VIO | Blog Row

A recent article in The Flat Hat, entitled “Additional funds may have been misused,” discusses two otherwise unaccounted-for purchases made on the Student Assembly debit card to the amount of $13.08. Still recovering from the scandal of former SA Vice President Zach Pilchen (’09), I agree that it is troubling to see additional unknown purchases with the now-infamous SA debit card; moreover, the total dollar amount that was “stolen,” “embezzled,” “misappropriated,” etc., is completely irrelevant. Whether it be $13.08 or $130,800 should not make a difference — it is simply a matter of principle.

But I digress. The problems I have with this article have nothing to do with the numbers in question, but rather the borderline libelous statements made in this “news” article about Virginia Informer Editor in Chief and former SA Secretary of Finance Andrew Blasi (’10). The offending statements are things like:

Pilchen and then-Secretary of Finance Andrew Blasi ’10 have declined to disclose any information regarding these purchases. [...]

Blasi, who declined to comment for this article and would not release his presentations to The Flat Hat, resigned from his SA position last spring to serve as editor-in-chief of The Virginia Informer and was replaced as secretary of finance by Yael Gilboa ’11, who also declined to comment. [Emphasis added.]

This is a gross mischaracterization of the truth, something that, recently, a lot of people have come to expect from The Flat Hat. I am not going to speak for or defend Blasi, not because I doubt his complete innocence, but rather because it would be much more convincing coming from someone who is not himself an Informer editor.

For example, directly after this Flat Hat piece hit the stands — front page material, by the way — Senate Chairman Walter McClean (’09) issued a full statement, excerpted below:

What was unexpected are the attacks made before the investigation is complete. A bill is not active until it is signed into law. The Comprehensive Financial Investigation Act was reported as signed at the Senate Meeting September 9th, thus giving the Senate Finance Committee until September 30th to complete its investigation.

At that time, a full report will be issued about the expenditures on the SA account. Until that time, it has been decided that members of the SA Finance community should not comment on an ongoing investigation. This is standard practice to avoid bits and pieces of the evidence to be taken out of context.

I ask that when everyone sees the words “declined to comment“, that it is not a massive conspiracy, but rather a desire to preserve the integrity of the investigation. The cruelest reality is that some of the hardest working and most honorable people I know are being condemned for not remembering single transactions. [Emphasis added.]

I could be wrong but I THINK he’s talking about Andrew Blasi. Maybe I’m just not reading it correctly, because clearly it wouldn’t make sense for The Flat Hat to want to write a hit job and call it a news piece, right? That would be unethical, I think. It would behoove The Flat Hat to pick up a major lesson The Virginia Informer has learned over the years — save it for the opinion pages. It would probably be in The Flat Hat’s best interest to run a clarification / retraction / apology for their overtly misleading article if the SA investigation determines Mr. Blasi had no knowledge of or hand in these wrongdoings.

But what do other people think? A recent Informer article caught a few more SA perspectives:

The most notable event at Tuesday’s Student Assembly Senate meeting was the condemnation of recent Flat Hat Student Assembly coverage, voiced by several senators. Described as “a cheap shot” by Sen. Michael Douglass (’11), it was equally derided by Sens. Matt Beato (’09) and Walter McClean (’09), who is also the Senate’s chairman. Mr. Beato explained, with Flat Hat in hand, “I’ve been frustrated with The Flat Hat’s last few issues.…”

I think that’s putting it lightly. The Student Assembly is not exactly buddy-buddy with The Informer, so I think it speaks volumes when even they claim The Flat Hat is making the “hardest working and most honorable” among us look suspiciously like criminals.

[NCF]