Letter to the Editor:
Maneater articles were complete, verified and accurate
Published Sept. 30, 2005
On Sept. 27, The Maneater published a story about the Department of Student Life investigating the Legion of Black Collegians student government for possible financial violations. The story referenced sources and quotes from a previous story published on Sept. 20. Consequently, LBC's executive board wrote a letter about The Maneater's coverage and published it in the form of an advertisement on page four of this issue.
The advertisement says the stories were incomplete and lacked journalistic integrity. Although we support LBC's right to their opinion, we want to reiterate that we stand by our stories. We are confident the stories were factually accurate and reported to the best of our ability. The Maneater has a strict accuracy policy that requires our reporters to confirm with sources the information and quotes we run. In regard to both stories, quotes were verified from each source and statistics were confirmed and re-confirmed.
These stories were subjected to the same scrutiny as all other stories we run in The Maneater. In a sense, this letter is trite because all of our stories should stand on their own, without requiring reaffirmation they are accurate.
If there's an investigation into where student fees are going, students have a right to know. As MU's student newspaper, it is our duty to report these stories.
For 50 years, The Maneater has investigated claims of violated policies by organizations, student leaders and even chancellors. We will continue to provide this public service, while maintaining journalistic standards of fairness, accuracy and impartiality.