Campus Carrier Editorial Board
The Carrier has received a lot of feedback from the news story about the Dawsey girls, mainly negative. We have seemed to offend some of our audience, and we apologize, but we have reasons for publishing.
The role of the press is to educate their audiences. The first point in Society of Professional Journalist’s code of ethics is to seek the truth and report the news. So truth we sought from legal sources and legal records that are public to everyone. We did not misinform our audience. Unfortunately, what’s in the news isn’t always what you want to hear, but that’s journalism.
With the Dawseys being well known around the campus, the story hits a personal nerve. We are aware of that, but the point of the article was to inform of what happened, not to change your viewpoint on them. So, we have not ruined their reputations by publishing news. We did not defame the Dawseys. Defamation means slander or libel, which were both not a part of the story we published.
The girls are not infamous on Berry’s campus because we reported news. We did not accuse them of being guilty of innocent. This story was published all throughout Georgia and other southern states. We are not maximizing harm by clarifying the news that is known to everyone, since again, it is on public record.
The other issue expressed about this story was that the Dawseys’ yearbook photos were included. Their photos have been used in other newspapers, usually their mug shots. We had to include their photos because we can’t assume everyone knows who they are. Since they are local people, the photos had to be included to educate the reader.
Also, a reason for using pictures for this story and not the marijuana incident in Poland on Nov. 8 is because this is a felony while the Poland incident is a misdemeanor. We don’t know if the felony is true, but it’s still a formal charge. That’s why it was covered across the state and beyond.
Berry published news to inform our audience and we didn’t sugarcoat the truth. That’s Journalism.