Once again there has been another example of how The Hatchet leans toward a liberal bias.

An article (“Students protest controversial CR speaker,” p. 8) in last Thursday’s paper about the College Republicans’ event with Congressman Bob Barr, who had to postpone his speech due to a vote on campaign finance, focused on the protest of the ad hoc group called Students United Against Bob Barr – comprised mainly of members from the Progressive Student Union. Unlike an article in the same edition of the paper concerning how well the College Democrats’ event went, the paper chose to focus on the negative aspects of the College Republicans’ event.

For example, the paper failed to report that approximately 150 students attended the event and were not deterred by the protesters. Also, the article failed to mention the many upcoming events like the campaign trip to Virginia, the Christian Coalition Conference in October, and the continuation of the Congressional Speaker Series. These announcements were left out in order to focus on the negative rather than the positive.

Contrary to the quote printed in the article concerning the protest by the ad hoc group, the College Republicans believes everyone has the right to free speech, and we encourage the exercise of this right. We are thankful for the respect the protesters showed our members, and we do not discourage groups from attending our events or respectfully asking questions of our speakers. We believe this stimulates participation from the GW community and creates a forum for opposing opinions to be discussed. The College Republicans enjoys bringing speakers to campus who are interesting and compel students to get involved, whether that involvement includes attending the events or voicing opinions through protesting.

During the past three years, the College Republicans has grown from a small group of dedicated Republicans to an organization that boasts more than 300 members, making it the largest conservative group on campus. There has been a rise of conservatism on the campus the past few years, and we believe this should be acknowledged by the school paper with unbiased reporting.

– The writer is vice chairman of the GW College Republicans.