Instead of addressing a new topic, this week's column is going to do something that I generally dislike - reflect on my not particularly newsworthy personal situation. For those of you that do not care, I offer my apologies. I would probably just ignore this column myself, and I tend to have little patience with this type of column - sorry Sari Krosinsky.
Last week, I wrote a piece about a talk that a Mr. David Barsamian made at UNM. In that piece, I criticized his characterization of the U.S. media and government as propaganda spreading institutions especially in regards to the current crisis. Now this column - which I wrote without the intention to stir up much controversy, and I really didn't consider the possibility that it could - kind of blew up in my face. I usually get about two or three e-mail responses to my pieces and occasionally the Lobo prints one, but last Tuesday's piece earned much more response than usual.
A good number of e-mails that I receive are relatively unserious and tend to relay the general sentiment that I am either a tool of somebody or just incredibly incompetent. I don't really mind those and usually pay them as much consideration as they have paid me.
However, most of my mail is seriously written, courteous in tone and seems to be intended to actually continue a dialogue and take me to task on certain points. This sort of mail is priceless, and I always enjoy receiving it, if only for the exercise of trying to defend what I have said. But this week even the more serious letters weren't very cordial, and they tended to have what I perceived as major mistakes in interpretation.
When one or two people make a mistake in understanding what I have said, it can be written off as reader error, but when so many intelligent and serious people get it wrong, there is a different type of mistake - author error.
Looking back on the piece, I can see how it failed on many levels. To start off, I based what I said on a Daily Lobo article. Now, I firmly believe the Lobo to be a good campus newspaper, and I am sure the article was well written and accurate, but one can't possibly understand what was surely a complicated and nuanced position by just reading a newspaper report about an event. My piece was also written in a hurry and so it did not benefit from even the most cursory research of what Mr. Barsamian has said in the past.
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Several early passages were poorly written in ambiguous language that I think prevented some readers from seeing the point I was trying to make. The concluding paragraphs also could seem like I was accusing all leftists, for lack of a better term, of not having real arguments and of being disingenuous which was not my objective when writing the column.
To top it off, the editing, which I have great respect and admiration for, gave the column what is perhaps the most inflammatory title I have ever seen on a column "Leftist ideas not based on fact." Although I do take blame for allowing my piece to be open to that interpretation, I think that the headline did some feather ruffling of its own.
What I was trying to say is that Barsamian lacked perspective and that his characterizations exaggerated to say the least. I never intended to make a point much bigger than that one.
The lesson for me is as old as persuasive writing itself; say what you mean in a manner direct enough so that people that do not share your same point of view can understand what you are proposing without at least too much error. I know this sounds painfully self-evident and it is, but it is still something everybody should stay aware of.
Finally, to those that were offended by my ambiguous and haphazard column last week, I am truly sorry if that offense arose from a mistake on my part. My thanks goes to those that considered what I wrote and were able to give me the benefit of the doubt about what I actually said. Much appreciation also goes to Trey Smith, whose printed apology was the soul of magnanimity.
While I can't absolutely promise that the same type of mistake won't happen again, I will endeavor to make sure it doesn't. Stay tuned.
by Michael Carrasco
Daily Lobo Columnist
Questions or comments can be sent to Michael Carrasco at mjc_carrasco@hotmail.com.
