An Editorial

We’ve been complacent

We thought everybody knew how important a free press was to our world and that all this talk about us being the enemy of the people would be dismissed for the silliness that it is.

However, it took President Trump only 6-1/2 minutes into his one-hour long campaign speech last night in Warren County before launching into his familiar tirade about the “fake” news media. When his supporters began booing after he wagged a disapproving finger at the press cameras and reporters, he proudly grinned his supportive endorsement.

But the reckless attacks have continued, instigated and encouraged by our president.

The reckless attacks on the press have continued, instigated and encouraged by our president. 

When the leader of the free world works to erode the public’s trust in the media, the potential for damage is enormous, both here and abroad. We once set an example of free and open government for the world to follow. Now those who seek to suppress the free flow of information are doing so with impunity.

The time has come for us to stand up to this dangerous taunting. The role journalism plays in our free society is too crucial to allow this degradation to continue.

We aren’t the enemy of the people. We are the people.

We aren’t the enemy of the people. We are the people. We aren’t fake news. We are your news and we struggle night and day to get the facts right.

On bitter cold January nights, we’re the people’s eyes and ears at City Hall and school board meetings. We tell the stories of our communities, from the fun of a street fair, our successful school children, to the despair a family faces when a loved one dies.

We are always by your side. We shop the same stores, attend the same churches, and hike the same trails. We struggle with daycare, utility bills, and worry about paying for retirement. 

In our work as journalists, our first loyalty is to you. Our work is guided by a set of principles that demand objectivity, independence, open-mindedness and, the pursuit of the truth. We make mistakes, we know. There’s nothing we hate more than errors but we acknowledge them, correct them and learn from them.

Our work is a labor of love because we love our community.

Our work is a labor of love because we love our community and believe we are playing a vital role in our democracy. Self-governance demands that our neighbors need to be well-informed and that’s what we’re here to do. We go beyond the government issued press release or briefing and ask tough questions. We hold people in power accountable for their actions. Some think we’re rude to question and challenge. We know it’s our obligation. We strive to always give the ordinary citizen the last word.

People have been criticizing the press for generations. We are not perfect. But we’re striving every day to be a better version of ourselves than we were the day before.

The problem has become so serious that newspapers across the nation are speaking out against these attacks in one voice this week on their editorial pages.

That’s why we welcome criticism. But unwarranted attacks that undermine your trust in us cannot stand. The problem has become so serious that newspapers across the nation are speaking out against these attacks in one voice this week on their editorial pages.

As women’s rights pioneer and investigative journalist Ida B. Wells wrote in 1892: “The people must know before they can act and there is no educator to compare with the press.”

This Editorial has been adapted from an editorial by Judy Patrick, VP of Editorial Development for the New York Press Association that she releases to celebrate National Newspaper Week.