Last week, as most of you know, the Vermilion published an article with some disturbingly wrong information about the basketball team. I responded with this letter to the editor, which was in this weeks version:
Dear Editor:
I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon this season while reading about the UL men’s basketball team in the Vermilion.
First there was the headline “Owls Win First Meeting of 04-05.” That’s an awfully strange headline considering that the Cajuns won the game.
Later came the headline “Cajuns top Hilltoppers 54-44 on road.” Strange again, because the Cajuns did beat the Hilltoppers, but it was at home and that wasn’t the score. The Cajuns actually beat the Blue Raiders 54-44, but that too was at home.
Fast forward to this past week, where the headline read “Cajun men continue battle for winning season.” The first paragraph then claimed that the Cajuns were currently 12-13, with a 7-5 conference record. Reality indicates that at press time, the Cajuns were actually 15-8, with a 9-2 conference record. On top of that, with only four regular season games left, they were already guaranteed a winning season.
Listen, I know writing a newspaper is hard and all, but if you have enough time to add in “-Lafayette” every time someone says “Louisiana” or “UL,” then you should at least try to get most of your headlines/major statements correct.
-Chris Ledet
This weeks edition also included an editorial from Janmel Beckham saying that she apologizes for the mistake. Apparently, she didn't write her own headline, and she inadvertently copied UNO's record down on the paper.
Now look at the headline of the basketball article this week: "Cajuns extend home winning streak to 12 games" followed by the first sentence, "The University of Louisiana at Lafayette men’s basketball team extended its home winning streak to 12, sending both New Mexico State and North Texas home with a loss." And unless I missed 5 games, I think our home winning streak is at 7.
Now, you'd think that since every letter to the editor this week, including mine, dealt with the inability of the sports department to print the facts correctly, they might have checked this one over before it went to print.
Apparently not...