Megan,

After reading both of the articles you have published, on behalf of all of the decent Cougs out there, I am sorry for all of the hateful remarks made towards you. All of the cyberbullying, phone calls, and derogatory terms used against you were completely uncalled for, and do not represent the majority of our student body, nor our fan base.

However, it is deeply upsetting that in both articles, you still are unaware of the differences between the opinions of a journalist/writer for a sports publication and the opinions of a fan who doesn’t understand how to conduct themselves in a socially acceptable manner.

Your comments weren’t upsetting because of your insults towards our football team, even though they lacked fact and research. Your article was upsetting because it was offensive to over 30,000 people who currently inhabit Pullman and many others who have lived here in the past. You didn’t just insult our football team. You insulted our history, our culture, and our way of life, all while lacking any facts to back up your claims (an extremely important part of journalistic writing).

We have a phrase at Washington State University: “Cougs look out for Cougs.” Our community works to make sure that everyone is taken care of, regardless of their circumstance. This doesn’t mean that we exclusively protect Cougs. Even though you insulted our student body without reason or grounds, many students after finding out the extent of how people treated you are speaking up for you.

Note: You insulted an entire town, yet we still are defending you.

We do not condone the horrible things you were called, nor do we condone the cyberstalking or the harassment.

As Cougs, we understand the difference between informing someone of incorrect remarks and making blatantly hateful comments. We Cougs understand that although your words were extremely offensive (far beyond the lines of the “trash-talk [that] is a part of sports.”), calling you obscene things and harassing you via the internet is far from acceptable.

Our student body, however, does hope that you will learn to practice journalistic integrity in the future. We are aware of the fact that football teams receive trash-talk, and we accept that. Our football team hasn’t had the best run in the last few years. We are improving, but we are also aware that we have a long way to go until we regain a decent reputation. We’re still capable of laughing at ourselves, and willing to stand outside in freezing temperatures to let our team know that although they’re not the best, we love them anyway. We were fine with your comments towards our team, even though a good portion of them were quite inaccurate.

Please, Megan, in the future, learn to separate your rude, harassing comments from your sports opinions. Make those of us who are standing up for you happy to have done so.

We will continue to defend you to those making hateful and sexist remarks, regardless of your decision on whether or not to continue with your hateful writings.

All we ask is that someday, you learn the difference between insulting a sports team and insulting a community.

Thank you,

Tesia Lingenfelter

Student | Washington State University

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P.S. for those who have not read the original articles:

The original post can be found here: http://m.thepostgame.com/blog/loyalty-report/201311/arizona-wildcats-washington-state-cougars-college-football-battle-loyale

And her follow-up after receiving the responses can be found here: http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2013/11/cyberbullying-enough-is-enough