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The future of journalism

Want a snapshot of how much damage has been done to our collective psyche and the Fourth Estate in recent years? Take a look at the absolutely embarrassing editorial written by The Daily Northwestern, in which the student newspaper APOLOGIZED for covering the news.

A snippet:

“On Nov. 5, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke on campus at a Northwestern University College Republicans event. The Daily sent a reporter to cover that talk and another to cover the students protesting his invitation to campus, along with a photographer. We recognize that we contributed to the harm students experienced, and we wanted to apologize for and address the mistakes that we made that night — along with how we plan to move forward.”

Nauseating, isn’t it? Young men and women who are receiving an education that implies they hope one day to be respected journalists just apologized for reporting (properly, I might add) the news, because they did not worry first whether it would trigger students. The educators at what used to be one of the most prestigious journalism schools in the country need to take a long look in the mirror.

If in recent years even students who feel called to pursue journalism have become so misguided as to believe a) journalists’ jobs are to present only the news their readers WANT to see and b) it is better to keep a thing hidden than to shine a light on it, we are in deep trouble.

One would think even those readers who are disturbed enough by Sessions to interpret their emotional response as “triggered” would want more information, not less, about the man and what he said.

Anyone remember when college students understood knowledge is power?

Many of us working in newspapers today were fueled by the Woodward and Bernstein or Graham and Bradlee models. Report the truth. Shine a light. Tell or show the readers what they cannot find out for themselves. It is our job — our responsibility.

Too many today interpret the presentation of fact, the reporting on a matter, as somehow leaning toward one side of the political spectrum or the other. That is nonsense. But that belief is skillfully manipulated by those who want some things to remain hidden.

And, I’ve got news for those poor misled student “journalists” at Northwestern. Had they NOT reported on the Jeff Sessions event, they would have been met by accusations –likely from the same students who squawked about coverage — that they were covering up Sessions’ propaganda effort; that they were keeping hidden his attempt to influence students.

It is not the job of a newspaper to censor itself because its staff is afraid some readers might find information unpleasant. That erases all attempt at objectivity. Which side of the aisle do you fear? Who do you want to keep happy? Who do you end up serving by continuing to allow them to operate in the shadows?

Lest anyone be naive enough to think elected officials and the bureaucrats will not look to use journalists to their advantage — and punish those who continue to try to do their jobs — look at the case of a Wisconsin county in which public officials tried to make it illegal for reporters to do anything but “Publish the county’s news release summarizing the findings (of a water quality study) in its entirety without any alterations, or risk criminal prosecution.”

It is mind boggling to think anyone would make such an attempt. It is blatantly unconstitutional, and a clear attempt to pull the wool over their constituents’ eyes. But in recent years those who hope their constituents will never open their eyes, let alone protest having the wool pulled over them, have been emboldened.

I hope staffers of The Daily Northwestern and other students of a journalism program that has clearly lost its way understand what a monumental mistake they have made.

Now is not the time for young journalists to have their nerve fail.

Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com

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