Sloppy rip-off

To the editor,

I would like to commend Jameson Butler for his complete inability to fact check and his flimsy grasp on the English language as demonstrated in his opinion column (A lost Generation, March 22).
The article was riddled with errors. The idea that shuttering Generation would free up more money for Spring Fest is a fallacy, and a poor one at that. Sub-Board I, Inc. provides Generation with its funding. A portion of Sub-Board's funding does come from SA, but Sub-Board's board of directors ultimately holds the authority to decide where that money is spent.
Since Butler is still trying to figure out how often Generation is printed, let me point it out for him. It's every two weeks. I feel obliged to tell him that two weeks equals 14 days, because after reading poorly-written phrases like "nothing I love more than taken some bills" and "what ultimately led for" in his column I should probably doubt his ability to count, as well.
Furthermore, I'm going to assume Butler was referring to me when he said a "pretentious Canadian and his girlfriend" write "He Says, She Says." Dino Husejnovic and Alexandra Pivovarova have actually been collaborating on that feature since issue No. 2. Butler is either breaking his own rule against using inside jokes or he's confused and thinks Husejnovic is a Canadian last name.
Butler gets bonus points for his blatant sexism, as well. By referring to Keeley Sheehan as simply my "girlfriend," he managed to spurn all of her credentials, which are substantially more impressive than his own.
The article was a sloppy rip-off of everything former Editor in Chief Andrew Blake told The Spectrum in an interview earlier this semester. Butler should make sure he's being original before he blasts Generation for the opposite.
I would look past the ugly flaws and simply ignore Butler's dumb criticisms. In fact, I'd be flattered that he chose to spurn writing about high-profile issues like health care reform or the SA elections and instead chose to write about something that happened at the beginning of the semester. But one part of the article is just too insulting to disregard. Inferring that my staff and me do not care about Generation Magazine is an affront to all of the hard work we do upstairs in 315 Student Union. As Butler's former editor at The Spectrum, I know for a fact that I put more time and care into a single story than Butler spends on his entire weekly Spectrum workload, and I know that my staff does as well.
Student journalists at The Spectrum are free to write whatever they want about any topic in the world and then have that message sent to 10,000 students across the University at Buffalo's three campuses. But that power comes with a caveat—that student journalists must respect the basic tenets of journalism. By printing erroneous information and disregarding middle school grammar rules, Butler failed to follow his duties as a journalist. He should apologize to me, my staff, and the institution of journalism as a whole.

Sincerely,
Ren M. LaForme
Editor in Chief
Generation Magazine
rlaforme@buffalo.edu