Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

On my mind: There's a method to my madness

I enjoy what I do. I really do. Its not annual review time (as far as I know) or anything else, so I have any reason to be extra excited about my job.

I like what I do because of what it is that I do  I get to tell everyone else what happened. And that is precisely what I do. I tell it like it is, or as Joe Friday would say "just the facts."

I consider myself a journalist. I decided to look this word up to see what it means. Webster defines a journalist as one who is "engaged in the practice of journalism."

That really didnt help me, so I looked up "journalism." Heres what it says: "writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without interpretation."

I like that. Everyday I am engaged in the direct presentation of facts or description of events without giving an interpretation. I take it that in this context, Webster uses "without interpretation" to mean that there is no editorial comment.

Its kind of like Fox News: "We report, you decide."

There are people out there who call themselves journalists who do not abide by the "we report, you decide" doctrine. These types of reporters are not hard to find. There are far too many of them, and they even sometimes make it into the mainstream media.

They will embellish a story, make up facts and attribute them to an official source or even misrepresent the truth to entertain or just to get their own point of view across.

There is a place to get ones point of view across. Its the editorial page. Editorial comments are not appropriate for a news story.

So when it comes time for me to write a story, I pull out my little notebook, and I write based on the facts and quotes I have written down. If I didnt write it down while conducting an interview or sitting in a board meeting, I dont print it unless I call and verify it first.

Sometimes it is hard to tell the story  especially when emotions are running high on an issue. In this line of work, one sometime has to consider whether to tell it like it is or soften the story a little in an effort to not make anyone mad. I chose the former. Although I dont want to make anyone mad at me, I also have an obligation to the readers of the Gurdon Times to tell the story exactly as it occurred.

I say all of this because during a recent meeting, a person looked at me (while addressing everyone else) and questioned my wording of a headline. I believe the exact quote was "I dont know if you were just trying to sell papers or what."

I wasnt just trying to sell papers. As a matter of fact, my editor and I chose the wording of that headline together after discussing the contents of the story. The headline was fair, and despite the arguments of the other party, it was accurate.

Were all human. If we make a mistake (and we will from time to time no matter how hard we try to be accurate), well let you know and will correct it as quickly as possible.

At the Gurdon Times and all of our sister papers (the Daily Siftings Herald, Nevada County Picayune and Hope Star), were just here to tell the truth. Of course were happy to sell a paper or an advertisement from time to time, but we wont put our journalistic ethics on the line to make that sale.