To our readers:
April 29, 2004
In yesterday's Editorial/Opinion section of The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, a column titled "Pat Tillman is not a hero: he got what was coming to him" appeared. In the piece, graduate student Rene Gonzalez wrote about the death of former NFL player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman, who was killed during a skirmish in Afghanistan last Friday.
A flood of feedback has poured in, nearly all of which is harsh criticism of either Gonzalez's words or of The Collegian's decision to run the column. In fact, reader response has been so great that we would like to take this opportunity to respond to our readers.
Rene Gonzalez is a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts who occasionally submits columns to The Collegian. While his views in no way reflect the opinion of our editorial board or staff, we base our decisions not on whether we agree with the opinion of students submitting opinion pieces, but on the backbone of journalism: The First Amendment.
As a news organization, The Collegian lists the First Amendment as its most important value and asset. We do not hold back from printing news stories, columns or editorials that may upset our readership - instead, we seek to both inform and stir debate through our publication. Our decision to publish Gonzalez's column - an opinion piece written by a member of our campus community - is the only way for us to live up to this ideal.
One of the most important points that we at The Collegian want to stress to our readers is the nature of the Editorial/Opinion page. Not one columnist or student's opinion printed on our page represents that of the paper at large. Gonzalez's opinion is his own, and it runs under our pages as a single voice on our campus. The Editorial/Opinion page is designed to give a wide variety of students a chance to speak through a large-scale medium. With that comes the possibility of discourse and disagreement, and that is an accepted reality for us.
We would also like to draw attention to the fact that The Collegian has reported and commented on Tillman's death, and life, on a number of occasions in the last few days. Two columns written by editors on our staff have been published in praise of Tillman's life and his willingness to sacrifice it for what he believed in, including one column that ran on the page next to Gonzalez's. This was done intentionally, to display to our readers that we do not publish any opinion piece with more favor than any other - instead, we adhered to one of our missions: to create discussion, with dialogue on the merits of each argument.
The opinion of Gonzalez, though it dissented from that of the other two columns, deserved its space within the debate. Through the Web site feedback, phone calls and e-mails we have received, it has become very obvious to us at The Collegian that Gonzalez's opinion has caused a lot of controversy and frustration. We cannot, however, compromise the mission of our publication for the sake of ensuring the constant happiness of our readership. Gonzalez has just as much right to the opinion he presented as anyone else does, and we at The Collegian hope that this incident will foster a relationship with our readers that shows we are open to all opinions, not only the ones many people agree with.
We welcome all feedback on the issue, and hope that this represents growth in our relationship with you, the readers.
Sincerely,
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian Editorial Board
