Jan. 29 e-mail attachment with “original e-mail”

Mistakes happen.

But what happened yesterday was not a mistake; it was an unprofessional attack on the credibility of a Daily Campus writer and this paper by SMU’s Business Services Marketing.

An e-mail sent to the entire Meadows community said that a story that ran last Friday was incorrect about a program the office was creating for a flu shot video.

They said the article was misleading by characterizing the program as a contest.

I agree, and I am happy to emphasize that their program is more of an open call than a contest.

But the rest of the email made us look irresponsible as far as fact-checking.

They attached an “original e-mail” that mentioned key deadlines – a Feb. 14 deadline when students should have an outline, script and cost estimate and a production deadline of April 30.

These dates simply did not exist when this story was written.

The original e-mail, sent Jan. 19, shows this and backs up our claim.

The email yesterday insinuates that our reporter was lazy and couldn’t even get the facts straight.

The fact is that SMU Business Services Marketing altered the original e-mail and sent it out claiming it as such.

This is unacceptable and incredibly unprofessional.

We work very hard to make sure what you read is factual and trustworthy. The manner in which this situation was dealt with is a needless blow to that trust.

Worse, SMU’s Business Services put the reporter’s name in the first line of the e-mail sent out yesterday. That is a classless move.

There was no need to name anyone if all they wanted was to clarify the program information.

Which is why I am writing this to you, our reader.

You can still trust us to be a reliable source of campus news. You can rely on us to admit when we have made a mistake. And you can rely on me to defend this paper’s credibility when baselessly challenged.

– Mark Norris

jan. 19 e-mail (original)