“You report for illumination and clarity, and you report – to the best of your ability – for truth.” (Dana Wormald | New Hampshire Bulletin)
Earlier this month, “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams posted this on social media: “It’s impossible to have a political conversation with someone who thinks the news is real. Solve for that first.”
In response, actor Michael Ian Black chose this path in a post for his X followers: “I see this sentiment a lot from MAGA folks, but it always confuses me. If they don’t believe ‘the news,’ how do they get their information? If everybody is lying to you, how is it that you know the truth?”
To his credit and with good faith, Black goes on to engage with a number of commenters who agree with Adams, and it all unfolds with a fair amount of civility, especially for a cesspool like X. But what Black found out pretty quickly is that it’s difficult to penetrate a position founded on the belief that “the media” is both monolithic and corrupt.
I had stumbled upon that exchange last Thursday afternoon and was still thinking about it hours later during the New Hampshire Press Association’s annual “Excellence in Journalism” awards banquet in Manchester. In general, I’m not a big fan of awards – or banquets, for that matter – but it’s always nice to see the Bulletin’s reporting staff and other New Hampshire journalists honored by people who know just how much work it takes to get from the germ of a story to the printed word.
It’s also great to reconnect with old friends and colleagues – the ghosts of independent newsrooms past.
As we smiled, applauded, and hugged – with the many and varied threats to our industry coalescing as the elephant in the room – I kept thinking about the challenge presented by the offshoot of Adams’ derision: How do you report news for everybody, including those who are predisposed to reject it as false?
The short answer is, you just do. You report for illumination and clarity, and you report – to the best of your ability – for truth. That pursuit, even with all its traps and blind alleys, is what gets a hold of you, won’t let go, and makes you stick around through the downsizing, pay cuts, and unrelenting attacks of all kinds.
Our best journalists – the ones respected by peers and public alike – don’t have allegiances other than to strong ethics and the truth. That, and the requisite fearlessness to pursue that truth, is what makes them great. That’s a fact.
Despite what some spout on social media, there is a lot of good, honest, thoughtful journalism happening right now – here in New Hampshire and across the country. That good journalism shouldn’t require a sales pitch – being informed is its own reward – but here we are in an era where unwelcome or inconvenient news is dismissed as “fake news.” And here’s the thing: If you find yourself feeling skeptical about the veracity of the news you’re consuming, there’s only one path that makes any sense. Read more reporting, not less.
Let me give you an example. Suppose you have decided that human-caused climate change is hogwash. And, for the sake of simplicity, let’s say you have four options available to you from that position: a) You stop learning anything new about climate science and rely on “It’s all B.S.” as your main (and only) argument; b) You read only articles that aim to debunk established climate science; c) You dismiss anything that contradicts your opinions as the product of ignorance or a broad conspiracy; d) Even though you hold a firm position on climate change, you know that you owe it to yourself to challenge your own perceptions the same way you might challenge those of a debate opponent – and so you read widely and openly.
There is only one right answer, isn’t there? At every turn, you push back against your own beliefs because that is how you arrive at real knowledge, at wisdom.
I get it: A journalist defending journalism isn’t exactly surprising. But it’s a defense formed by honest experience. It’s a little bit like an astronaut who has walked on the moon defending the truth of the moon landing to someone who argues that it was staged.
A claim like that is uniquely maddening for astronauts because, more than anyone, they know how much work and courage it took to get there. And they know, also more than anyone, that at the heart of it all was a sincere desire to help move people toward clarity and truth in our shared life.
It’s the same thing for good journalists.
The post Editor’s Notebook: The good news in a country that desperately needs it appeared first on New Hampshire Bulletin.