Some thoughts on doing this journalism thing

Pardon me if this sounds like beating a dead horse.

But the opposite is what I hope to accomplish with the following words. This is an effort to spur the horse on in the never ending race that journalists are supposed to run — that being to report the news in its entirety and opine only where it is prudent.

A week ago newspapers of all stripes across the country went on the collective offensive to defend themselves against charges of being the “enemy of the people,” by President Donald Trump.

Orchestrated by the Boston Globe — the paper that famously unearthed the massive scandal of Catholic church priest abuse in its circulation area — from coast to coast came the cavalries reminding their readers of all the good print journalism does.

Paper upon paper spoke — well in print at least — of all the good things they do in their respective communities. On that, there’s no question, and it’s a shame when staffs of newspapers have been sliced due to economics.

Arguably, no one can tell the story as thoroughly as can be done in print.

There’s no doubt in my mind, even at the base levels of community reporting, of the important job we reporters do in bringing the news to the people most affected.

I think back, for instance, attending the most recent meeting of the Medical Lake School Board. Beforehand, the 2018-19 school budget of nearly $26 million was outlined for the board’s approval. However, not one resident was there so it was incumbent on me to accurately report what transpired.

But here’s where I take exception.

A collection of the nation’s newspapers’ views from last week were contained in an Associated Press piece.

And it was probably not more clearly stated than in the Morning News of Savannah, Ga. which , wrote, “Like any true friend, we don’t always tell you what you want to hear,” but the piece added, “Our news team presents the happenings and issues in this community through the lens of objectivity.” 

By reading the snippets presented from the many papers who were part of the effort, there seems to be an overwhelming opinion in the news biz today that all reporters truly tell the story objectively.

There is little difference between how those of us at the Cheney Free Press and Chicago Tribune do our jobs as the base level — going to an assignment, taking note of what happened and reporting back to readers.

On our beats, when we go to the bank or the store, it’s like the bar “Cheers” where everybody seemingly knows your name. In the big city there’s a certain level anonymity and perhaps insulation to anything more than critique via phone or email.

As Nolan Finley, columnist and editorial page editor of the Detroit News, put it in the AP overview of the Aug. 16 opinion tsunami, “Too many journalists are slipping opinion into their news reports, adding commentary and calling it context.”

He’s quite correct, but only if one reads beyond the start of a story.

Do we not regularly hear the term conservative attached to a person or cause, but when’s the last time you read the word liberal in a news story? Or a recent newspaper story in our regional daily on a march by Patriot’s Prayer in Portland, Ore. that thoroughly described the organization as “extreme right” and “racist far right.” But it never mentioned the group by name, nor was there a reference to Antifa, the gang of largely masked thugs who assaulted a television journalist.

That’s hardly the extent of it, but this space is far too limited to list even a day’s worth of examples of missing context or absent facts in the major sources so many of us turn to for news.

“Donald Trump is not responsible for the eroding trust in the media,” Finley went on. “He lacks the credibility to pull that off. The damage to our standing is self-inflicted.”

My dearly-departed sister and her hubby were life-long smokers, and as such lived in the stench of cigarette smoke that was noticeable to everyone but them.

Some members of our press and media profession today I think live in a similar environment when it comes to how they view their presentation of the news. They too fail to realize or admit it can have a certain kind of odor.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].