Before The Cavalier Daily published its Feb. 10 edition, the Managing Board scrutinized each sentence in a story about three Virginia football players who were charged with felony and misdemeanor crimes Tuesday. As a result, we were surprised by the heavy criticism from readers who were concerned with the article's content and presentation. To explain the paper's decision to run this piece, as well as the way in which it was presented, we have opted to respond to several of the most prominent complaints about our coverage.
The broadest charge has been that it was wrong to run the story in the first place. Although it is not The Cavalier Daily's responsibility to report on every crime students commit, this situation is particularly newsworthy because the individuals involved represent the University through their status on the football team. Coach Mike London acknowledged as much when he suspended the players on the grounds that "[they] know the expectations that I have for them as student-athletes both on and off the field, and as representatives of both the football program and the University." It certainly does not help the University's image to have a front-page story appear in The Cavalier Daily discussing assault and burglary charges against three football players, but given our role as an independent newspaper, we deemed it necessary to publish an accurate account of what occurred so fellow community members may know what is at stake.
Some also have argued The Cavalier Daily presented the news in a biased manner by running mug shots of the football players as well as by giving a one-sided account of the fight in which they were allegedly involved. We take these claims seriously, as they pertain to our journalistic integrity. The reality, however, is that we abided by standard practice in both our visual and textual presentation of the story. The Cavalier Daily was not alone in its decision to run the mug shots alongside the piece; for example, The Washington Post included the pictures in its coverage as well. Moreover, including the mug shots kept with a precedent that was applied during previous high-profile criminal cases. Whenever criminal conduct
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