Editorial Response
Editors Bite Back
By the middle of the 1990-1991 School Year, The Gleaner experienced growing criticisms and negative feedback from student readers, and even professors. The editorial staff wrote with satirical and genuine responses to make light of the situation or defend the quality and effort required for the publication.
The comic to the left is a satirical recreation of the crucifixtion, mocking the intense disparagement of the publication. Jesus Christ is replaced by the Executive Editor of The Gleaner, Michael Mack, while critics of the newspaper are gathered, but seemingly don't remember the reason for their outrage. The text in the upper left corner mimics the structure of the Christian prayer, the "Our Father," including the varied subjects of many critiques.
This comic is an expression of The Gleaner staff's frustration. The staff felt as though the critics could not recognize, either from a lack of intellect or pure negligence, that the staff had limited resources and time to maintain a consistent publication cycle. They could not please every reader and believed many of the critiques were so frivolous they were forgotten by the next issue.
Killing Three Birds with One Stone
In The Gleaner issue published on October 10, 1990, three different Letters to the Editor scrutinized specific articles and the publication as a whole.
Gleaner correspondent Richard Kaplan responded to all three students in a single article. Kaplan hoped to demonstrate how easy it was to criticize despite how much effort went into curating the newspaper every week. Kaplan's responses are broken up into two different pages depending on the subject of the initial criticism. Kaplan also responded to writings from Scott Mallinger and Rich Trevino about his prior use of the term "pansy." Mallinger and Trevino's articles are explored here.
