The past few weeks have certainly been interesting. We have covered more news than I have seen in my entire Minaret career. There have been arrests, rearranged leadership, new organizations, political visits and more. We have seen it all.
We have drawn little serious criticism until an issue was released this morning. In this weekly release, we expanded on a breaking news story we released last Friday about four UT students who were arrested for breaking into cars at the USF game. We also covered a pair of students arrested in Ybor City, one for battering a police officer, and both for obstructing an officer. We published an article about a student accused by another student of battery and false imprisonment. We covered the 2007 murder of a student, which has drawn the most criticism.
Much of the negativity surrounds 64 words of the total 1,111words in the article. Samantha MacQuilliam died in 2007, allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend, Matthew Dieterle. The two had an on-again, off-again relationship for three years, according to her mother. Dieterle also had an arrest record longer than your arm, which MacQuilliam’s mother had no idea about.
As part one of a three-part series highlight Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, we published the article, authored by myself, editor-in-chief Peter Arrabal, highlighting the life and death of the young student. Her mother and cousin expounded greatly on her life and her past. They told stories about her childhood in a three-hour interview at MacQuilliam’s mother’s house in Gambrills, Md.
As part of our coverage, we compiled quotes from e-mails, calls and comments left on our Web site from the initial series of stories on her murder from 2007. Many of them included an aspect of MacQuilliam’s life that was not mentioned by her mother and cousin and friends. The quote used in the story was one that struck a common chord among all the comments — that MacQuilliam’s whole story isn’t told by her family and friends.
We did not seek to put a negative light on MacQuilliam’s life. We did not seek to say it was her fault she was murdered, nor that she deserved it. No one deserves to die. Samy MacQuilliam did not deserve to die.
The article published was a balanced view of who this fellow student was. Many people on campus had no idea that a student was murdered last year as a result of alleged domestic violence.
The point of the article was certainly not to say she was responsible for her own death. One of the most interesting parts of authoring it was that her mother had no idea about much of their relationship. She had no idea he had a police record that involved a number of felony arrests, or that he had spent time in jail. She had no idea that he was arrested multiple times in Florida. She had no idea that they were even together anymore. Certainly, no person can know everything that occurs in their child’s life, and that includes the matter quoted.
We don’t pretend to know what happened between the two of them. What we published is a balanced account provided by many people. We leave it up to the reader to ascertain the truth.
I can’t say this enough: we will print what we know. We will correct what is wrong. In this article, we have found a mistake where we said that Matthew was arrested in Maryland in June. He was arrested in Florida, and we have corrected it after it was brought to our attention.
I welcome comments, criticisms and complaints. It is part of the process of being a journalist. I am always available via e-mail at parrabal@gmail.com and you may also set up a meeting with me in The Minaret office.
I stand by my story. If I am proven wrong, I will gladly and humbly correct what was wrong.
– Peter Arrabal
1 Comment
October 9, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Peter,
You are still wrong on a few issues. I highly doubt you received multiple comments regarding the well being of their relationship. And if you did at all it was not directed towards Samantha. I lived in a house with the both of them. I saw the relationship live in front of me. I did not see abuse, it was hidden. And i did not see Samy flaunting in front of Matthew. I had numerous conversations with the both of them about what occured between the two of them leading up to their break up. You published false rumors not quotes. Because your email was fluttered with opinions and not facts you decide its in the best interest to print an article with these rumors? I personally think that is unprofessional. You were intending to shine light on an issue from the past and I understand that. But you did a horrible job at it. You say the accusations were only published because of the continuing comments you received regarding the issue. Did you not get flooded with comments on the good of Samy? Im sure those comments out weigh the bad 99.9%. But yet you took it upon yourself to point out only the bad. There is not a single quote in this article shining positive light on Samantha, except for the interview between her mother, ashley, and yourself. Like i said if you really did receive these comments regarding the rumors, what made you think those comments were worth being published over all the positive things people had to say about this beautiful young girl. You really really REALLY need to do a huge self evaluation and think about where you may be headed before you make any decisions to enter journalism…if thats where you intend to go. This article is complete crap and the follow up article correcting your mistakes is even more crap.