Why we do what we do
The morning mail always brings such treasures. After weeding out the junk mail catalogs and credit card offers, we get to the little "gems" that bring so much sunshine into the world of being a newspaper editor.
For example, a letter in this morning's mail from a "very disappointed reader" brought some pretty serious allegations against the newspaper.
The writer demands that we start printing the "news." He (or she) goes on to say the paper has gone down hill. We're accused of printing some "stories" but not all "incidents." We're also accused of not printing city news and not reporting several "incidents" that have happened around the county. The writer further suggests we send out the sports reporter to "find" the news.
Lastly, he suggests we either become a newspaper or find another way to make a living.
See why I love this job?
I don't usually do this, but let's address some of these charges.
First, what is "news?" News is anything that happens in the county, anything that has an impact on our citizens, or anything that is about someone who lives here or lived here sometime in the past. That's a pretty broad definition, and a little vague. For the most part, everything is news.
If Uncle Joe has a three-legged calf, that is news. If the county decides to give raises, that is news. If a tornado wipes out part of the county, that is news.
But — and here's the kicker, none of these things will be reported in this newspaper unless they can be verified.
If someone hears in the coffee shop that Uncle Joe shot the three-legged calf, we can't print the story based on that assumption.
If we hear a rumor that the county commission is going to allow three-day workweeks, we would not report it without checking it out.
There are all kinds of rumors floating around town about a variety of subjects. Because we are a newspaper, we search out the truth. We can't — and won't — print gossip. We have to search out the facts, weed out the baloney, and write a fair and accurate news story.
Probably what the letter writer is really miffed about is that he thinks we're working some big "cover-up" about the incident last week involving Marion police officer James Parmley.
Here are the facts and here is the reasoning behind why we do what we do:
Parmley's arrest was reported in the jail roster in last week's paper. We did not receive an incident report from the Marion County Sheriff Department until Thursday. Therefore, the only mention of the incident was what readers saw in the jail roster.
We didn't have an "inside track" because James' wife, Melissa works for the newspaper. We didn't get a "scoop." We followed the newspaper's policy of "getting the facts." We requested the incident report earlier in the week, but it was not available. Therefore, we could not verify the rumors so we had no story. Again, we are not going to print a story based on rumors and supposition.
Susan Cooper and I discussed at great length the need to treat this situation as we would any other incident. We did not give special treatment to this situation just because it involved the spouse of a co-worker. We followed the rules.
This week's issue contains a full account of the incident involving Parmley and what has happened since then. The story is fair and accurate. It's what we would have done had it been any other law enforcement officer or someone in a similar position.
In other words, we did our job. Enough said.
It gets tiresome, defending my decisions and the actions of this newspaper.
Maybe the letter writer is right — I should find another line of work. But on the other hand, I don't see anyone beating down the door to sit behind this desk, make these decisions, defend this newspaper, or write these editorials.
So for the time being, you're stuck with me. I'll keep making the decisions about news coverage and in turn, defending the newspaper.
— DONNA BERNHARDT
