Editorial

It is difficult to describe how disturbing and sad the recent inexplicable repeated incidents of fatal violence in Magnolia are for the community.

In a brief span of time, three homicides and an officer-involved fatal shooting took place in our town, an out-of-character spate of violence.

We obviously hope this shattering of the normally peaceful conditions is an anathema and we will return to a tranquil environment in which killings are not normal occurrences and law enforcement officers rarely have to fire their weapons.

Bringing such news to our readers is not a pleasant task for us. We are proud of our town and wish we did not have to report on the lawlessness that is a stain on the community.

But the lawlessness is taking place and it is our job to inform our readers of, as a national newspaper puts it, all the news that’s fit to print.

During reporting of the recent violence, some people have confused our publication and the way we report the news with a local on-line publication. We wish to set the record straight.

While we respect other media’s right to publish news as they see fit, it does not always mean we agree with how all news is reported, and we may make publishing decisions different than others. This occurred during coverage of the recent violence and some of what was published in the Magnolia Reporter, a strictly online venture, was attributed to the Banner-News of Magnolia.

The Banner-News has no affiliation with the Magnolia Reporter and, contrary to claims that we published background information about one of the killing victims, that personal history information was in fact published in the Magnolia Reporter.

This is not the first time that anger or disagreement with something published by the Magnolia Reporter has been attributed to us. So, as we said, this is to set the record straight. Don’t blame us for what you see in that other publication.

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