The Daily Cougar made a terrible and inexcusable mistake Thursday. We printed a story in which the first sentence said, ‘Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the ‘Campus Gun Bill’ on Monday, one day after the 81st Legislature came to a close.’
Fact checking is one of the first things you learn about journalism. Unfortunately, several of us did not do this, resulting in a huge factual error. There is no excuse for this and our staff must face the angry letters and e-mails. We have no explanation other than a terrible fact-checking job by your truly, the editor in chief. Our credibility is not high right now, but we hope that you won’t turn your back on us.
The Daily Cougar has been a part of UH since 1934, but today is one of the lowest days in the history of the newspaper. At this point, all we can do is print a correction and fix the error on our Website. We are truly sorry for what is one of the biggest mistakes we have ever made.
I have failed as editor in chief, no matter how well I perform until I graduate. But, I hope to have put all of my mistakes behind me. I have only two editions under my belt as editor in chief, so bare with me while I improve a number of problems. Of course, earlier deadlines, more exclusive online content and less grammatical and style mistakes are pointless if you can’t get your facts straight.
No one feels worse than our staff. I hope that you will be forgiving and understand that we are students who are also learning. I completely understand the frustration that readers must feel, but no newspaper is perfect. The New York Times has made a ton of mistakes, but its readers have stuck with the newspaper through good and bad times. We hope you will do the same.
My staff and I would like to apologize to Gov. Rick Perry for displaying him as someone who did not support the bill. Perry has supported the bill from the day it was introduced, despite the great amount of opposition from officials at universities across the state. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Perry’s views, one must respect his allegiance to his ideals, values and beliefs. We hope our mistake was not an inconvenience to Perry or his staff.
I can’t say much else except we’re sorry. I made a huge mistake and do not deserve any support at the moment. If you have a device that can send me back in time, please allow me to use it. Our staff cannot believe we allowed this error to occur, but it did. We can only apologize, move on and continue to work hard and improve The Daily Cougar.
– Editor in Chief Matt Miller
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