BYU's Daily Universe is a terrible newspaper.

If you can't already tell by the title of this post I'm fairly agitated with BYU's student written newspaper, The Daily Universe. To think that some of the people who work here now write for real newspapers around the country is truly scary. I have always considered them on the lower, actually lowest, end of the journalism gene pool, but for some strange reason I agreed to do an interview when Leaa Forschler called me up.

She was doing a piece about the recent feud between a few of the comedy clubs here in Utah. I'm not going into that, but I did feel that I could give my opinion and that it would be presented in the context I gave it. That was stupid of me. The Daily Universe has a history of misquoting people and I should have known better. So of course I came out sounding like a complete ass. The hard copy article ends with the following quote:

"King, a UVSC student, said the most difficult audience he has performed for are BYU students out on dates."

That's it. That's where the article ends in the hard copy of the newspaper. The article isn't finished, but that's all they published. The online version of the article continues on, and makes me sound a little better.

Aren't they supposed to be learning something by doing a newspaper? Apparently, all they've been learning are crappy journalism techniques. I'm not the most grammatically correct writer in the world, but I don't publish news. Don't you guys have an editor or something? If so, it would be nice if they did their job! How do you publish a paper that's missing the last chunk of an article? I wouldn't be so pissed about it if it was the first time it had happened, but I know for a fact that it has happened before.

The article itself was written very poorly as well. The writer didn't even get the name of one of the comedy clubs right until the third time it appeared in the article. I don't mean any personal insult to Ms. Forschler, I'm sure she's a really nice person, but I do think that proofreading should be involved in the publishing process. Okay Daily Universe, it's time to get your act together. I doubt you'll change anything, but at least I've said my piece.

To read the full article click here.

Update!

This is the letter my friend, and owner of Johnny B's sent to the Daily Universe. Freaking genius!

I was interested by the article in the July 11th edition of the Daily Universe regarding the process of becoming a comedian in Provo. While I found the article slightly amusing, I also found it had an interesting undertone. The competition of the local clubs, yet no comments from the local club owners. There was of course the journalistic disclaimer "Neither of the club owners’ could be reached for comments." That's funny, I didn't recieve any messages from a DU reporter. I didn't see any "422" prefixes on my caller ID. I checked with 3 of the people interviewed for the story, all of whom have my cell phone number. The phone number for Johnny B's is listed in the phone book, on line and is probably on record with the DU accounting office (I have advertised in the Universe for years). The website has e-mail contact information. Heck, my home phone number is even in the phone book, of course that would take knowing the proper spelling of my last name. With all of the attempts that the reporter made to contact me, I am surprised I didn't notice. Silly me. I will try to be more aware of the telepathic vibes being sent my way. Oh wait, that was my "Medium", she said a dead aunt has been trying to get a hold of me, gotta go

John

John's the man.