Our student media seems to pride itself on inclusion of all people from different walks of life, but I have recently found that this is not the case. The George-Anne is not fairly reporting on political parties and the opinions of those parties at Georgia Southern. It seems as if they are cherry-picking what they want to report based on their own political opinions or agendas.

Specifically, this includes posting an article that features gubernatorial nominee, Stacey Abrams.

While it is evident that her opponent Brian Kemp has not come to Georgia Southern to speak, The George-Anne has missed opportunities to report on all sides of politics rather than just the liberal viewpoint.

Last year, the National Rifle Association came to Georgia Southern to hold an information session on campus carry, yet the only local news source to report this was WTOC. In a September article, The George-Anne visits the campus carry law again, yet the author of the article gathers more oppositional responses to the bill than support of it. This article also could misrepresent the true feelings of Georgia Southern students as a Twitter poll could easily skew numbers in favor of opposing the law, and there is no mention of the total number of students who voted in this poll.

It seems as if the most recent news article posted on The George-Anne’s website about Republicans was in 2016. Other articles that have been published more recently such as “The Greatest Show on Earth” and “Hollywood vs. The White House: Celebrities Caught in Trump’s Crosshairs” about President Trump are not news, but they are opinions or feature pieces. The students at GS deserve the facts, not biases based on potential affiliations or notions that politics are “boring” even if they are categorized in the opinions section. I want to read facts and opinions for all sides of the current issues, and I am sure I am not the only one.

The George-Anne should remember that they pride themselves on the inclusion of all students, and they should also remember their audience is composed of people with many differing opinions and viewpoints. I am not suggesting that The George-Anne reporters stop writing or publishing left-leaning pieces, but I am saying that reporting should be done as fairly as possible. At this moment, I see nothing of the sort. It does seem as if The George-Anne is just perpetuating the stereotype that liberal opinions and liberal-minded news has taken over the media and muddied the waters when it comes fair, balanced and accurate journalism. I think we can do better than that. I think the students of Georgia Southern deserve better than that.

Olivia Thompson

English major, minoring in political science