STAFF EDITORIAL
On Thursday, Jan. 31, our staff distributed the first issue of the second semester. Not even 24 hours later, approximately 415 newspapers had been stolen. The total loss of revenue was about $711.85, once the cost of advertisements and the papers that had disappeared were factored in.
On the front page of the stolen issues was a story regarding former student and football player, Demario Burnett. The news story was over Burnett’s arrest on suspicion of capital murder after a shooting that happened in Anniston, Alabama during a robbery on Thursday, Jan. 4.
The reasoning behind the stolen newspapers was that some students, Butler staff and coaches were unhappy with the front-page story. For two student athletes and a staff member, their method of protest was taking and disposing of the newspapers, seen on camera and by witnesses.
We, as journalists, understand that news is not always comfortable. News is not always good news- sometimes it is awful and hard to discuss. However, news is news, and it will be reported as such. The staff members of the Butler Lantern recognize ourselves as a newspaper, not the college’s public relations team. Our main concern is not to make good or bad reputations for the things we report on. Our only job is to report the truth. That’s it. We know that will make some people upset, and we are ok with that.
We, as a staff, value the accuracy of our stories. We do our best to gather accurate information from all of our sources. For example, in the Demario Burnett story in Issue 7, Butler Lantern Reporter Matthew Will went to numerous places for his information. His initial sources were news articles from The Anniston Star and AL.com, both credible news outlets near where the alleged murder took place. He also received emails from reporters at both news outlets with more information, receiving an official arrest warrant. Open records requests were filled, and many calls to the county clerk’s office were made. All the correct steps were taken to gather accurate information for this story.
Even with that being said, we are all human. We make mistakes, we forget a comma here and there and we spell things wrong from time to time. We work under strict deadlines with quick turnarounds. We stand by the stories we write, and we will own up to any mistakes we make. If we did something wrong, we want to know.
One way to voice feedback is through letters to the editor, information of which can be found on this very page, page 4, in the masthead. Much like the students who took our papers, sometimes we won’t agree with what’s said in letters to the editor, but we have a duty to publish the thoughts of the community. We’re also open through our email butler.lantern@gmail.com, and one-on-one meetings with concerned students or faculty. We want our paper to be a service to the students and faculty of the college, and the only way for that to be a reality is for the community to voice their opinions to us, and we continue to be open to those voices on a daily basis.