I've experienced a lot of ups and downs in the journalism profession - it pretty much comes with the job.
One day people praise you for exposing the truth. The next, people criticize you and hate you for exposing the truth.
But I've experienced nothing lower than a run-in I had a couple weeks ago. I've been struggling to put this experience into words, but I feel strongly that I need to address it.
I received a very strong warning from a member of a student organization that if The Daily Helmsman did not retract and apologize for a story on the investigation of the murder of Taylor Bradford, then there would be a large movement that would proclaim that The Helmsman is a racist publication.
Now I don't really respond to threats, but this idea is altogether frightening.
It wouldn't be scary for a student to disagree with the article, but to inject racism into criticism of a story that was 100 percent true concerns me.
You see, to me, news and information is just that - news and information, and I feel strongly that everyone deserves to know for the sake of being well informed.
The U of M gets a big donation from an alumnus and plans to build a new building - we will report it. The U of M raises student fees without ever asking one student on this campus - we will report that, too.
But I will never withhold newsworthy information because of how a small group of people may perceive it.
In fact, that is the type of mentality I fight against everyday. The police, university and government officials - who feel it is best if the public is unaware of this or that because they might misunderstand it - believe you are not adult enough to comprehend some news.
But you do deserve to know. And you deserve to know as soon as possible.
So I wanted to use this space today to put into our archives that this newspaper will never suffer the threats of anyone, and we will continue to work every day to simply report the truth to the best of our ability.
I would wager that there is no other student organization, other than The Helmsman, that puts in more hours and knocks on more doors and makes more phone calls just to be able to tell you what is going on.
Every morning, there is a Helmsman waiting for students. Some use it just for the crossword, others may only read a thing or two. But it is always there for the students nonetheless.
Some mornings, I drag myself to campus and look down at the newsstand at the newspaper and wonder how we were ever able to get it there the night before.
So I hope others will keep this in mind before blindly labeling The Helmsman as a racist newspaper, because we are foremost and always a truth newspaper.
And the truth is a funny thing - it can be hurtful, confusing and scary. But in the end, we are always better for it.
