Satire is a difficult medium to navigate. There lies a precarious line between humorous and pushing it too far.
The article “Inclusion for all?” which appeared in the Torch‘s satirical insert the Tire Fire this week, is a prime example of an article falling on the wrong end of that line.
We are a young staff composed entirely of students. This is not an excuse, but rather a fact. As students, we are imperfect journalists, and as imperfect journalists, we make mistakes. Publishing the “Inclusion for all?” article was chiefly my mistake.
As both the Editor in Chief of the Torch and creator of the Tire Fire, I offer my assurance that it was never our intention to make entire groups of people feel uncomfortable. Especially marginalized groups that tend to grapple with some form of discomfort on a daily basis.
However, our intentions matter naught in the face of how the message came across to our readers. Due to poor representation of our intended message, many readers were offended, and rightfully so. With that in mind, I would like to both personally apologize, and apologize on behalf of the Torch.
Although I’ve admitted that the article was ill-advised, I will not be removing it from our website. Rather than attempt to sweep it under the rug, we’ve chosen to address the problems with this article head on so that they do not occur again. I have talked extensively with readers both in person and through email, discussed the matter with the adviser of the newspaper, and will be discussing the insensitivity of the article with the entire staff at our next staff meeting.
If you have found yourself venting your displeasure with the article please do not keep it to yourself. As a campus newspaper, we serve our readers, and we did our readers a disservice by publishing that article. Let us know. Fill my inbox. Write a letter to the editor to counter “Inclusion for all?” and we will print it.
If you’d like to discuss the article further, I encourage you to email me directly, schedule a meeting in our office in Alumni 013 or submit a letter to the editor, which we will display prominently in the opinions section of the next newspaper and on our website. My contact information is listed below:
Keith Salowich
Editor in Chief
fsutorcheditor@nullgmail.com
(231) 591-5978