New editor-in-chief demands crediblity and truthfulness in reporting
September 4, 2007
Jason Mann
“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.”
I wasn’t fully able to appreciate the wisdom in Edward R. Murrow’s words the first time I heard this quote from him, but the more time I spend in the world of journalism, the more I realize his genius. In one fairly simple sentence, Murrow, one of the greatest broadcast journalists of all time, sums up an axiom that should be at the core of every good journalism school’s curriculum and in the heart of every great journalist.
As the editor-in-chief of The Collegian, I want you to know that this is an ideal instilled in our newspaper, from the most basic of articles to any and all advertisements. In everything we print this year, we will strive to be as accurate as humanly possible so that you know you can trust us. We will do our best to deliver to you the real stories about life in Brookings and at SDSU, no matter who tries to keep us quiet. We will do everything in our power to give you all the facts about current and controversial social issues so that you can make an informed decision without being swayed by the decisions The Collegian staff has already made for themselves.
As editor-in-chief, the burden of keeping The Collegian accountable to the promises we make to our readers rests on my shoulders. If we fail to live up to the expectations you should hold us to, then I have failed. With this in mind however, please realize we are human. I can guarantee that you will find mistakes in our paper-misspelled words, missing punctuation and maybe even identifying someone with the wrong name; every media outlet in the world has these screw-ups, from the Argus Leader to The New York Times to CNN. What I hope you never find is an error in fact, which would rightfully hurt our credibility and our relationship with you.
The Collegian staff isn’t made up of a bunch of future newspaper reporters. While we do have a majority of news editorial majors, we’ve grown to include students from across the board. Our sports editor is at SDSU to study history, and the “Juice” editor is studying theatre. I myself am a broadcast journalism major. The Collegian is becoming what a news outlet should be-a voice for the people. We want to know what you want to read. We want to reach out and cover all nine colleges within SDSU, not just three or four of them, as well as Brookings and the state of South Dakota. But we need your help. What issues are important to you? Does your club or team have an event coming up that you feel we should be writing about? Do you have story ideas? LET US KNOW! Let someone on staff know about your event with a couple weeks notice, and if the staff considers it newsworthy, we’ll do our damnedest to make sure the entire student body reads about it.
I’m excited about this year. Big things are happening in our little community, and I can’t wait to tell you about them. Damn the torpedoes, and full speed ahead-welcome back to SDSU.