Bias is a dirty word to journalists.
Yet the word has been used to describe Daily Newscoverage of Michael McKinney's death.
Following the incident, Daily News reporters spoke withmembers of McKinney's family, fraternity and friends, but whenreporters attempted to speak to Officer Robert Duplain or any otherofficer with University Police, UPD either could not be reached forcomment or did not have a statement prepared.
UPD's silence up until today's front page story isunderstandable. Events such as Saturday morning's are (thankfully)rare on our campus.
Words cannot be prepared for tragedies ahead of time.
UPD's delayed response does not constitute journalistic bias.Balance could not be ensured.
But the Daily News cannot always control readerperception — and it would be wrong to try.
So, reader opinion runs the gamut from questioning Duplain'scompetence to questioning McKinney's capacity for rational thought.Few readers are being fair and objective toward both parties.
The Daily News chose not to mention McKinney's previousarrests because a conviction — not an arrest — affirmsguilt, and no one has reported if a conviction record exists.McKinney's drinking arrests do not prove he was intoxicated at thetime of the incident. Only pending medical examinations can dothat.
Officer Duplain's qualifications can neither be determined fromone incident nor by passing judgment on how much training one needsto work for UPD.
Without all the facts, how can anyone form an opinion worthanything? Uninformed opinions are the most damaging of all.
Daily News online responses show how uninformed thepublic is — sadly, the majority are fudging facts andpointing fingers.
While the Daily News is the student newspaper, itsprimary concern is serving the entire campus community. AsPresident Blaine Brownell explained in his e-mail statement earlierthis week, this investigation will take several weeks — andnot all of the information will come to light at once.
Snap judgments and irrational responses stand in the way ofunderstanding Saturday morning's events and prevent us all fromlearning anything.
No one has all the facts yet. We would ask all readers to pleaseconsider that as we all continue to learn what happened.
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