20 hrs December 2, 2015  Sandy Robson

I usually think WWU’s The Western Front newspaper does a good job of its coverage on stories. However, I think this Dec. 1, 2015 article about the bail hearing for Tysen Campbell, who allegedly posted one or more online racially-charged threats against WWU’s AS President Belina Seare, is not a balanced article whatsoever, and it is inaccurate.

The article only mentions Ms. Seare two times; the first was to identify who the racially-charged threat was directed toward, and the second time she was mentioned, to the best of my knowledge, it was factually inaccurate/incorrect.

If I understand the statement written by The Western Front reporter, it was stated that there was a “no contact order issued against Associated Students President Belina Seare.” I imagine the reporter meant to state that the no contact order was in fact against Tysen Campbell, the WWU student who is alleged to have posted the racially-charged threat online.

Below are the two excerpts in which Ms. Seare was mentioned. These are the only two instances in which anything was said about Ms. Seare, yet she is the person who had a racially-charged threat of violence made against her. In reading the article, readers could easily perceive Tysen Campbell to be the injured party. It read like a human interest story about Tysen Campbell—about his family’s support/defense of him, his former girlfriend’s support/defense of him, his studies at WWU, his future, etc. Nothing was said to counter all of this pr about Mr. Tysen to provide readers with any information about Ms. Seare.
Here are those two excerpts:

“The post made on the social media app, Yik Yak, reportedly read ‘lynch her’ and was directed at Associated Students President Belina Seare. The comment was likely ‘sarcastic,’ his older brother Morgan Campbell said.”

“When questioned on whether Campbell would comply with the no contact order issued against Associated Students President Belina Seare, his attorney stated that Campbell ‘does not know who that individual is.'”
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Read Sandy’s complete post on her Facebook page here.