusses how low UA ranked in certain aspects of The Princeton Review's most recent college rankings and makes some pretty invalid points on the way.
   
Here are a few of my favorites:




"We placed number 14 on the jock school list below Florida, who received first place, followed by Auburn and Kentucky. But we beat Georgia, so I guess that’s cool. Let’s just be honest, this list is completely dumb because we know we’re number one. Come on, we’re Alabama, roll tide."


  I think "roll tide" is supposed to mean that the three sentences before it are okay. Dear Jesus.


"Most of SEC made this list expect for Vandy (nerds), South Carolina (who cares), Tennessee (they made the list of least beautiful campus), Auburn (are you kidding me?), Mississippi State and Arkansas (didn’t make any lists because they don’t matter)."


  Martin's mindset going into the sentence above: "Well, I am angry at Princeton for what they did so I'll just make fun of all the other schools so I can feel better!" I feel like I just walked into my fourth grade classroom and we are all calling each other butt-heads. That is the level she stooped to with this. 


"Next year I expect the University of Alabama to up it’s game and make no. 1 on all of the good lists, we’ve got a reputation to uphold. And Princeton Review, take in to account that people might hate on UA in your surveys because they’re jealous."


   This is probably the dumbest thing she said in the entire piece and it had me literally laughing out loud at midnight yesterday.


   I think a major reason this happened is because some Alabama fans/students/alums are used to being number one in what matters to them--football. So when a legitimate poll regarding what really matters (education) comes in and proves Alabama to be bottom-feeders, it makes no sense to them. They are Alabama, the home of the Bear, Saban and all that is right in the world. To some of them, it is ridiculous that anyone would have them on that level simply because, well, they are The University of Alabama.
   Even with all this crap I managed to sift through to get to this point, I am going to defend a fellow journalist-- to a certain extent. It is never right to judge someone on one piece of work, I have experienced that first hand in my writing as probably all journalists do in their careers. Sometimes as a writer you have to report that a car accident happened and  that someone died. Sometimes you have to report that a team is not very good and that it is not getting any better. Sometimes it can be worse than we can imagine. My final message to Katherine is this: As a journalist, when you get an opportunity to write an opinion column, take it as a opportunity to express your feelings, but to also drive a point home that you truly believe in. It must be impossible that you believe in what you wrote, because no one else does.  




Chad Underwood writes for Chad's Sportsworld and is a former editor-in-chief of Thompson High School's "TribeUne" newspaper.