To Wellesley College and the outer community,
As the Editors-In-Chief of The Wellesley News, we would like to clarify our actions on Twitter on Thursday during the Clinton event. In excitement for Secretary Clinton’s visit to Wellesley College, we tweeted some of the content from Clinton’s talk with President Johnson. We understand that it was closed to the press and intended be to kept within the College community. We are regretful of our transgression of those requests. By no means did the Wellesley News intend to ignore the wishes of the administration or the Clinton team. As the student newspaper, we were enthusiastic to share some of Clinton’s inspirational quotes to the student body. In light of the cancellation of the livestream and Tishman overflow room, we especially desired to serve those members of our community who were unable to get a ticket to the event. Former Secretary Clinton is an inspiration to many of us, not only as a politician, but as a Wellesley alumna — we wanted to share the sense of camaraderie and positivity that pervaded the event.
Upon further reflection, however, we have realized that our actions could have jeopardized the privacy and intimacy of the talk. Thus, as decided by members of the Wellesley News staff, we promptly removed our tweets. At no point did the College nor the Clinton team contact us with this request. We realize that some of the quotes were used by news sources, but the speculation around the removal of our tweets were incorrect.
As Editors-In-Chief, we have learned the great impact our internet and social media presence can have. In this very exciting year for the paper, we have learned many things on professionalism and journalistic integrity. Journalism is a complicated industry that requires making difficult choices; as seen with politicians, journalists and even Wellesley students ourselves, comments we post online hold a considerable amount of weight. In this case, our judgment to tweet was wrong; however, we value this experience as a teachable moment during our Wellesley career. More importantly, it reminded us, not only as a publication, but as students, to be more prudent with our social media posts. We hope that this clarifies any confusion surrounding our actions, and look forward to continue serving the Wellesley College community.
Thank you,
Editors-In-Chief of The Wellesley News
