A Facebook group of more than 100 people – called “We support Lonnie Ball!!” – emerged after The Reflector printed an article in the Feb. 16 edition about a stabbing in the cafeteria. We hope to clarify some of the facts about this article and why it was written the way it was.The article was based on what officers said about the situation. We understand that the words “criminals” and “thugs” can have negative connotations, but the newspaper didn’t make the statement. It came from a direct quote by MSU Police Detective Donald Bartlett. However, there was an error at the beginning of the statement that could have made it look like the writer’s words.
Many people have criticized us for running a mugshot of Ball, saying that we wouldn’t have run the picture if the incident involved a white person. We don’t care what color someone is. If we have the mugshot, we’re going to run it.
Rightfully, people have pointed out that when The Reflector reported a drunken driving incident last year, a mugshot of a white girl didn’t run. But what some people may not realize is that journalism is based in large part around time. In other words, we had time to find a picture for the stabbing story, whereas last year’s editorial staff didn’t for the other story. Sometimes the perceived biases in stories happen because of time restraints.
Another complaint was that the article about the drunk driving incident was treated with more sensitivity than the stabbing incident. This shouldn’t strike anyone as strange when you consider that the incident last year involved a dead student, not an injured one.
We would also like to note that we didn’t point to race at any point in the article. This article wasn’t about race but about an incident that doesn’t happen very often at Mississippi State.
The subdeck above the article mentioned a “violent outburst.” We have been criticized for using this term, but the phrase truthfully represents a stabbing in a public place.
The final line of the article has also been cited as inappropriate. While the line was removed from the online version of The Reflector, we feel that we should explain why the line was there in the first place. The line was addressing a rumor that had started around campus about the incident occurring because of a dispute over a certain food item. We only wanted to state that the facts about this hadn’t come in yet.
Finally, we would like to remind our readers that we didn’t say Ball was guilty of this crime. We used words like “allegedly” to imply that the incident hasn’t been fully investigated. However, it’s a fact that Ball was arrested and charged. It would be irresponsible of us not to report the arrest, even if Ball is indeed innocent. And if he actually stabbed the unidentified person, perhaps it was in self-defense. But as journalists, we can’t speculate in a news article like that. We can only report what has happened. Ball and the person who was stabbed were both unavailable for comments, so we weren’t trying to portray this story in a biased way.
We apologize for any misunderstandings about the intent behind the article. We didn’t set out to provide biased or prejudiced coverage of the event, and we appreciate all of the comments about this story. We ask you to keep in mind that we are students like you, and The Reflector is as much a learning experience as it is a newspaper. Please continue to let us know when you don’t agree with our reporting, because that’s one way we can improve as the voice of MSU students.
The Reflector editorial board is made up of opinion editor Jed Pressgrove, news editor Nathan Gregory, assistant news editor Erin Kourkounis, entertainment editor Aaron Burdette, sports editor R.J. Morgan, photo editor Bud Sorey, online editor Jocelyn Marcus, managing editor Sara McAdory and editor in chief Tyler Stewart.