Having read the Emerald’s coverage of ASUO President Adam Walsh’s inability to fill vacant seats on the ASUO Constitution Court within the 30-day allotted period, I am disgusted by the poor journalistic practices of the Emerald.
The Emerald has of recent demonstrated a propensity for seeking out scandal. Barring the existence of a real scandal, the Emerald has been more than happy to fabricate one. This is certainly the case concerning Walsh. While Walsh’s inability to fill the judicial seats within 30 days does represent a breach in the ASUO Constitution, Walsh certainly cannot be held responsible. There exists a lack of qualified candidates in an ASUO mired by a multitude of senate vacancies and the fact that some eight senators have resigned this year. The senate understands this problem altogether too well, and as stated in your article seems to have no intention of commencing impeachment proceedings against Walsh. The Emerald has actively invented a scandal and painted this problem as a serious failure on the part of Walsh when it is clearly not. The intent of the article is absolutely clear in the sensationalism of the headline “Walsh’s job might be in jeopardy.”
This is hardly a random occurrence in the Emerald, and much of the fault for this sort of “sensationalist journalism” seems to lie with Nicholas Wilbur. As senior news reporter, Wilbur has been given a free hand to write with minimal editorial oversight.
This has enabled Wilbur to distort the truth again and again in the hopes of making a name for himself. Among Wilbur’s many targets has been ASUO Senator Dallas Brown, whom Wilbur seems to have a personal dislike for. Wilbur wrote article after article attempting to discredit Brown in his run for ASUO executive earlier this term and took what I believe to be a very active role in exposing the “kegger” for the Dallas and Emily campaign.
Additionally, the Emerald Editorial Board said of Dallas in an April 5 editorial “…Brown has not demonstrated a consistent record of attendance at Senate meetings-” (“Much rides on students’ votes this election year,” ODE) despite an April 3 article, reading: “Student Senator Dallas Brown missed only one meeting instead of the six officials previously alleged” (“Audit finds ASUO senator’s absences were overstated,” ODE).
This of course came after the personal inquisition against Brown launched by Wilbur in which Wilbur claimed that Brown had missed upward of six meetings.
Wilbur has demonstrated himself to be the worst kind of yellow journalist – willing to distort the truth to provide ammunition for his own personal vendettas and the news department of the Emerald has demonstrated gross incompetence in actually reporting the news. I call upon the Emerald to do the responsible thing and sack Wilbur.

Alexander Deley is a University senior majoring in history and political science