The State News editorial board has finally gone off the deep end.

Now, I realize that, seeing as how this is a college newspaper, it's expected that its opinions will be slanted to the left.

After four years of reading this paper, I would expect nothing less.

But last Friday the staff really outdid itself when it discarded all reason and entertained the ludicrous idea that a plane did not actually fly into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and that the U.S. government staged the attack ("9/11 Pentagon footage released," SN 5/19).

Now, I realize that George W. Bush is very unpopular among the members of the editorial staff, but are they so desperate to criticize this man, they will print these wild and outlandish fringe conspiracy theories?

What's next?

Will they endorse the idea that the collapse of the twin towers was a controlled demolition?

Or that the federal government blew up the levies in New Orleans?

Also, almost equally absurd is the idea that was put forth that "an undoubtedly significant portion of society has begun to believe that perhaps the U.S. government staged the incident entirely," a claim that is completely unsubstantiated and untrue.

By making these claims that border on paranoia, the editorial staff hurts the credibility of The State News and, by association, the university as well.

Joel Tripp
English senior