An opinions column was published in the Jan. 30 edition of The Ferris State Torch about pro-life speaker Rebecca Kiessling, headlined “Shaming the Survivors.” The article accused Ms. Kiessling of saying that rapists do not deserve to be punished. This is false; she does not believe this and never said it. Instead Ms. Kiessling said that the children conceived in rape do not deserve to be punished.
On behalf of The Torch, we would like to apologize to Ms. Kiessling and the Ferris State community. Publishing false statements is unethical and is not up to the standard of The Ferris State Torch.
There was clearly a breakdown in our editing system prior to publishing the column in the Opinions section. Our values of truth and fairness were not upheld with this column being published with false statements. The column has been removed permanently online.
At The Torch, we truly believe that every opinion matters. In search of that goal there is no room for false accusations. All stories should contain information that is accurate.
The Torch welcomes Rebecca Kiessling and others holding various political and personal beliefs to speak on campus about controversial issues.
All Torch members involved with this matter will have disciplinary actions taken on an individual basis. The author of the article will be involved in two-weeks of mandatory training on media law and ethics. The author will not be writing any columns until the course is complete.
The Torch, as is the long-time tradition for reputable newspapers in our country, believes in correcting errors that may be unknowingly published. Thank you for your time.
If you have any questions in regards to this matter, please email me at torch@nullferris.edu.
Sincerely,
Mary Benson
Editor-in-Chief
I understand you want to make it quite clear to Rebecca’s groupies that an apology has been made, but I find it in a bit of bad taste to lambaste your writer like that. Yes, people want to know what happened, but I really don’t think it was necessary to pile it on so high.
Plus…that seems like a violation of internal policy… I know at my place of work, they wouldn’t state what happened if someone screwed up. They’d just say “action was taken.” Too each their own, I suppose?
I agree, if that was me, I would be quite upset that I was hung out to dry like that. Like Elizabeth stated, a statement such as “action was taken” is enough. Plus, isn’t it the editor’s job to catch things like this before they are posted? Will the editor be “punished” too?