School newspapers

The first issue of our middle school newspaper came out last week, and i was less than impressed. That's not to say it was bad, though. Some parts were pretty good, but what irked me was the fact that some parts were extremely opinionated. I mean seriously, out of all the good writers in the school, you just had to print an obviously unresearched and biased political article. And on the front page to boot! I mean, you pick up the newspaper and the first thing you see is an article on the presidential race. That's all well and good, and it starts out ok, but once you near the end, you begin to read comments such as:

"if we elect McCain, we will have the wrong president for the next four years."

That, I think, is going just a bit too far. Also, I was vexed by the pure anarchy of the organization. They had politics, school announcements, sports, advice columns, fashion, and even, get this, a two page horoscope all scattered aimlessly throughout a six page paper. There were unnecessary sections in sports as well. News about the school sports teams is all well and good, but they don't need a section about skateboarding in a school newspaper. Obviously, you also don't need to fill a third of a newspaper with a horoscope no one will read either, and most kids won't care what kids in the fashion section are wearing. So, it's a mediocre start, but I hope that future issues will be more streamlined. Unfortunately, you have to wait a month for that too.