A note from the editors

In the last few weeks, “The Courier” has faced some criticism from our readers, mostly in regards to our use, once again, of anonymous sources and one of our editorial cartoons.

First, the editorial staff would like to reiterate what was said in a previous editorial on this subject. We sometimes allow our sources to remain anonymous to protect their privacy. If we did not guarantee these sources anonymity, people would no longer come forward with information for fear of the potential ramifications. When people do not come forward with information, we cannot present our readers with as much information as possible.

While we do use confidential sources, we also check very carefully to ensure that what those sources tell us can be corroborated by other sources, and that our sources were present at whatever event is in question. A reader wrote us in our last issue that our source for the article entitled “Risky business” (Nov. 10) “obviously cannot know what actually happened.” That source was present at the party, and gave the staff his or her version of events. With the large number of people in attendance at that particular party, it is possible there were many things happening at once, and not everyone in attendance knew everything which was happening.

We have also come under some scrutiny for one of our editorial cartoons, entitled “Recruitment” (Nov. 10). In the cartoon, our artists depicted a prospective student being handed a football by a coach not meant, in any way, to resemble any of the Monmouth College coaches. The student did not want to play football, but the coach did not listen.

This cartoon caught some criticism for using stereotypes, but that is one of the purposes of editorial cartoons. Editorial cartoons are meant to find a part of any society which the creator feels needs to be changed, for any reason whatsoever, and the creator uses humor to make readers aware of the problem. Humor, when used properly, is one of the most powerful ways of enacting change, or at the very least, awareness. That is all the staff of “The Courier” hopes to do in our editorial cartoons, as well as in our editorials.

We want to show the student body the potential problems within the college, and sometimes simply writing an article does not raise enough awareness. If we can get our readers to laugh a little, we may plant the seeds of change in the minds of the students.

It is not enough for us to report the news, we sometimes need to explain why we do the things we do. That way, everyone can know what we are trying to achieve and can potentially understand the ways in which we operate our newspaper.