By Mary Ann Georgantopoulos

OK Northeastern, we need to talk.
I need to preface this by saying that I learned early on in my News career to not read the comments on the message boards. Honestly, as a staff reporter and now a columnist, I gain nothing by reading the comments. Last week was different. A few people mentioned what was happening in the comment sections, and I couldn’t fight my uncontrollable curiosity to find out what they were talking about. And with that, I opened Pandora’s box.
A lot of heat was generated on The News’ comment sections surrounding Anne Baker’s column. My fellow columnist expressed her belief that the Student Government Association (SGA) and its president, Ryan Fox, are out of touch with Northeastern students. As of last night, 35 comments were left on the message boards. Some agreed with Anne’s statements. Others bashed her. I’m not here to give my opinion on SGA, Ryan Fox, or Anne’s column. My days of covering SGA are long gone.
Over and over again, I see the same trend on the message boards ‘- a trend that really gets under my skin. A trend that needs explaining. Huskies, please understand this:’ A column is an opinion. It is not a news story.
This semester, Anne and I share the editorial column. What is printed each week represents the opinions of one of us, and us alone. These are not the beliefs of the editorial page editor, the editor in chief, and definitely not The News staff as a whole. Judging by the comments left on the message boards, people don’t seem to get that. I don’t understand why. Have you never read a newspaper before, Joe Husky?
The editorial page acts somewhat like an open forum. Everything printed on this page is opinionated. The staff editorial represents the opinions of the e-board. The cartoon represents the opinion of cartoonist, Liz Kelley. The same goes for letters. Anyone can write a letter to the editor. Those spots are not reserved for presidents of student organizations or members of the administrations. And, well, I’ve already told you about the columns.
Just as the editorial page is an open forum, obviously so is the comments section. The News does not print anything under anonymous bylines. Unfortunately, not the same can be said about the comments section. I always find it hysterical that people have such strong opinions about a topic, but then don’t identify themselves as the writer. Props to long time SGA and Resident Student Association memeber Matthew Soleyn for never failing to sign his full name to the comments he leaves. Many times I don’t agree with what he writes, but hey, at least I know he’s writing it
Also, who can take the message board seriously, with comments like this one: ‘Anne Baker and Jordan Clark should get together and have a child. Unquestionably, he would grow up to be the world’s worst person.’ Really, ‘gilbert gottfried?’ Really? It seems like people don’t use the comments section to comment on the story anymore. It’s all about who can be the most outrageous and/or say the jerkiest thing possible. Another, anonymous, commenter said this: ‘I will not comment on the obvious errors of omission and fact checking that line this article or about my opinion of a writer who I neither know, nor after reading this article care to know…’ Your loss, man. Or woman. We’ll never know.
There’s a lot of bashing of The News as an organization. It’s easy because we have the comments section that pretty much goes unmonitored. Unless you’ve been a part of this student organization, you don’t know about the hard work and dedication that goes in to producing this paper. It’s easy to criticize something you know nothing about. Just next time you feel the need to critique us, though, the least you can do is include your name. Thanks.

‘- Mary Ann Georgantopoulos can be reached at [email protected].
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