To the editor:
Re: Ben Shapiro Isn’t Worth Your Money, published to the Crimson White on January 31st, 2019:
As the Secretary of the organization that is sponsoring this speaker, I am pleased to see that he is catching many people on campus’ attention. However, the author of this article seems to have done very little research on what the event actually is. She made many claims that lack factual integrity.
Young Americans for Freedom offered 63% of our tickets for free, including 10 free tickets to both the College Democrats and the Democratic Socialists of America organizations on campus, in hopes that we would have more than just Shapiro’s usual crowd attending the event. We also offered free seats to all of our veteran students.
The majority of our VIP seats were purchased by community members or politicians such as Secretary of State John Merrill.
The students who got a ticket (either a paid VIP or a general admission ticket) are guaranteed a seat at the event. We will not be asking students to stand.
This author states that the organization is charging an absurd amount of money for an event on campus, but the fact of the matter is that the University charged YAF $45,000 to book the room we are hosting him in. The addition funds we make will cover the costs of security (that is required by the University) and photographers for the event.
As a journalism major and a University of Alabama student, it concerns me that Crimson White reporters and editors are allowed to have by-lines that are so clearly un-researched and do not follow basic journalistic ethics. I know our C&IS college to be better than that, and I know our school holds their students and faculty to a higher standard.
No student is being forced to attend an event with a known conservative speaker, and no student is being forced to pay for a ticket to said event. Of course, this is an opinion article, which is perfectly acceptable and should be encouraged by news outlets. But if your opinion is stemmed from baseless and un-researched material, maybe you should think twice before putting your name on it.
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