responce to column 3 - journalism

this entry is a responce to this.

journalists have a very special place in the world we live in. they are the ones out there watching the world change minute by minute, day by day, they are our lens to the world. remember, this is a voluntary position.
as such, they should be responsible for their writings, and despite the efforts of any organization, they should tell the truth.

most of us cannot go about the world, learning and asking questions about its workings and goings on. this task is given to journalists. it is their job to tell the rest of us what's happening. i do not think that it is too much to ask that their findings be reported objectively; they have chosen to write about the world, and spread its guts all over the newsprint, so they should do so with a certain decorum.

if a news item contains a horrific tale of death and dismemberment, then it should be told. i, as a reader, do not care how it made you feel when you had to watch the body parts collected off the side of the road. i want to
know why the collision was so terrible, "what went wrong?"

if there is an achievement, i do not want to know how you, the journalist failed at the same task, or how you admire Ma Kent for cooking the world's best apple pie, because, after all, America made apple pie great and Ma Kent follows a grand tradition of pie makers, from her great great etc. etc. i want to know what makes her apple pie so good that i should run from all the way across this country, kick down her door, and hold a gun to her head in order to insure the pie's freshness.

when telling the world what the world is doing, truth and objectivity should be paramount endeavors, right next to making sure the paycheck comes.

[originally posted 3/14/07]