I had really hoped it wouldn't happen so early in my tenure.

Coming into this job I knew I'd probably end up at some point during the year dealing with some Collegian controversy.

I guess I was just keeping my fingers crossed that I'd make it to at least November before I'd have to write a column explaining the reasoning behind a decision I'd made as editor in chief.

But that's the nature of news; you can never plan for it.

If you saw the front page of Friday's edition of The Daily Collegian, then you know what I'm talking about and why I've chosen to address you, the readers, in this space.

Two separate elements of Friday's front page each included the use of an expletive. First, there was an article ("Bundy: Voters 'stupid' ") written about popularly elected UPUA presidential candidate Jay Bundy, which incorporated two direct quotations of questionable and arguably offensive language.

Secondly, the dominant photograph on that page included an expletive written on the T-shirt of one of the subjects of that photo.

These are two separate issues, so I will address them accordingly.

My decision to print Bundy's full quotation without censorship or omission of his exact words comes down to my assessment of his status as a public figure and what at the time was his recent attainment of a significant amount of power and influence over Penn State students.

Anytime someone with power over the student body does or says something as outlandish as what Bundy said, it is our responsibility as the student newspaper to give you nothing less than the truth.

It's not our job to sugarcoat the facts.

Our choice to print his direct quotes, expletives and all, was, in my belief, the catalyst that led to the mobilization of officials who eventually disqualified him.

You can agree or disagree with that decision, but recognize that more information is always better than less information when it comes to evaluating the public figures who affect our lives from the level of Penn State student government to the level of the White House.

In this case and for those reasons, the choice to print the words that society deems offensive was the right choice to make.

Now I'll move on to the photograph.

In the interest of being as transparent as possible, I'll be as blatantly honest with you as I can about it: We messed up.

That's not to say that I regret making a decision. I have no regrets because I never made the decision to run that photograph.

What happened can only be categorized as a procedural or systematic error. Our system broke down and the result was the publication of the photograph in question.

Had I been given the opportunity to evaluate the merits of printing the photo, I can assure you that it would never have made it to
the pages of The Daily Collegian.

It was a mistake, and we're doing everything we can to rectify the situation and ensure that it does not happen again.

While I am unwavering in my opinion that the public deserves to know the truth, there are some, though few, situations when what is "true" is not necessarily in the best interest of the readers we value and respect.

This is one of those situations.

One thing that I think everyone, including myself, can take away from this incident is to realize that the world of journalism is just case after case after case of ethical dilemmas.

There are so many factors that go into every decision we make. Unfortunately, sometimes we make the wrong one. Other times the system breaks down and the wrong person is given the opportunity to make the call.

We're human too, and sometimes we make mistakes.