Courier

AS Vice President Marshall Roe

Vice President of Public Relations for Associated Students, Marshall Roe, has been poorly impersonated in a hate-infested blog, as well as in the Courier Web edition.

A blog entitled "America's Messenger" hosted by the site www.blogger.com disguises itself as being written by Roe. The subject matter of each blog entry attempts to profile the AS member as an intensely bigoted human being.

In a particularly hot-blooded late October post, the unknown author writes, "Americans should find a way to destroy homosexuality," and goes on to say "We should not allow [homosexuals] to live." The author also mentions, "The only punishment that fits the crime of being [homosexual] is burning at the stake."

Other posts villainize President-elect Barack Obama as an Islamic terrorist and make liberal use of the "N-bomb".

Roe says he's known of the blog for a couple of months, but he thought it had been deleted. On Wednesday, it was back up, and the motive or writer remains unknown.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was someone who has access to my office," said Roe.

To those who know Roe, these malicious comments could not be farther from capturing his true character.

"It is completely out of character for Marshall. He isn't a racist. Most of his friends are of a different race. The blog also points him out as a homophobe when he isn't at all like that," said vice president for cultural diversity Cristina Abadia.

USC student Ben Myers, who will be running for a Pasadena City Council seat with Roe as his campaign manager, seemed to agree that the blog was uncharacteristic of the Roe he knows.

"I have known Marshall for 10 years and I can say that he is definitely not a racist or a homophobe. The blog itself is just really disgusting," said Myers.

Roe made repeated mention of an ongoing personal dispute between himself and Adam Michael Kratt. Kratt was the vice president of public relations before Roe.

"A friend of mine talked to Kratt about the blog once, and that was when it disappeared. That is why I thought the blog had been pulled."

When asked about the blog for the first time Kratt replied:

"I knew about a blog a couple of months ago, but I was under the impression that it had been deleted. I remember that as it was happening, me and my friends discussed it and mutually decided that it couldn't have been written by the real Roe."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools