This week it was brought to our attention that a reporter for The Setonian fabricated the quotes and majors in an article that ran in last week’s paper.
We at The Setonian became aware of this after the subjects in this article reached out to us and said that they never spoke with this reporter.
The writer has been fired and is no longer welcome at the paper. In addition to this, the students who were misquoted have been apologized to and the story has been removed from The Setonian’s website. Our News, Campus Life and Sports editors have informed their respective staffs of this incident and warned them about fabricating information.
We are writing this week’s Voice to inform our readers about this incident and to comment on our ethics at the paper.
Fabricating any parts of a story, but especially the words of others, is under no circumstances acceptable. It completely undermines everything journalism stands for and makes the entire publication look bad. This is something we at the paper take very personally and are embarrassed this incident occurred.
Journalism requires a certain level of trust in order to thrive. Editors assign stories to writers and trust that they will interview and conduct themselves in a trustworthy manner. When this doesn’t happen, it’s extremely disheartening and we all feel the effects of it.
We view writing for The Setonian as a privilege and opportunity to develop essential reporting skills. Many of us at the paper are journalism majors. This is something we are hoping to turn into a career. We take this seriously. We at The Setonian behave professionally before we are professionals to pave a smooth transition into the media sphere.
On behalf of the entire editorial board, we sincerely apologize to our readers for this incident. We hope that this has not affected the faith you have in us to report the news. We promise to do better. As always, we vow to serve the Seton Hall community and the wider surrounding area by delivering the news with a sense of integrity, honesty and urgency in mind.
The Voice is intended to best represent the collective opinion of The Editorial Board. It is written by The Setonian’s Editor-in-Chief.
