Here’s a timeworn nugget: “My enemy’s enemy is my friend.”
And these days, partisans want their local newspaper to be exactly this kind of “friend.”
I expect readers to forcefully criticize reporters and editors when they think we’ve been unfair. Do we always agree with their perceptions? No. But most good journalists try to listen and respond.
Unfortunately, the deteriorating civic climate seems to have made fairness old hat.
Detractors now villiify journaislists if we’re not UNFAIR to those individuals or organizations they dislike. (Did I say “dislike”? Too mild. Try detest.)
From today’s mailbag:
Why are you not running a “box score” on what [Rep.] Larsen, [Sen.] Murray and [Sen.] Cantwell are doing to decrease employment in our area, doing to eliminate health care for the aged who live locally, use our money to fund health care for 20-million illegal aliens living in our nation (the 100,000 living in our state), what they are doing to drastically increase our taxes — which removes still more money from our LOCAL economy?
Why is this not “news”? … Why do you say nothing when Murray, Cantwell and Larsen abuse our LOCAL economy through their focused efforts?
I’m not sure how I would even assign the coverage this reader demands. “Hey, Scoop, give me 1,000 words on how our elected representatives are abusing the local economy.” Wouldn’t that produce a balanced story?
Bloggers and cable TV’s talking heads seem to glory in taking sides, calling names, spitting out slogans — and passing it off as news.
Most newspaper editors feel compelled to treat lawmaking as the two-sided process it usually is — following the debates and printing information about the outcomes (as The Herald does with its weekly congressional roll call.)
Once upon a time, angry folks wanted to kill the messenger for delivering unwanted facts. Now, they want to kill us for failing to reinforce their personal biases.
It’s not that big a leap..
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