I read the Feb. 28 Daily Iowan “IC residents protest conservative speaker” with interest on speaker Vince Ellison and wondered how the line governing the DI’s student journalists’ 1. Personal Biases might be balanced with 2. Accepted Journalistic Best Practices.

A better “How-to” on leaving personal feelings at the door could be found, I am sure, but nonetheless, this seemed to be trying quite diligently to reach ad astra.

To wit, the AP Stylebook notes “Use the modifiers anti-abortion or abortion-rights,” so I am unsure when the DI ditched Best Practice and began inserting “reproductive health care” as neutral language, ahem.

Likewise, having a headline that ignored the speaker, the entire point, in favor of focusing on his opponents, the writer’s clear favorite.

Third, that the writer could not include a single quote by the speaker? But quoted, extensively, from a detractor?

Way to go, UI Journalism!

Mike Hohenbrink

Clermont