The media is supposed to publish fair, two-sided stories for the public to get an adequate understanding of the story.

This hasn’t been happening recently.

We are sure most—if not all— of you have heard of the recent events unfolding between Native American/Vietnam War veteran Nathan Phillips and Covington Catholic High School student/President Donald Trump supporter Nick Sandmann on the Lincoln Memorial during the March for Life rally Jan. 18.

The original encounter between these two men saw Phillips beating a drum and singing a Native American song directly to Sandmann, who smiled back at Phillips.

The encounter started a media firestorm in which Sandmann was seen as disrespecting Phillips, and the student was called various names across social media. Sandmann later claimed in a statement he and his family received death threats.

Covington Catholic High School almost immediately made a call to action that included an apology to Phillips, condemned its students for their actions and required high disciplinary action for its students as serious as expulsion.

There is only one problem. The media did not report the whole story.

A couple days after the original video was released, a new, extended video surfaced showing what led up to the confrontation between Phillips and Sandmann.

The high school students, many of whom were Trump supporters, were originally shouting their high school chants when Phillips approached them. After the confrontation, a separate group during the rally, named the Black Hebrew Israelites, began name-calling the high school students. 

The Black Hebrew Israelites disrespected the high school students by calling Trump a “homosexual” and claimed that the students are “future school shooters.”

This example of another one-sided story is dividing the nation.

These types of stories are not what the Royal Purple is about. We are not all about the headlines. We are about promising accurate, balanced stories for the good sake of our readers and the rest of the UW-Whitewater campus. We have won several awards for those reasons.

That is what the media’s role should be. However, they have been drifting away from that role in recent memory.

The media is better than this. You deserve better than this.

As a reminder, when looking through stories and videos published by the mainstream media, make sure you double-check the facts of what really happened. Then, feel free to develop an educated opinion.

The media is becoming too one-sided, and you should beware of the deception some can place in your mind. The Royal Purple does not and will not put that deception on you.