“The role of the student-athlete is a highly visible one. It places the individual in full view of the public, who scrutinize the student-athlete’s behavior both on and off the playing surface. The student-athlete is a role model and is held to a higher standard.” Those words are the first sentences of the second paragraph of the student-athlete code of conduct that is signed by every UW-Platteville athlete. Being a student-athlete makes students public figures, and if or when that public figure makes a mistake it is the job of journalists at the Exponent to report the news fairly and accurately.

We try to cover anything that we think our readers care about. The diversity in coverage at this newspaper is evident to anyone who picks it up. The goal of trying to report the news on campus forces us to cover just about anything. And in this case, the news was that an All-American student-athlete was arrested for doing something wrong. It was within the scope of our sports or news coverage to report on this. Ryan Higgins is a friend of mine; he is a good person and he made a poor decision. Making Higgins a pariah is not what we aimed to do. A public figure had made a mistake and been arrested, and then it was our job as journalists to report on it.

At the Exponent, we give fair coverage to any student organization, good or bad. If any public figure had faced a similar situation, we would have covered it just the same. That is why in any story we publish we strive to be fair, accurate and complete.

We are human just like anyone else; we have had staff members grace the police blotter on similar charges as well and they did not receive preferential treatment as a result of their involvement with the Exponent, so we do not offer special treatment to anyone. Our goal is not to humiliate anyone or damage the credibility of people who are in the police blotter but only to report on issues on the UW-P campus.

French novelist Marguerite Duras once said, “Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It’s absolutely unavoidable. A journalist is someone who looks at the world and the way it works, someone who takes a close look at things every day and reports what she sees, someone who represents the world, the event, for others. She cannot do her work without judging what she sees.” This being said, it is impossible for us to do our job unless we forget about our personal feelings and do what is most important, report the news. It is our charge and we aim to do it as fairly as we can.