I believe it’s time to clear a few things up.
To say that last week’s editorial caused a stir on the Internet would be a severe understatement. Based on our opinion written about the Nicholls Confessions Facebook page last week, my staff and I have been accused of bias, jealousy, slander, libel, blackmail, extortion and overall poor journalism. I have also been called “butthurt” a bit more times than I would care to acknowledge.
As editor of this publication, it is my job to defend my staff and their decisions, and I aim to do just that. I will tell you now that unless a story worthy of covering originates from the page, this will be the last time Nicholls Confessions is mentioned in The Nicholls Worth.
Now before I say anything, I want to make it clear that this article is not directed to the administrators of this page. Last week, I met with two of the admins, and we have decided to put this misunderstanding behind us. The same goes to the three students who met with me last week. They were not administrators, but out of support for the page, they decided to talk to me personally before jumping to and posting bold conclusions on the Internet about what “laws” The Nicholls Worth allegedly broke. I want to say “thank you” to both of the admins and those three students for coming to talk to me, and I invite anyone else who wants to meet with me to come over to discuss this issue.
This article is addressed to the “experts” who decided to accuse this publication of wrongdoings during last week’s events.
And for those self-proclaimed “trolls” who refer to this page as “the 4chan of Nicholls,” here’s your “too long, didn’t read” version of this article:  you are not going to school your student newspaper’s editorial board, made up of mass communication seniors and juniors, on first amendment rights and media law.
To those who felt what we printed last week was biased, opinionated, slanderous and libelous, allow me to explain to you what an editorial is. An editorial is an article in which we decide, as a staff, to take a stance on a certain issue. This means that it is an opinion piece. It is supposed to be opinionated because we must show why we took a particular stance on the issue. The reason these articles do not contain a byline is because they are not the single opinion of one person in the newsroom. While one person may physically type the article, the ideas behind that article are collaborated from the newsroom as a whole.
With this in mind, allow me to explain why we took our stance on this page. After the page was shut down for a short period last Wednesday, Katelyn Acosta, the head administrator of the page who goes by the alias “NikeShorts,” contacted us from her personal Facebook page revealing her identity and saying she would “answer any questions we have.” After a few messages with her, as well as some of the admin posts on the page after it came back online, it became apparent to us that she created the page out of pure entertainment, and she never meant for it to become the drama-filled, gossip-riddled page that it became, often naming students without their knowledge in submissions.
“Basically, I used to ‘troll’ McNeese Confessions,” Acosta said in an e-mail Tuesday night. “I thought the whole concept was genius. I decided in August that I would create the Nicholls Confessions.”
Acosta explained that she intended for the page to be a place where Nicholls students could rant, rave and laugh about the struggles they and other students have.
“I didn’t expect nearly as much controversy to result from the page as what resulted recently,” she said.
What started as logging in a couple of times a day turned into a fill-time affair with confessions flooding in, and as the “likes” poured in, so did the controversy.
“Some posts borderlined slander, which was never what I wanted this page to be,” Acosta said. “I don’t want anyone’s good name trampled into the mud. I think healthy debate is a great thing. I am open to people arguing about abortion, the economy and even Greek life because everyone has a different opinion on each of these.”
This is what that editorial explained, and I invite anyone to reread it with these facts in mind. At no point did we say anything false (libelous or slanderous) about this page.
Acosta also mentioned that since last week, posts to the page have been more positive, and if anyone ever has a problem with a particular post, they can request to have it taken down.
“I have heard a lot more positive [feedback] from people who love the page and the concept behind it recently,” she said. “There are people who think the entire page is immature and makes us look bad, but I think we are just college students laughing about the woes of other college students. As long as there are people who like what the page is, I won’t worry too much about what others say.”
Just as Nicholls Confessions users have every right to post freely about whatever subject they want, The Nicholls Worth has the right to publish opinions, even when they do not agree with a particular person, organization, group or Facebook page.
To those who made comments such as “looks like they have nothing to write about,” I ask you to consider these facts about the Nicholls Confessions page and the duties of The Nicholls Worth as a college newspaper. Whether you have visited the page or not over the past few weeks, to simply call this page “popular” would be a mistake. The popularity of this page has skyrocketed, especially over the past two weeks. I challenge anyone to tell me this page was not the biggest topic among students last week. As writers for a college newspaper, it is our job to talk about what is going on on our campus. For us to print last week without once mentioning Nicholls Confessions would be a disservice to our readers.
Now I would like to address the accusations that we attempted to blackmail one of the administrators into an interview under the threat that we reveal her name. To accuse us of blackmail implies that we found out who she was without her knowledge or consent, violating her right to privacy. Let me remind you that it was her that came to us, revealing her identity just after the page went offline on Wednesday. Because of this, there was nothing legally binding us from printing her name. Had we chose to do so, we could have easily revealed her identity in last week’s editorial, as she revealed herself to us hours before our deadline to send the paper to the printer. As a courtesy to her, we chose not to.
As for those who accused us of threatening to reveal her identity unless she interviewed with us, we simply gave her the opportunity to give her side of the story. But we made it clear to her that if we chose to, we could have legally printed her name. This was in no way, shape or form a threat to her. It was a presentation of facts and an opportunity for her to tell her side of the story through our publication.
Finally, I would like to address those who accused The Nicholls Worth of being “jealous” over the success of Nicholls Confessions and seeing it as “competition” to our operation. Allow me to remind you that The Nicholls Worth has been around since 1955, and during that time, this paper has had its ups and downs. The truth is, whatever is said about the paper will not stop us from printing every week. I have been working here for three-and-a-half years, and I have heard every insult in the book (glad to see “The Nicholls Worthless” is still around. Way to stay original).
The motivation behind last week’
s editorial was nowhere near the thought of jealousy and competition. Sure, The Nicholls Worth’s Facebook “like” count trailed behind Nicholls Confessions by over 300 at the time this article was written, and I’m sure the number will grow by the time this prints. The difference, however, is that years down the line, this paper will retain its status as the official student-run newspaper of Nicholls State University, and the students who work at this paper will continue to have stacked resumes filled with actual, published work.
What you won’t find in our resumes, however, is an ability to use the word “butthurt” seventeen times in one Facebook post, but I think we are all just fine with that.