Dear Editor:

The DE’s coverage of the Poshard situation was laughable. Should he have been fired or at least punished severely? Yeah, probably. But the Daily Egyptian is a newspaper, and the editorials have been childish, and the reporting has been poor and biased. If the reporting wasn’t biased, it still sounds that way because of the entire feel of the DE during this time.

That said, there is no excuse for the DE contacting the mother of a deceased student without ensuring she had already been informed by the proper authorities. That’s not just poor journalism; it’s a lack of respect for the dead and his family.

Then, not only do you condone your acts, but defend them by saying the university dropped the ball. Fair enough, if SIU did drop the ball, (which it didn’t), you still should be certain you are not the first person contacting the family of the deceased.

The DE and its entire staff should be ashamed of where their newspaper is right now. When I was a journalism student, just a couple years ago, at SIU, the DE was a respected, informative and entertaining paper. I hardly went a day on campus without reading it, and after I graduated I picked one up whenever I could. Nowadays, I could care less if I read it, and when I do I am disappointed and sometimes infuriated. The Daily Egyptian can do better – it used to.

Jeff Wilson

2006 SIU alumnus