Mixed-Up Timothy Egan Article in NY Times

Timothy Egan's January 7, 2007 article "Little Asia on the Hill" in the New York Times is itself fairly confused -- mentioning statistics of Asian Americans in California universities, campus food options, the social lives of Asian Americans on those campuses, other minority groups' percentages. Seems like the reporter just quotes here and there without putting together a coherent point, relaying controversial views but neither analyzing nor confirming whether any of them have any support for what they think. Welcome to the babel of opposing views.

Even worse, the photographer put a picture that seems to focus only on Asian Americans from East Asia (despite the reporter's words) and the graphic designer drew a table titled "East Meets West" even though the reporter wrote that the Asian Americans are mainly Americans. So there is nothing East about them. Unless the person writing the graphic meant to say East meets Central-Europe? The poor titling shows how bad the entire piece and editorial work is. The article is, as the author says while referring to something else, "a disaster." It's only point seems to question Asian Americans while throwing contradictory statistics and unfounded argument. No idea where he got the idea that a public university is supposed to be a microcosm or what he even really means, other than to toss around an empty catch-phrase.