“Setting
the Record Straight”
I was astounded and offended by
Fred Costa’s article, “Supporting slave labor,” published in April 23 issue of
the UTD Mercury. I found Mr. Costa’s remarks about the Student
Labor Coalition and its members insulting and ignorant. Publishing this piece shows a complete lack
of editorial competence and a reckless disregard for the truth by the student
newspaper.
In his article, Mr. Costa started
by telling us about slave labor camps in China and citing the number of its
nuclear warheads without reference to any sources. Then in an inexplicable leap, Mr. Costa concluded, “Don’t look
for help from the seemingly self-served Marxist leadership in the Student Labor
Coalition at UTD. When asked to comment about slave labor camps in China, the
president of SLC replied, “So what, there is slavery everywhere in the
world.”
Excuse me! The programs sponsored by the Student-Labor
Coalition have never addressed U.S-China military or trade difficulties. From where does this odd attack emerge? I believe, this is nothing but a sophomoric
attempt to use “rally around the flag” patriotism that has emerged in the
recent spy-plane incident to make derogatory remarks about a student organization. Mr. Costa’s habit of name calling, extreme
criticism without evidence, and manufacturing of evidence is not isolated to
this piece or to the Student-Labor coalition.
Last Fall he publicly called the Green Party the party of Nazis and
Communists (Nov. issue of Mercury)
and in a Student-Labor Coalition meeting last fall he was chided for insisting
that the PRI government of Mexico was a Marxist state!
As for the supposed “quote”
supporting slavery, this is simply fictitious and given its content, I find it
to be particularly malicious slander. I
never defended slavery in China or anywhere.
Given his general ignorance of political matters, it is possible that
Mr. Costa assumed that any organization dedicated to labor justice was just
another “commie” group under the influence of the Chinese regime. Of course this is nuts, but consider his
other positions. I do know that Mr.
Costa asked our faculty advisor to state a position for the organization and
our speakers at “Rethinking Globalization” on the U.S.-China trade
relations. To this question, he was
told that the speakers could state their own positions, and that the S-L
Coalition did not have a platform like a political party. Mr. Costa had gone fishing, and when he
found nothing, he invented a fish story.
Certainly journalists and
newspapers have a right to freedom, even the freedom to be wrong or biased, so
long as they honestly investigate issues and use reasonable editorial
standards. Neither seems to be the case in Mr. Costa’s stories. But, there is another issue here. When you call someone a Nazi or a Communist
or a supporter of slavery, you better be darn sure your facts are straight
because reputation and even personal safety is at stake. Mr. Costa's malicious fabrication is serious
misconduct that merits firm response from the University. What’s next? Will Mr. Costa take up the Middle-east crisis and feel free to
call the Arab students organizations “the seemingly self-served
terrorists”? What will he be allowed to
say about African-American, Hispanic, religious, and women’s organizations?
What brings the student organizers
of the Student-Labor Coalition together is passionate concern for ecology,
human rights, and peace. S-L Coalition
is not a political party and its goal is simply promoting environmental,
political, and social justice. Whatever
the limitations of our work over the past year, Professor John Kain, the
Director of the Green Center for Science and Society, called our conference on
globalization, “the most significant student activity I have come across in my
three years at UTD. Congratulations.”
The responsibility for Mr. Costa’s
misbehavior rests with the editors and board of the Mercury. And here I have an
explanation for the current lack of journalistic standards in our paper. Mr. Costa is a board member of the Mercury. He seems to have gained access to the student newspaper without
editorial review in order to push his personal vendetta against us. I request that Mr. Costa be removed from the
board and disciplined for his basic lack of integrity and that the Mercury investigate its journalistic
procedures and standards. I would also
like this letter published in full in the newspaper with a formal apology from
the Mercury to the Student-Labor
Coalition.
