Critical Badger has beef with our coverage of the District 8 race, arguing opinion has dropped the ball. In terms of coverage, yes. It has been minimal. But not without good reason. In the time since the Editorial Board’s endorsement of Eagon, Biddy Martin launched a massive – but necessary – increase in tuition, an alleged gang rape was brought to the attention of campus, and, conversely, nothing of significance has happened between the two candidates. There WAS a brave request to have Bob Marley play at Freakfest, but other than this laughable oversight, it is difficult for the page’s staff, myself included, to write columns on unchanging situations. In other races, where perhaps the cases of ridiculousness were more common, or at least more evenly distributed (Manning v. O’Hagan), it made sense to have more intense coverage.

But let’s be realistic. Nothing has happened since the endorsement. Eagon is the better candidate. Woulf, however, is not as stupid as O’Hagan. He is by no means worthy of the position, but then again, he’s not worthy of arbitrary columns that repeat ad absurdum points made over a month ago either.

Additionally, two endorsements of Eagon (one is forthcoming – sorry Woulf) from the editorial board and a column from Labuz strike me as effective coverage, given the fact that the election hasn’t taken place yet. It is Opinion’s responsibility to cover an issue, but if that is CB’s argument, then wouldn’t it be more effectively made by waiting to assess coverage AFTER the election? Yes, coming up with something 100 hours before is, I dunno, sudden. It’s also the time when people will read, care, and all those other things they’re supposed to do when they read opinion pages on issues they are used to, for the most part, ignoring.

And making the whimsical accusation that all we really give a damn about is “making you mad,” is, well, dumb. Especially if that accusation is made before the election has ended. Yes, the page should address substantial issues. It should also address them in times when people will give a shit, and only as much as they will give a shit, about. In short, we give a damn about making you read, and persuading you with what you read. Suggesting that District 8 could have been worthy of 10-20 editorials displays a surprising lack of understanding regarding what we do here.

I’m the last person to argue we’re perfect – there will inevitably be columns on the page that none of us are happy with printing. And there were a few that I would have been happy to see articles on District 8 replace – IF anything regarding that race had happened or was about to happen. Understanding the moment when our coverage will – and more importantly, will not – have the most influence is certainly not “sleeping on the job.”