The March 25, 2010 edition of the DVC Inquirer asked its readers to continue the debate on ASDVC President Lindsay St. Hill’s “underwear scandal.” Is it appropriate to write about, or forgive the pun, “expose the issue?” Is it newsworthy or is tabloid sensationalism?

Students for a Democratic Society feel that is the duty of “muck raking” investigative journalism to go after the news and to hold elected officials accountable.

By running for student body president St. Hill has voluntarily placed herself in the public limelight and thus legitimately made her actions the subject of media and public scrutiny. The Inquirer has the right, maybe even the duty, to review and examine her behavior while she is in office representing DVC students.

That being said, SDS feels that St. Hill’s “underwear scandal” is overblown in importance.

It is of far more importance to us what role St. Hill plays in the student movement to “Save Public Education” than what she chooses to do in her free time, such as modeling with or without her lingerie on.

We are much more concerned about President St. Hill’s consistent blocking of SDS resolutions on building the student movement to “Save Public Education” and “Defend Free Speech.” For two semesters now, student activists have had to overcome St. Hill’s obstructionism to nearly every pro-active motion.

The Inquirer in its previous two issues has been exemplary in covering the student movement.

However, in this issue, the 15,000 strong student demonstration in Sacramento attended by a bus full of DVC students which should have been top of the fold, front page news, was not only pushed off the front page by the “underwear scandal” it was completely ignored.

This was a super important story that The Inquirer missed, unfortunately, this time The Inquirer let the students down.

At the Sacramento rally, President St. Hill was marching and carrying an SDS picket sign. This would have been a much more significant photo opportunity and story than her posing in her underwear.
 

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