Nicole's Editorials

Don't like a story? Just steal all the newspapers...

With the plethora of good news in the media world, I decided to try and find something more uplifting to blog about. I had no such luck, but I did find something quite interesting. A link on Romenesko lead to a story about The Univesity of Kentucky newspaper and a recent controversial article they ran in their newspaper, The Kentucky Kernel. Over 4,500 copies of the paper were stolen, likely because of the content of one of the stories.

The story in question is about a two students and an alumna who had died earlier this year in two separate incidents. The toxicology reports on the late students stated that they were legally drunk at the time of their death.

"'A lot of people have different opinions about how drinking is dangerous for students," Poore said.' I don't think there should be any argument about why that information should be out there for everybody to discuss. 'These are the kinds of issues that student papers need to cover if they're going to be vital to the campus community.'"

I've written a few controversial stories for our student newspaper, The Simpsonian, but nothing to this caliber. I do think that the families would have wanted the stories to be known, though, to possibly prevent another tragedy from becoming reality.

I congratulate Megan Boehnke, the writer of the story as well as editor in chief of the Kentucky Kernel, for standing her ground and running the story even after receiving numerous calls and emails. I do think it is sad that someone, or more likely some people, stole the newspapers. I hope those responsible are caught and are charged with the felony that they committed.

posted by clevergirl @ 9:43 PM