When U.S. Senator John McCain wrote about his five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, he said what he missed the most was information, “free, uncensored, undistorted, abundant information.”

Our recent coverage of Al DeGuzman, a former student who allegedly planned a bomb attack on De Anza, caused controversy among our readership.

We received kudos for being bold and providing exclusive information. We received condemnation for insensitivity and sensationalizing the news.

We are, nevertheless, continuing our coverage. We are not doing so to shock one segment of our readership or to soothe another, but because we believe information is one of the most valuable goods in our age of mass communication. That is, information that is free, uncensored, undistorted and abundant.

The necessity of providing information is self-evident, and we will continue to treat all information as equal.

We make no distinction between good news and bad news. If we did, we would not be providing unbiased news, but providing manufactured public relations information.

In the quest for excellence, we share a common goal with De Anza College. Our college prides itself on a student body capable of critical thinking. At the core of critical thinking lies the ability to absorb facts from different facets and make informed decisions.

This is why we publish all the news we have, good or bad. We believe one-sided coverage or no coverage of any issue will lead to uninformed decisions.

A failure to acknowledge the different shades of gray within any story leads to a biased way of thinking.

If this happens, we have failed in our duty as a newspaper, and our school has failed its mission as an institution cultivating critical thinking.

We also make no distinction between readers’ positive and negative viewpoints toward the news.

If the opinions are informed, relevant and not libelous, we are not preoccupied with whether our readership agrees or disagrees with us. In fact, we welcome discussion and opposing viewpoints.

That’s what a First Amendment newspaper is about. That’s what a community of critical thinkers is about. What counts is that our readership is informed.

In history classes, we learn that when future generations try to understand the makings of time, they must rely on the accounts of those who lived through it. The people in the future will ask questions. They will demand answers.

It is our responsibility to provide information, and it is the responsibility of our readers to decipher and interpret the information given.

As one history instructor said, we can’t allow ourselves to be “sleepwalking through time.”

News happens everyday. If we don’t value the luxury of free, uncensored, undistorted and abundant news, and if we don’t follow the news, we won’t educate ourselves about the issues that affect us.

If we don’t educate ourselves, we won’t be able to create an informed viewpoint.

If we don’t have an informed viewpoint, we won’t be able to explain what affects us to others, either contemporaries or future generations.

This is why we continue coverage of all facets of news, including updates on the DeGuzman case.

We won’t preach acceptance for particular sides of issues relevant to De Anza. We merely ask for acceptance of this concept: an informed mind is a necessity.