Just doing our job

Seek the truth and report it; when a story falls in your lap, follow it. These are the basic principles taught in every journalism class. This is exactly what Stampede reporters and editors did with the “Suspicious remnants discovered” article in the last print edition (Feb. 10), telling of pressure bomb remains found near the Post Office.

Since then, the responses we received to this article haves varied. Many students and faculty complimented us on the thoroughness and fairness in reporting the details. Others showed extreme disrespect for The Stampede and its editors, including at least one case of stealing and defacing copies of the paper.

We ran the article because it covered a newsworthy event that affected Milligan students. What happens on Milligan campus IS the business of the students. We should be concerned as a student body about our fellow students and the happenings here in our little community. The purpose of a newspaper anywhere, not just a campus newspaper, is to report events in a fair manner.

The Stampede reporters and editors confirmed every piece of information we received and published. We carefully considered each word in the article and deleted anything that could be considered malicious or couldn’t be confirmed. We did this because, as journalists, our intention is not to mislead readers or fabricate stories.

While editing the story, I contacted Mark Fox, Kim Parker, Roger Armstrong and deputy officers from the Elizabethton Police Department. As the article said, there was no police report to confirm Roger Armstrong’s story. We decided to hold the story for a week to gain more time to confirm details and gather additional information. My attempts to confirm our information by the deputy officers proved fruitless because they did not respond to voice messages.

Every person involved in this incident had the opportunity to comment. There was miscommunication between The Stampede and the four students fined in this incident, but they still had the opportunity to comment.

However, the miscommunication has been cleared up and the students agreed to freely speak on the record. Their story is in this week’s edition (p. 2, “Suspicious remnants explained”).

The Stampede does not exist to be a public-relations department, nor to simply recap the week’s sporting events. The Stampede exists to give students hands-on training for a career in which they are interested. This experience is much like student teaching for education students or clinicals for nursing students. Professors prepare future journalists to report news in an accurate and honorable manner.

Anyone should feel free to submit a letter to the editor or a guest editorial, particularly those who disagree with, or are offended by, something they see in The Stampede.