Next Time, Check the Facts

I am writing in reference to an article printed last Saturday stating that the prominent actor and activist, Edward James Olmos, is "...best known for his roles in the television series `L. A. Law' and the movie `Stand and Deliver.'"

This is incorrect. Olmos never appeared on "L. A. Law," but had a lead role in "Miami Vice."

In my three years of reading The Crimson, I have grown used to finding frequent factual errors. Usually, I simply find them annoying and attribute them to sloppy journalism. In this case, however, I find the error personally offensive.

I suspect the reason The Crimson attributed a role on "L. A. Law" to Olmos is because Jimmy Smits, another well-known Mexican-American actor, played a major character on "L. A. Law."

The only reasonable basis that The Crimson might have for confusing the accomplishments of Olmos and Smits is the fact that both actors are Mexican-American. In essence, The Crimson says that because the actors share a common ancestry, their individual accomplishments are indistinguishable.

Through this error, you have told the entire Mexican-American community that we are essentially the same, that one person's achievements can be attributed to another person without much thought. Of course, the editors will claim that this was not the case, but by not catching this mistake, you are proclaiming this attitude to all of Harvard.

Hopefully, this mistake is due more to poor journalism than to a writer or editor's callous disregard for the individual accomplishments of Mexican-Americans. Even if this is the case, I find it appalling that Crimson editors continually fail to catch blatant errors of fact.

An apology placed in a remove corner of the editorial pages will not suffice for this error. If The Crimson wants the respect it seems to think it deserves as our "Breakfast-Table Daily," it has to earn it by verifying the facts in each article, rather than assuming the readers won't know or care. Gabriella C. Gonzalez '93

Editors' Note: The Crimson regrets the error.