“Are you with the media?” the gentlemen asked me as I took pictures of Bengazhi survivor, Kris “Tanto” Paranto, signing books a few years ago after his speech in Gering.
“Yes,” I answered him.
“Are you going to tell the truth?”
The question caught me off guard. I had never had anyone question my journalist integrity like that before.
Most of those attending the book signing were conservatives.
Yes, many of those in the media are liberals, but not all. Also, just because many may not share your views of the world doesn’t mean they are liars.
To assume so is like saying every Trump supporter is uneducated, every black man is a criminal or every police officer is a racist.
You can not lump every person, in a specific race or profession in a group and say they are all the same. It is unfair, unwise and foolish.
Sunday afternoon, I saw “The Post” at the Midwest Theater.
The plot, based on a true story, revolved around the Washington Post and the New York Times’ right to publish what became known as “The Pentagon Papers.” Officially, they were the “Vietnam Study Task Force.” The study exposed decades of lies by both Republican and Democratic administrations about the Vietnam War.
The government didn’t want the truth exposed. A Republican, President Richard Nixon, was in the White House and many may have called the press liberal and anti-American for publishing the report.
Whether the newspaper’s could or could not publish the report went quickly to the United States Supreme Court.
“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost,” our country’s third President Thomas Jefferson, who did not always like the press, said.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the newspapers, in favor of freedom of the press, the First Amendment and the truth.
“In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy,” Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Hugo Black said in his decision on the case. “The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government.”
We forget that as we point our fingers at the press if they don’t report things to our liking.
As journalists we must stand for the truth, even if we stand alone, are called names or branded as the enemy of the state.
We should always be fair in our coverage and we should always be questioning and doubting even the leaders we like. We should never take their word at face value, even if we like them.
There are serious issues, like the economy, that are facing our country. We as journalists, the watchdogs, should be the ones looking past the partisanship searching for the truth whether at the national, state or local level, especially at that local level.
What happens in our city councils, our school boards and county commissioners have the biggest impact on us at the local level. It is also at this level the average citizen can have the biggest impact, especially if they are well informed by their local media.
Locally, we are community newspapers seeking to reflect, inform, educate and act as a watchdog for our readers. We show our leanings, and not all of us are liberal, only on the editorial/opinion page.
However, the only way you would know this is if you take the time to read our papers. Like the Trump supporter, the black man, the police officer or anyone else you come across, you cannot judge them without first getting to know them.
“I’m with the local newspaper,” I told the man.
“But are you going to tell the truth?” he again asked.
As I lifted my camera back up to my eye, I fought back the anger. He didn’t know me from Adam and he’d probably never read a word I had ever written.
Without looking at him again, I said, “That’s my job,” and went back to work.
Brad Staman 