Home Editorial The ‘Burnian regrets this error …but only if we know about it!

If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.

Margaret Atwood

The ‘Burnian regrets this error …but only if we know about it!

by 'Burnian Staff

Despite popular opinion, not all news is fake news, and we at The ‘Burnian have a simple mission: to develop our skill set and to make a difference in the Blackburn community by informing our readers about relevant topics.

We strive to bring you 100 percent accurate, unbiased and timely news. But sometimes we get it wrong. And this is where you as the reader come into play. We want to correct our mistakes, but we can only fix them if we know about them.

Sometimes we hear about our errors through the Blackburn rumor mill, which is not always a reliable source. Other times we overhear them in conversations not meant for us. On occasion, even President Comerford shares the news with us.

This past semester we ran a misleading headline, a few wrong facts and numerous stories that members of the Blackburn community (not to mention the Carlinville community) didn’t like or appreciate. We understand your frustrations and we want you to understand ours: We cannot improve and address our errors if we don’t know about them.

It’s worth mentioning that we are not the first or only publication to make mistakes. Everyday, The New York Times prints a list of their errors. They wouldn’t know about the mistakes if readers didn’t complain about them.

And that’s exactly what we are asking, inviting, begging you to do. Complain to us.

You can send us an email. Send us a message via our website. Call us. Talk to one of our editors. We want to hear from you.

Fun fact: Did you know that Blackburn College does not have a journalism program? That’s right. We maintain a staff of 12 tuition workers, including writers, a photographer, a website manager, designers, a social media manager and an advertising manager as well as several paid and volunteer writers. That’s quite the feat considering there is no journalism program offered at our institution. We are learning on the job and it isn’t always pretty. Unlike other jobs on campus, when we do something wrong, it can be publicly criticized in a way most other students never have to deal with.

Let’s remember that we are at college – a place of learning. Part of learning is failing and getting it wrong. Part of the campus community’s responsibility is to help us all improve. Blackburn College is an institution where students should feel safe learning about the world and developing their skills.

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