First off, I would like to congratulate The Daily Collegian and James Panichi (a.k.a. John Plastered) for creating the world's first fiction newspaper.

At least I hope that is what Panichi and the Collegian were trying to accomplish in Monday's opinion column. Otherwise, this column was nothing more than a blatant malicious and libelous attack on the Greek system.

A basic law text defines libel as "publication of defamatory matter by permanent visual form, usually writing, printing or pictures." Well, there is little doubt that Panichi's column is defamatory and injurious to Penn State's Greeks. One would be hard pressed to find one passage of his writing that was not openly hostile, vicious or promoting negative Greek stereotypes.

As for damages from this libelous display, first, let us consider its contribution to the Greek community's negative perception of fraternities. For instance, consider all the support Greek philanthropies stand to lose if the community believes we all "behave like drunken, obnoxious, sexist animals."

Second, thanks to Panichi's negative portrayal, the Greek community stands to lose a large number of outstanding men and women. Not the potential bigots, alcoholics and rapists Panichi envisions, but people who could contribute to improving the Greek system and our university.

Thanks Panichi. Thanks a lot. Glad to see that you are upholding the Collegian's demanding standards of journalistic integrity.