Does anyone have a subscription aside from myself? If so, and if you are familiar with the Eric LeGrand story of the Rutgers football player, I want to hear your thoughts on the article written "about him" in this last issue. I found it touching and heart warming that he was chosen for the cover image of the magazine, but i was literally appalled by the article that followed up inside the issue.
I want to know if I am completely off base here, or if anyone else read it and got that kind of impression.
For reference here is the letter to the editor that I just mailed over:
"I am appalled by the terrible piece of writing to follow up the nomination of Eric LeGrand for the cover of the last month’s magazine. To see such an inspirational, heart-warming, motivational picture capturing an awe-striking moment in this young man’s life followed up by the worst display of self-centered irrelevant writing was absolutely disgusting. I cannot find words to describe it in any other way. Fortunately for myself, I know the backstory, and have seen the pictures that show what Eric has overcome and fought through, but for those that haven’t, that rely on your magazine to inform and educate them on such monumental occurrences, I feel cheated. I felt cheated reading a two page article so poorly thrown together, with such complete disregard for the actual event that was portrayed on the cover of your magazine. In no way shape or form was the reader shown the gravity and monumentality of the situation they were reading about. I can count on two hands the amount of sentences that actually pertained to what the article was supposed to be focused on: Eric LeGrand’s recovery and struggle. Instead I read about how Twitter and Facebook globalized the voting system for the cover picture, how he won because of his “followers” and his interaction with them. If the story was to be on S.I.’s new “voting system” and your fan interaction through technology, then do not disgrace the amazing story of this young man and his accomplishments by portraying this story to be about him and his journey.
I hope my point is clear, I am not criticizing the quality of the writing material in the magazine but rather the obliviousness to the true story and meaning behind the event. To read this article knowing what Eric LeGrand has been through was deflating. I felt sad on his behalf not because of pity, but because of the missed opportunities. The chance to show that no matter what, you are never too far out to quit, that against ALL odds, you still have that slim chance, and to get back up one more time after failing could mean all the difference.
It would be nice to read in a future issue, something with substance and meaning directed towards the journey and struggle of Eric, but until then I can honestly say that this was the worst journalistic mistake I have read in the fourteen or so years that I have aptly read.
Xavier Stridick, Rutgers University Senior"
I want to know if I am completely off base here, or if anyone else read it and got that kind of impression.
For reference here is the letter to the editor that I just mailed over:
"I am appalled by the terrible piece of writing to follow up the nomination of Eric LeGrand for the cover of the last month’s magazine. To see such an inspirational, heart-warming, motivational picture capturing an awe-striking moment in this young man’s life followed up by the worst display of self-centered irrelevant writing was absolutely disgusting. I cannot find words to describe it in any other way. Fortunately for myself, I know the backstory, and have seen the pictures that show what Eric has overcome and fought through, but for those that haven’t, that rely on your magazine to inform and educate them on such monumental occurrences, I feel cheated. I felt cheated reading a two page article so poorly thrown together, with such complete disregard for the actual event that was portrayed on the cover of your magazine. In no way shape or form was the reader shown the gravity and monumentality of the situation they were reading about. I can count on two hands the amount of sentences that actually pertained to what the article was supposed to be focused on: Eric LeGrand’s recovery and struggle. Instead I read about how Twitter and Facebook globalized the voting system for the cover picture, how he won because of his “followers” and his interaction with them. If the story was to be on S.I.’s new “voting system” and your fan interaction through technology, then do not disgrace the amazing story of this young man and his accomplishments by portraying this story to be about him and his journey.
I hope my point is clear, I am not criticizing the quality of the writing material in the magazine but rather the obliviousness to the true story and meaning behind the event. To read this article knowing what Eric LeGrand has been through was deflating. I felt sad on his behalf not because of pity, but because of the missed opportunities. The chance to show that no matter what, you are never too far out to quit, that against ALL odds, you still have that slim chance, and to get back up one more time after failing could mean all the difference.
It would be nice to read in a future issue, something with substance and meaning directed towards the journey and struggle of Eric, but until then I can honestly say that this was the worst journalistic mistake I have read in the fourteen or so years that I have aptly read.
Xavier Stridick, Rutgers University Senior"
