THE WAY I SEE IT

"I think we all wish we could erase some dark times in our lives. But all of life's experiences, bad and good, make you who you are. Erasing any of life's experiences would be a great mistake"  -- Luis Miguel.

This quote brought so much light to my day after an irreversible mistake was made by The News Argus staff Jan. 13.

At about 11 p.m.  someone called  me and said a Winston-Salem State student had been stabbed.

I sent an e-mail message about what I had heard to the Argus online producer who posted it as a "breaking news" headline as about 1:30 a.m.  The headline was removed four hours later, when we realized we had made a serious mistake. It was not meant to be posted -- without confirmation.

There was miscommunication between the editors.

An official account of the student's death was sent via e-mail to the University community on behalf of Chancellor Reaves Jan. 13.

All media -- newspapers, television, radio and online news -- make mistakes every day, and while that doesn't make our mistake okay; it is a part of the learning process.

The News Argus has been a long-standing, credible source of news at this institution for almost 50 years delivering accurate and relevant information to WSSU, the city of Winston-Salem and the world. We feel privileged to be members of a publication with such a rich heritage.

The Argus staff is not in the business of reporting rumors. We have been educated better than that by our mass communications professors.

   Our journalistic instinct wants to get the story first. But our humanistic instinct is to get the story right. This time we listened to the wrong instinct.

We have all learned so much from this unfortunate experience,  and we hope to grow stronger as a staff and student publication.

If we ever make a mistake, in print or online, please let us know and we can publish a correction in the "How Did We Miss That?" section.

We really appreciate our readers and hope we continue to have the support of them, the University and the Winston-Salem community.