If you haven’t heard by now, a Web site featuring pictures of Bowling Green students drinking and partying has caught the eye of the CBS Toledo WTOL. DrunkFalcons.com is a Web site dedicated to capturing the memories of the drunken nights, so you can see them in the morning even if you can’t remember them.

If you haven’t seen the newscast you can go to DrunkFalcons.com to view it. There were a few discrepancies I found in the newscast and felt that it needed some addressing.

First off I would like to make clear that I found over a dozen other sites from other universities just like this one, as well as other ones here in Bowling Green. It is not unique for any school to have sites like this, however CBS Toledo is treating it as such and is tarnishing the good name here at BG.

During the broadcast, Dr. Terry Rentner said this Web site is portraying partying in a dangerous light. A dangerous light? That seems a little harsh, unless pictures of people drinking are considered portraying partying in a dangerous light.

I could see if the Web site focused on single individuals being photographed drinking 10 beers in a row. But all I saw on the site was individuals bonging a beer or a beer in their hand making some funny poses. As a matter of fact a lot of the pictures I found show no alcoholic beverages being portrayed at all.

If this is portraying partying in a dangerous light, I’d like to know what partying in a positive light is. Perhaps it is a gathering of people sitting around drinking some pop and getting high off of pixy sticks, because we all know how much of a rush that can be.

The good doctor also said that the Web site is portraying all college students as binge drinkers, however I could not find anywhere in the web site where it said this. As a matter of fact after the newscast was aired there was a disclaimer saying how dangerous binge drinking is. Showing that the webmasters of this site are responsible individuals but didn’t think anyone would take this in the wrong light, and when some ignorant people found the site they assumed the worse and ran with it.

Dr. Rentner also said that the site is giving false perceptions and glorifying binge drinking. However the people that are going to these sites are not going on to do research about binge drinking, and if they are I suggest they find another means of research. Those that go to DrunkFalcons.com are merely going to it to see pictures of themselves or friends, or just to browse through and check it out.

Dr. Rentner further explained that by eliminating Web sites like these and taking away this perception, students will do better in school and live healthier lives. Wow — I didn’t know it was that simple to do better in school and live better, and all we have to do is take away a Web site. I wonder how she would solve other problems facing this country. Perhaps by taking away images of people getting killed on the nightly news, we could then get rid of all crime.

To be honest I am more disgusted that this news got covered over the thousands and probably millions of other problems that our nation is facing. Reports of Web sites showing college students drinking — is this what our standard of news has fallen to?

I think someone at CBS Toledo has been getting a little lazy if this is the most newsworthy event that they could find facing this community, state, or nation.

What gets me the most is that Dr. Rentner and the reporters make it sound as if we have no minds of our own and cannot judge for ourselves what this Web site is saying or better yet, what its not saying.

Anytime the media gets ahold of something — whether visual or audio — that may be a little provocative, someone always takes it upon themselves to tell us how this should or should not be viewed, as if we can not make an educated decision for ourselves.

I just hope next time something like this gets covered — because it will — the people doing the report have a little more confidence in the youth. We can make educated decisions for ourselves instead of placing the blame on scapegoats like Web sites.

E-mail Steve with comments at [email protected].