In the last issue of The Observer, two glaring faults should have caught the attention of our editors. First, much more sensitivity should have been shown to the Jesuit order in the “Observed” section. The remark linking the Jesuit order to the condoms provided by BC’s health insurance policy was both in poor taste and insensitive to the excellent work that so many Jesuits are accomplishing day in and day out in our community. It is clear that we, as a staff, need to be respectful of our mentors and spiritual guides moving forward.
Jesuits are daily in a difficult position because of the high expectations that society puts on our Catholic priests. We, as a community, unfairly expect them to be perfect in every respect. We cannot ask for perfection in reality, but we can encourage them to continue to achieve perfect effort in their daily activities. The Observer needs to be more sensitive to its role in the campus community and as a Catholic organization.
Secondly, a mistake was made on the front page of the last issue. The article entitled BC Health Insurance Covers Birth Control was poorly written in that it relied mainly upon one source. Unfortunately, that source was gravely mistaken. There is a reason why we encourage our writers to cite two independent sources on all information. While the source was very reliable, the more proper action would have been to allow the university to vet the article before publication if a second reliable source could not be found.
Obviously, responsibility for these errors begins at the top. New policies will be put into place in order to keep this from happening again. The executive staff will now be mandated to view the entire issue before its publication. Additionally, the news staff will be fact checking separately from the contributing writers to double check sources and prevent bad information from getting through to the BC community.
We also want to take this opportunity to thank the Boston College community for its patience and understanding in these matters as this publication continues to grow in both size and experience. We cannot promise that these will be the last mistakes that this organization makes, but we can promise that we will continue to be forthright and honestly attempt to make amends after each mistake is made.
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