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Eagle Media

Editorial Board: 3,000 newspapers go missing on campus

Editorial+Board%3A+3%2C000+newspapers+go+missing+on+campus

Last week, almost 3,000 copies of Eagle News, apparently were stolen from newsstands around campus. Three thousand copies gone in just 12 hours. We know we’re wonderful, but please, they don’t go that fast.
As journalists and as a newspaper, it’s natural for us to receive backlash and scrutiny for the things we publish.
We, the editorial staff at Eagle News, are not cheerleaders. We are not only here to pump up the student body with articles about “Dunk City” and the new beautiful library lawn.
We are a registered student organization preparing for our future careers. We strive to bring the student body news, not just what may be considered “good news,” but all news.
We bring you pieces about entertainment and campus happenings. We report news about FGCU athletics, not only games won. We include an entire section dedicated to opinions varying from people walking around barefoot on campus to the pros and cons of Greek life. We often receive agreement or disagreement with opinion pieces.
However, anything that is deemed “newsworthy” deserves a piece in Eagle News. As any news organization, there are accusations of bias and spin. However, we are simply here to report to the student body. We don’t want the students of FGCU to think that they will pick up a copy of Eagle News and expect anything less than what they would expect from any other newspaper.
We have found ourselves in an awkward position the past week that we have never experienced before.
We have had to take a stand for the RSO that we believe in. Our stand is against crime. We reported last year about an FGCU student who is accused of murder. We reported about rape and sexual assault by an FGCU student. We will continue to report about crime. This time the crime that has occurred is against us.
We work very hard to put together the best possible newspaper for the student body. We expect that much of the student body reads Eagle News and likes to be informed.
When the students no longer have access to walk to any newsstand on campus and pick up their copy of Eagle News, we are offended. Offended is not the only word that can describe how we, the editorial staff, as well as our writers and photographers, feel.
We are hurt, distressed and in crisis mode. We were unable to reach the student body with news during the first week of the academic year. First-time writers and photographers were unable to get copies of their first printed publications. The students at FGCU were unable to read about the campus news during the first week of the school year.
This is a serious offense not only to us at Eagle News but to you, the students.
A portion of your tuition money is what pays to support RSOs such as Eagle News. Essentially, that money that you put towards printing last week’s issue of the paper has been stolen. If someone stole that money directly out of your pocket, you would be in uproar.
So there isn’t any difference to us. We feel like something was stolen from us: money and hard work.
Another aspect of Eagle News is our advertisers. We had many new advertisers in the Aug. 20 edition of Eagle News and those ads will never be viewed by the people who could use them.
Students have spent an entire week not knowing that Pita Pit is having a “Welcome Back” week where they are offering buy one, get one free until Aug. 29. Those advertisers were also robbed of the money they spent to advertise in printed issues of Eagle News.
We take journalism very seriously. We would not be intending to spend the rest of our lives standing for journalism and its practices if we didn’t take it as seriously as we do.
Therefore, we support the investigation by the university police department. UPD is looking into security camera footage and investigating this matter. When the culprit or culprits are found, Eagle News plans to prosecute said party to the fullest extent.
In the state of Florida, a third-degree felony of grand theft requires that the theft be in an amount between $300 and $20,000.
It costs more than $300 to print a week’s worth of issues of Eagle News. Ergo, when the person or people who committed this act are found, we trust in the campus judicial system to prosecute accordingly.
This is not something that will get brushed under the carpet and ignored. It is a big deal and will remain a big deal until the investigation is concluded.
 

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