Education
College Newspaper Grovels After Calling Illegal Who Murdered Its Own Student An ‘Illegal Immigrant’
Images Courtesy DHS
A Loyola University Chicago student newspaper apologized for referring to the illegal immigrant who murdered its student Sheridan Gorman, 18, as an illegal immigrant.
The Loyola Phoenix posted an editor’s note apologizing for the headline of its story reporting the charges filed against Jose Medina-Medina. The headline originally referred to Medina-Medina as an illegal immigrant, which the note said “didn’t reflect the most important elements in the story.”
The editors note said that the term “illegal immigrant” does not align with Associated Press (AP) style or “the values of this newspaper.”
“No human’s existence is illegal, and we quickly changed out wording to reflect that,” the note added.
The man is in fact an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, who the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed was released by the Biden administration after being arrested by U.S. Border Patrol. DHS alleged in a Monday press releasethat Medina-Medina approached Gorman’s group of friends wearing a mask and holding a gun, shooting and killing the 18-year-old student.
The paper updated its story to call Medina-Medina a “Rogers Park Resident” and deleted the original Instagram post calling him an illegal immigrant. The new post includes the addition as well as the editor’s note.
The Loyola Phoenix did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The paper published a story on the vigil held at Madonna della Strada Chapel the day after Gorman’s tragic death, memorializing the student as “an absolute delight,” “compassionate,” and “over-the-top generous.”
The AP stylebook in 2013 announced a rule to nix the use of the term “illegal” or “illegal immigrant” to refer to a person.
“Instead, it tells users that illegal should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally,” then-AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said at the time.
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