From the Editor: Retraction issued over inaccurate skatepark story

[dropcap txtcolor="#234a83" style="dropcap1"]O[/dropcap]n Tuesday, Oct. 22, we published an article with the headline, “Athens skaters request skate park at Student Senate town hall.” The New Political was later informed that the article misrepresented the objective of a group of local skaters at the meeting.The skaters requested maintenance of an existing skatepark and not construction of a new one, as reported. It was promptly retracted from our website and social media.In the event of a factual error, we normally run an editor’s note at the end of the updated and corrected story. However, this error constituted removing the story entirely. At TNP, we strive to uphold journalistic principles of accuracy, authenticity and integrity. We also strive for the utmost transparency. We have three levels of editing: Our two news editors are the first eyes on a story after it is filed by a reporter. The news editors edit for content, style and clarity. After that, our managing editor does another round of edits, and finally, it ends up on my desk. Despite these checks and balances, we ultimately put a lot of faith in our reporter. Some of our staff writers are seasoned, while others are very green. No matter a reporter’s experience level, however, mistakes happen — this was one of those instances.I’d like to invite those misrepresented to submit a “Letter to the Editor” column to TNP, if interested; the “Letter to the Editor” column is open to anyone. Please email your copy to me, Maggie Prosser, at execedit@thenewpolitical.com. Again, we apologize to those misrepresented and to our readership.