william couch

Today, The Michigan Daily featured a great article in The Statement about Ted Kaczynski and his time here at the University of Michigan. What’s more important about this article, however, was that great journalism was at work. When Karl Stampfl, one of the Daily’s Managing News Editors, set out to write this article, he sent a letter directly to Ted Kacyznski in the penitentiary Kaczynski’s being held at in Colorado, to inquire directly from the source. Kaczynski replied with a letter and, impressively, also transcribed a copy of his autobiography written by him in 1979, not even omitting original mispellings or grammatical errors. From this, Karl reconstructed a semblance of the infamous Unabomber’s time at the University.

It’s impressive when a college newspaper sets its ambitions high, and when it does, an article such as this happens. I am partially biased though, as I work for the Daily, had the opportunity to design the centerspread for the story, and even got to see his handwritten response hands-on (at which point I scanned it and had them upload it with the article online), but regardless, that a student newspaper inquired from the source and was able to ellicit such a response from the Unabomber is something of which any newspaper could and should be proud.