Tell me this is all a Punk’d episode.

The Sun is unhappy that Dr. Welch’s response (which was sent to Dr. Gilbert before other venues) was put out in the wild for anyone to see.

News does not begin and end with the Paducah based company running the Sun.

It is not the duty of Arkansas State nor Chuck Welch to stand and take the hits and not answer or clarify. We the taxpayers funding the university, we the alumni of the university deserve to hear what AState’s leadership’s response is. AStateNation provided an unfiltered avenue. There was no picking or choosing of quotes to shape the narrative.

The Sun apparently lacked space to permit Dr. Welch his chance to be heard. The paper found ample space for an unhappy faculty member who claims there is no way to reach Dr. Welch when his contact information is easily found online.

The Paducah paper found more space for an individual lauding Dr. Wyatt… yes the same former head of the university who was the subject of negative press regarding his financial ties to an online teaching provider doing business with AState. Remember Dr. Wyatt? He’s the president who gave AState 54 days notice that he was cashing in with the online company (lesson learned, Dr. Welch’s contract requires 120 days notice). He then came back to AState for a nice paying gig while still getting paid by the online provider. No one remembers the questions raised about the ethics of all that???

The sneering quote from Dr. Gilbert stating that the university cares more about athletic supporters than the faculty, sets a vile tone.

The members at AState Nation are overwhelmingly alumni of Arkansas State University, but piss on them because they like athletics. Such a dastardly crime makes you the readers of this site unworthy to care about Arkansas State (or maybe Wessel just hosed Dr. Gilbert with selective quoting to make him look like a snob).

Those athletic supporters give money to academic pursuits, most have an AState diploma hanging in their office, but more importantly they are mostly taxpayers in Arkansas and much more receptive to the needs of higher education than the average voter. This is the 21st century and so far no one has lost an election in this century for cutting higher education funding or trying to limit academic freedom. Slapping alumni who could be allies because they are sports fans is insanity.

The Sun isn’t happy it doesn’t get to pick and choose what you get to read. When you start mountain construction over the public getting to read something the paper didn’t want to print, all the evidence is there that they want to keep you in the dark and feed you BS.

Mr. Wessel though has provided a nice service though. Traffic is already up today.

We appreciate the endorsement and some of your readers are discovering that they can get better AState coverage for a fraction of the price thanks to your unhappiness over losing the monopoly of access to NEA readers. The users of the site frequently get unfiltered, unedited access to the comments of AState players, coaches, and administrators rather than being told what the gist of it all is.

Please Mr. Wessel keep stomping your feet and pouting, keep on showing no shred of balance, you are great for business.