The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

From the Editor-in-Chief

Three weeks ago, our Editor-in-Chief (now Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus), Bill San Antonio published his weekly column about a high school classmate of his who died in a car accident.

The column, which ran with the headline “A statistic I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” implied that the person was drunk when he was in the accident. Bill talked about how his death reminded him of the dangers of drunk driving while paying homage to his life.
It was an emotional, heartfelt piece, ; it was also wrong. The man in question, it turned out, was not drunk; Newsday had reported so days before the Torch went to print.
It was an egregious error by Bill and a stunning lack of oversight from the previous editorial board, of which I was a part. How Bill – who often spends upwards of 10 hours researching his columns – failed to do what we were all taught in Intro to Journalism is a mystery; how nobody asked Bill if he had attempted to confirm the facts is equally puzzling.
It was a terrible mistake – one that upset a lot of people – but it was not an intentional error. Bill was distraught when he realized it, and has personally apologized to at least one of the people from his hometown that emailed him about it.
This doesn’t take away from the good work Bill has done in his time at the Torch. I personally have looked to him for guidance many times before this incident, and will continue to do so. It’s easy to make mistakes; it’s hard to own up to them, and Bill has done just that. His body of work should not be judged based on one lapse in judgment.
The new editorial board is taking steps to ensure that nothing like this happens again. Truth be told, it was a comedy of errors that will likely never happen again, but even so, we will never again forget one of the basic axioms in journalism – “ask, then ask again.”

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About the Contributor
Michael E. Cunniff, Editor-in-Chief
I'm Mike Cunniff, a junior journalism major and the sports editor here at the Torch. When I was a little kid, I decided I wanted to be a sports announcer when I grew up. I used to turn down the volume while my beloved Patriots played and do my best Greg Gumbel impression as Drew Bledsoe fired pass after pass into the waiting arms of opposing cornerbacks. That was my dream until I was about 14, when I realized that I had neither the dapper looks or silky baritone voice to warrant plastering my face all over television (and billboards, and magazine covers. Dare to dream, right?). I realized, when I wasn't plagiarizing Sparknotes when writing English essays (kidding, mostly) that I actually enjoyed writing, and decided that writing about sports suited me better than talking about them. My favorite sports to watch/cover are basketball and soccer. I actually used to be a halfway decent shooting guard back in the day, before I did my knee in the offseason before senior year. I still love all four Boston teams (the Revs don't count), as well as Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League (I talk about them too much). I'm probably better than you at FIFA 12. Outside of sports and journalism, I like The Office, Bagels 'N' Cream, road trips and karaoke. __________ I like to joke with Mike that he’d react the same way to the Zombie apocalypse as he would in covering a major news break on campus — which is to say he wouldn’t really react in any particular way at all. Nothing seems to phase him. Anything — ANYTHING — could happen on campus, and I am confident that Mike would lead the Torch in the best possible reportage for that story. He has already demonstrated that ability in his superb coverage of the Sports section, and I know that ability would translate in a much larger role next year. -Bill San Antonio Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus

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