We made it. It has been six days since we didn’t publish The Daily Tar Hell, and with the exception of one man who wrote to tell me he “died a little inside” due to the absence of the spoof paper, it appears life will go on.

Nevertheless, I’ve been told I “owe fans, students, and alumni an apology,” so if you are among those who share that sentiment, stop reading this now. 

I am not sorry, and I owe nothing to anyone who only picks up the paper once a year to read a joke edition. However, after having spent a week in the ninth circle of Daily Tar Hell, I would like to explain why I made the decision that landed me there. 

”Too busy”

Using Facebook comments, Tweets, letters to the editor, discussion boards and blog posts, perturbed students and alumni alike attacked my excuse that we were “too busy” to produce The DTH, calling it ”weak,” “shameful,” and a reason enough to fire the entire staff of the Technician “from the editor down the line.” Though I can’t say I agree with all of that, I’ll give them that it was “weak.” You see, the now-infamous “too busy” excuse was never the official explanation many people treated it to be. What it was, however, was an over-simplified answer given via Facebook message to the editor-in-chief of the The Daily Tar Heel, Nicole Comparato, who then tweeted the following:

@Nic_Comp: “A bit sad there’s no Daily Tar Hell from the Technician. The editor told me they were too busy to do it. Would have been so entertaining…”

Simply put, the reason my excuse sounded like a cop out is because it was. I didn’t feel as though I owed Comparato a detailed explanation, so I didn’t give her one.

During my time at the paper, I’ve learned the importance of the cliché: Consider your source. Hopefully, all of you who acted as though I hand delivered an explanation to you saying only “I’m too busy” will now see the value of that cliché as well. 

But let’s come back to the “too busy” excuse for a minute because while I’ll admit it is a little “weak” on its own, that doesn’t mean it’s not true. 

Wolfpack Nation has no shortage of armchair quarterbacks, but I had no idea we had so many armchair editors as well. 

I’ve been amazed by the amount I’ve learned about time management, the production schedule of the Technician and my own schedule, for that matter, since Wednesday, but what has truly made this eye-opening experience even more unbelievable—and I use that word literally—is that I’ve learned all of this from complete strangers, many of whom have no experience working for a newspaper. 

Yes, at first it was a bit shocking to learn I have been doing my job incorrectly every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdayand Thursday night this entire year, but I’m truly thankful for each and every letter I received telling me how to set my own priorities. 

By showing me what it looks like not to be “too busy,” each person who spent his or her time complaining about the lack of The Daily Tar Hell helped prove, by comparison, just how busy we really are at the Technician.

However, the truth is if I had nothing better to do than to twiddle my thumbs or troll the Wolfpack Students Facebook page, I would still be too busy to produce a spoof paper.

Why? Because that’s not my job, and anyone who thinks otherwise is mistaken. 

Nowhere does my job description say I am required to produce a paper mimicking The Daily Tar Heel. I didn’t decide to work for a newspaper to write jokes, and contrary to the beliefs of some people, neither did the majority of the editors who came before me.  

”But it’s a tradition”

Several people wrote to inform me that The Daily Tar Hell is a “prized tradition,” and “we have an inexcusable habit of letting traditions die at N.C. State.” However, in the case of The DTH, letting tradition die was entirely my intention. 

Last fall, while talking to a former editor of the Technician, I asked him about The Daily Tar Hell. After laughing and showing me The Tar Hells he helped produce, his demeanor changed. He warned me to be careful if I planned to publish the spoof and said he dodged a bullet. Without having to ask, I knew exactly what he was talking about after looking through his DTHs. The humor, if you can call it that, which the editions relied on was sexist, racist and most commonly homophobic. 

I began looking through the archive at other editions of The Daily Tar Hell and found that these discriminatory jokes continued well into the late ‘90s. Though the sexism, racism and homophobia fairly well disappeared at the start of the 2000s, the tradition of The DTH is one that will always  be rooted in hateful humor. 

The question shouldn’t be “Why did we kill The Daily Tar Hell?” it should be “Why did we continue it for as long as we did?”

One person wrote a letter in which he said, “The Daily Tar Hell is a tradition at N.C. State, and your entire staff should be ashamed.”

First of all, my entire staff is not to blame. I made the decision not to run The DTH, and I stand by it. Any further comments or concerns should be directed to me, not my staff.