Dellamalva's column shows 'flip disregard for facts'

This letter is addressed to Jill Dellamalva:

I am offended and outraged that the volume of response to your column on sexual harassment in the military ("Tolerance for sexual harassment in military is more than zero," Wildcat, Feb. 19) was casually dismissed as "spin-doctoring."

You received public and private invitations to meet with active-duty servicemen and women, to have the facts of the cases you doctored presented. With a smug endnote to your latest column, you brushed off men and women with 10, 20, even 30 years of experience in the matters you read a few headlines (but obviously nothing of substance) about.

You arrogantly imply that as "spin doctors," we have "submerged our own thoughts and feelings," and "do not represent ourselves, our integrity, or our moral values." By questioning my integrity, you have insulted me and lost my respect entirely.

Thousands of people work hard every day to maintain the military's standard of behavior at a higher level than that of American society in general.

I am truly embarrassed that someone with such a flip disregard for facts represents the university as a journalist.

By Koichi Takagi (letter)
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 10, 1997